11 Natural Ways to Help Anxiety

Don’t start something you may not be able to stop. After the pandemic, anxiety disorders more than doubled in children and teenagers. Prescriptions for antianxiety medications, such as benzodiazepines like alprazolam (Xanax) and clonazepam (Klonopin) dramatically increased. The problem is that they are addictive, and once you start them they are often very hard to stop.

NATURAL SOLUTIONS FOR ANXIETY

Here are 11 strategies to consider before going on antianxiety medications.

1. Check for hypoglycemia, anemia, and hyperthyroidism.
2. Try an elimination diet for 3 weeks.
3. Practice meditation and hypnosis daily (research shows they can both calm stress and anxiety).
4. Try heart rate variability (HRV) training (anxiety is linked to low levels of HRV but you can hack your way to a healthier HRV with biofeedback apps such as Welltory).
5. Practice diaphragmatic breathing—deep breathing from your belly—when you feel anxious.
6. Eliminate the ANTs (automatic negative thoughts).
7. Incorporate a calming exercise, such as yoga or qi gong, into your week.
8. Take 200–400 mg of L-Theanine per day.
9. Take 500–1,500 mg of GABA per day.
10. Take 100–500 mg of magnesium glycinate, citrate, or malate with 30 mg of vitamin B6 per day.
11. Schedule neurofeedback to help retrain your brain.

SHORT-TERM ANXIETY SOLUTIONS THAT CAUSE LONG-TERM PROBLEMS

Anxiety disorders are very painful, but too often people reach for marijuana, alcohol, or prescribed benzodiazepines, which can be of short-term benefit but cause long-term problems with addiction and memory issues. If the above interventions are ineffective or only partly effective with my patients, I’ll try other nutraceuticals or medications targeted to a specific type of anxiety (take the test at brainhealthassessment.com).

Today’s Practice: Put together a playlist of 7 of your favorite songs that calm your brain and mind and listen to it whenever you are anxious. There is scientific evidence that “Weightless” by Marconi Union calms anxiety by 65 percent.

In Change Your Brain Every Day, psychiatrist and clinical neuroscientist Daniel Amen, MD, draws on over 40 years of clinical practice with tens of thousands of patients to give you the most effective daily habits he has seen that can help you improve your brain, master your mind, boost your memory, and make you feel happier, healthier, and more connected to those you love.

If you want to join the tens of thousands of patients at Amen Clinics who have already learned how to change their brain every day and have a better life, speak to a specialist today at 888-288-9834 or visit our contact page here.