Herbal tricks for easing anxiety
When panic attacks or everyday worries tie you in knots, natural remedies can help you loosen up and reclaim serenity.
September/October 2000
By Linda B. White, M.D.
It’s like a bear at the door: dark, shaggy,
primordial—a monster with claws and hot breath. Anxiety attacks can
be fierce enough to make you want to run for the hills or grab a
club to fight off the beast. Less intense anxiety—sweating over
things such as giving a lecture, taking a driving test, or paying
taxes on time—can still diminish your health and happiness.
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The sweat is physical as well as metaphoric. People with anxiety
may experience symptoms such as a racing heart, chest tightness,
rapid breathing, stomach discomfort, restlessness, lightheadedness,
problems sleeping, and tingling hands and feet.
For some people, the bear is a constant companion. According to
one 1998 psychiatry text, one in four people has a diagnosable
anxiety disorder.
Inside the anxiety response
The same physiological response to anxiety that can trouble
modern humans saved their ancestors’ skins. Back then, the fear
that early humans felt while confronting food on the hoof—or
something that wanted to eat them—would trigger the release of
hormones such as adrenaline. These hormones intensified focus and
pumped up muscles, allowing Homo sapiens to fight or flee more
successfully.
But this hormonal response didn’t become extinct with the
saber-toothed tiger. Today, you can experience the same hormonal
deluge in response to computer woes, traffic jams, or family
disharmony. Sometimes the threats are vague (will my job be
eliminated?) or entirely internal (am I being the
husband/wife/father/ mother I wanted to be?). Nonetheless, even
these vague, internalized worries can have subtle physical effects
that build up over time.
What’s an anxious person to do? Take “vitamin V”—or Valium?
Doctors sometimes prescribe tranquilizers or antidepressants for
anxiety, and such drugs can ease anxiety symptoms. Most of these
drugs have side effects, however, and some are potentially
addictive. Once discontinued, their benefits vanish. Fortunately,
simple lifestyle changes and drugless therapies can help you smooth
occasional frayed nerves.
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