The Top 7 Ways to Cope with Anxiety Naturally

In our lives we will experience occasional fear with finances, big life decisions, and much more. In the past couple of years there has been an increase in anxiety due to the pandemic and social separation. Anxiety is a feeling of fear, dread, and uneasiness. It can cause you to sweat, your heart rate to rise, feel tense, and release harmful hormones in the body. An anxiety disorder is when worry is constant and this can affect your home life, job performance, and quality of life. There are many forms of anxiety and anxiety disorders. I am going to tell you all about them and how you can cope with it naturally.

Anxiety disorders affect 40 million people in the United States. It is the most common group of mental illnesses in the country. However, only 36.9 percent of people with an anxiety disorder receive treatment.

What are the symptoms of anxiety?

Anxiety is a feeling of apprehension and fear, characterized by physical symptoms such as palpitations, sweating, and feeling of stress. Anxiety is a complex mental illness and cause various other symptoms such as:

1. Nervousness, restlessness, or being tense

2. Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom

3. Having an increased heart rate

4. Breathing rapidly

5. Sweating

6. Trembling

7. Feeling week or tired

8. Lack of concentration

9. Experience gas or other gastrointestinal discomfort

10. Having difficulty controlling worry

11. Having the urge to avoid things that cause anxiety

There is not just one type of Anxiety

Anxiety can show up in multiple forms making it difficult to diagnose and treat. If anxiety is present on a normal basis this could mean that there is something more complex going on. It could mean that you have an anxiety disorder. An anxiety disorder is when you have a sense of worry or fear for days at a time or on a regular basis. This can have negative effects on your work, home and social life. Some of the common anxiety disorders are listed below:

1. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)- People with GAD display excessive amounts of anxiety or worry. This worry or anxiety can be about work, personal health, social interactions, and everyday routine.

a. Symptoms include:

i. Feeling restless, wound-up, or on edge

ii. Being easily fatigued

iii. Have problems concentrating

iv. Brain fog

v. Muscle tension

vi. Have difficulties controlling worry

vii. Sleep problems falling or staying asleep

2. Panic Disorder- People with panic disorder have re-occurring unexpected periods of intense fear that come on very quickly. Panic attacks can be caused by a trigger, or fear of an object or situation.

a. Symptoms include:

i. Heart palpitations, pounding heartbeat, or accelerated heart rate.

ii. Sweating

iii. Trembling

iv. Shortness of breath

v. Feeling of doom

vi. Feeling of being out of control

b. People with this disorder often worry about when they might have another attack and will actively try to prevent future attacks by avoiding certain trigger or situations. The effort spent trying to avoid panic attacks can cause significant problems with various areas of a persona life, and can cause a development of certain phobias.

3. Phobia-related disorders- A phobia is an intense fear or aversion to a specific object or situation. Although the anxiety can be realistic, people with phobias feel fear that is out of proportion to actual danger caused by a situation or object.

a. Symptoms include:

i. Having an irrational or excessive worry about encountering the feared object or situation.

ii. Will take active steps to avoid the feared object or situation.

iii. Experience immediate intense anxiety upon encountering the object or situation.

b. Some common phobias:

i. Social anxiety- People with social anxiety have an intense fear of social or performance situations. They worry about judgment or feeling embarrassed after doing something in public. This often causes people to avoid social situations. Social anxiety can manifest in multiple situations, in work, home or in school.

ii. Agoraphobia- people with agoraphobia have an intense fear of the following situations:

1. Public transportation

2. Open spaces

3. Enclosed spaces

4. Standing in line or being in a crowd

5. Being home alone

iii. Separation anxiety- separation anxiety is often thought to only occur with children. But adults can be diagnosed with it as well. People with this phobia often fear being separated from whom they are attached. They fear about something happening to that person. This fear leads them to avoid being separated from their attachment figures and avoid being alone.

What causes Anxiety?

Anxiety is generally created through a past experience in our life. From childhood trauma, addiction, environment, genetics, or medical factors. This is what makes anxiety such a complex problem for people, because it can take months to years to figure out the root cause to their anxiety. If you struggle with anxiety and don’t know why, read the following descriptions below to see if they resonate with you.

