Anxiety is part of our daily lives, from worrying about what's going on at work to stressing about school or trying to make a budget that actually works. While it can be a helpful emotion that lets us notice problems and is a normal reaction to stressful situations, it can become a problem. If anxiety is getting in the way of you living your life, it could morph into a full blown anxiety disorder.
While therapy and medication are effective and often necessary for managing anxiety, they're not the only options. Natural remedies such as movement, mindfulness and breathwork can also help ease symptoms and bring a sense of calm. If you're looking for ways to feel more in control, these simple strategies might be a good place to start.
Read more: Best Online Mental Health Services
What is anxiety?
Anxiety — in small doses — is a normal part of human life. But it can become a serious problem when it becomes too frequent, intense or disconnected from reality. Healthy anxiety levels can help warn us about potential threats and increase our reaction speeds. But with an anxiety disorder, people may feel overwhelming worry or fear about otherwise mundane matters. In these situations, the brain can become unable to function normally. Here are some of the more prevalent types of anxiety disorders.
- Generalized anxiety disorder: This is the most common type of anxiety disorder. When the onset of anxiety can occur around many different situations or events, without clear linkage to one kind, it is often categorized as generalized anxiety.
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder: OCD involves a combination of obsession and compulsion. The compulsions are often rituals or methods to prevent or reduce the intrusion of obsessive thoughts and feelings.
- Panic disorder: Panic is similar to anxiety but dramatically heightened. A panic episode can feel like a heart attack or other life-threatening event and comes on with an overwhelming sense of fear or dread.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder: PTSD is a response to a particular traumatic event or series of events. The effect of these past events is so extreme that the mind and body can feel it recurrently.
- Social anxiety disorder: Many people feel some anxiety when engaging in or thinking about social situations. However, it may be a social anxiety disorder if these feelings are debilitating and recurring.
9 natural remedies for anxiety
While natural remedies for anxiety can be helpful for many people, these are not always enough to deal with anxiety disorders. If you find that natural remedies like those below don't sufficiently help with your anxiety, consider speaking about treatment with a medical expert in mental health.
1. Limit your caffeine intake
Caffeine is a stimulant, and in many ways, anxiety is a state of overstimulation. Caffeine intake can affect anxiety in individuals, but the relationship is sometimes complicated. Some research indicates that a high level of caffeine consumption is linked to increased anxiety in men but not women. But other instances show that low levels of caffeine intake may be linked to reducing experiences of anxiety. How caffeine affects your body can vary significantly between individuals. Suppose you notice heightened anxiety in the first hour or two after consuming caffeine. In that case, you might try consuming less next time and see if it reduces the anxiety.
2. Use aromatherapy to relax
Smell plays a special role in the human body. This sense is more directly connected to the brain than other senses. Based on smell, our brains can determine important information about our environment and how we should respond. For instance, during a state of anxiety, the sense of smell becomes biased toward detecting threats.
Pleasant and comforting scents may be a helpful way to interrupt this cycle. Removing smells associated with threats and replacing them with ones related to comfort, pleasure and safety may ease anxiety. One study has shown a strong link between the inhalation of certain scents (in this case rose water) and a reduction in anxiety for some patients.
3. Try herbal tea or supplements
If you experience high anxiety levels, a warm cup of herbal tea could help in more than one way. The ritual of sitting still and drinking tea, as well as the consumption of warm liquid, can all help to calm and soothe the body. Furthermore, research shows positive links between drinking some teas and reducing anxiety, and this anxiety home remedy begins to look even better.
Studies selectively show instances of herbal tea consumption being linked to a decline in experiences of anxiety. These studies are limited in the scope of teas used and the demographics involved, but many of them have provided significant data. One shows that lavender tea could have a strong ameliorating effect on anxiety in older individuals. Another study is pursuing the long-term effects of chamomile on people with generalized anxiety disorders, with preliminary research showing some promise.
4. Try practicing deep breathing
Many therapists and psychologists recommend breathing techniques to reduce anxiety and increase calm. One of the benefits of deep breathing is a reduction of the presence of cortisol — the stress hormone — in the body. One deep breathing technique that shows significant promise is called box breathing, which involves taking full breaths and holding for a count of four at each stage of breath. The simple version looks like this: Breathe in for four, hold for four, breathe out for four, hold for four and repeat the process.
5. Meditation and mindfulness
Both meditation and mindfulness techniques have been shown to reduce experiences of anxiety. However, studying these approaches within a clinical framework has been challenging, and further research is needed.
Many people report positive mood and anxiety impacts from meditation and mindfulness practices. A study of research on the effects of mindfulness-based therapy shows a significant correlation between mindfulness practices and a reduction of anxiety. Similarly, a meta analysis of studies on meditation as an anxiety treatment shows promise. However, in the latter case, it was specified that while these practices can reduce anxiety experiences, their clinical impact on a disorder needs further study.
6. Get in some exercise daily
Regular exercise is one of the most recommended home remedies for anxiety. The Mayo Clinic says exercise may help by releasing endorphins, occupying your mind, increasing confidence and encouraging social interactions. You don't technically have to exercise every day, but statying active five days a week is recommended. Exercising less may still yield benefits for anxiety but is likely to be less pronounced.
7. Journal to process things
Journaling is a technique that has been used to help cope with anxiety for a long time. With anxiety, the mind often fails to process emotions and events in a healthy coherent manner. Journaling these feelings and events can help the brain slow down and process the individual components. While journaling may make emotions feel sharper at first, it can also help reach resolution and catharsis.
Regular journaling can help to reduce or prevent heightened anxiety, although the impact varies between people. Some studies have sought to take journaling into the digital age and have tested online positive affect journaling. Like other studies of journaling as an anxiety coping mechanism, the online positive affect study shows people reported some improvement in symptoms after sufficient time using this technique.
8. Consider CBD products
Recent studies and trends have looked at CBD, a cannabinoid found in cannabis and hemp plants, as a treatment for anxiety. A limited meta analysis of research founds that CBD may be a helpful tool in treating anxiety. However, more study is required to understand which disorders and under what circumstances CBD would be a viable treatment.
In part due to the recent legal status of CBD and the plant it's derived from, quality research is limited. As the market and legislation stabilize (CBD can be derived from federally legal hemp) more research will be conducted. Until then, using CBD for anxiety is likely to be controversial among medical professionals. More clinical trials are ultimately needed to determine the benefits and potential side effects of CBD products.
9. Use a weighted blanket
Studies have shown that using weighted blankets while sleeping may help reduce anxiety. Research in this area is limited, so further study is needed before weighted blankets become a clinically accepted remedy for anxiety. For most people, however, there is little to no risk of trying weighted blankets to aid in anxiety. The sensation of lying under these blankets can be similar to receiving a hug.
Read more: Best Weighted Blankets
The bottom line
While chronic and severe anxiety treatment often needs the advice of a medical professional, many daily anxiety symptoms can be alleviated through natural anxiety remedies. If you still experience chronic or severe symptoms despite using anxiety home remedies, speak with a medical professional (likely a therapist, psychologist or psychiatrist) to discuss anxiety treatment plans. Although often focused on counseling and medications, many of these plans may incorporate natural anxiety remedies. For more advice on mental health, here are five tips to reduce anxiety before bed to get better sleep, plus seven strategies to relieve stress that really work.