Childhood trauma

As a child we go through stages of development, especially mentally. When we are faced with child abuse or neglect from a parent it can really wear on our mentality. This can manifest later during life in relationships. Being bullied at school can create insecurities and emotional instability for a child. This can lead to being anxious about the way we look or the way we act around others making harder for us to be our authentic selves.

Addiction

Addiction can show up in our lives in multiple ways, whether being addicted to drugs, alcohol, or cigarettes. Also, you can be addicted to things like social media, video games, sugar, or even porn. Being addicted to something wears on our dopamine receptors, or our reward system in the brain, and when this is stimulated to much it can cause us to feel unfulfilled and vulnerable to depression. If you have struggles with addiction, then this could be the cause to your anxiety.

Environment

Our environment creates us. Who we are around determines how we will behave. So if you are around people who are anxious and stressed that can begin to wear off on you. Overtime you will notice the anxieties of others are projected onto you. Take time to look around and see who you surround yourself with. See if they could be the source to your anxiety.

Genetics

How do genetics play a role in anxiety or an anxiety disorder? There is a theory that if our parents struggled with anxiety or Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), at the time of becoming pregnant then the likely hood that it would be passed down to the child is 31.6% more likely than not. (Article) So, if you have not had any kind of childhood trauma, addiction, or an unhealthy environment then consider your genetics could be a playing factor in your anxiety.

Traumatic experience

A traumatic experience can be from a car accident that involved a death or near death experience. Another could be being in the military dealing with constant fear of dyeing or seeing your fellow team mates die in action. These types of situations can leave us with post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) and deep rooted trauma that will cause us anxiety that can usually only be treated through therapy and medications.

7 ways to naturally cope with anxiety

So far there is no exact cure for anxiety, but there are ways to treat to your anxiety with natural methods. If we can learn what causes our anxiety, we can better handle it when it pops up. The top 7 natural ways to cope with anxiety are as follows:

1. Meditation/ breath work:

a. Meditation has shown to benefit so many parts of our body, from helping with our digestion, better blood circulation, but it also helps with relieving the symptoms of anxiety. How? Well, anxiety is centered around either a past experience or a future unknown situation. With meditation you have to be completely focused on your breathe in the present. This re-centers us and gets us back to the present moment. Some of the best meditation or breathing techniques for treating anxiety are:

i. 4-count breath hold

ii. 5-minute guided meditation

iii. Body scan meditation

2. Journaling

a. The power of being able to verbalize your anxious thoughts can bring us so much relief. The anxiety we feel is also linked to something that we feel we cannot control. We are in control of how we think about it and how we let our emotions affect us. A great technique for journaling is to write down whatever you are anxious about in the moment and then say to yourself, “I am in control of my reaction to this!”. From here you ball up the anxious thoughts and throw them away. What does this do? This gives you physical control of your anxiety. From there write down what you are in control of and something you are grateful for in the moment.

3. Identifying triggers

a. Identifying our triggers can seem more complicated that it is. When you feel anxious, play back the day in your head from beginning up to the point you felt anxious and start looking at every situation, conversation, and environment you are in. Start to ask yourself what was said, what you saw, what you felt, or heard. All of these senses play a huge roll in our anxiety and its intensity. Once you are able to identify your triggers you can better control your reactions to them.

4. Exercise

a. Exercise is a great way to channel your anxiety. Breaking a sweat can release endorphins which can help to alleviate anxiety. Having a healthy exercise routine can vastly control your anxiety.

5. Sleep

a. When we don’t sleep good our body uses more cortisol and adrenaline to compensate for the lack of energy your body has to function. Cortisol and adrenaline are fight or flight hormones used for survival and this can cause us to be vulnerable to more anxiety. So making sure you get quality sleep each night will help you to prevent your anxiety.

6. Proper Nutrition

a. It’s not always the outside circumstances that causes our anxiety. It can also be from a poor diet. When we consume ultra-processed foods, fast food, too much sugar, or not enough of the right foods, our gut can become compromised. When our gut gets compromised we can create chronic illnesses, autoimmune diseases, but also leaky gut which allows these inflammatory chemicals to leak into our blood stream which has been shown to cause things like depression, anxiety, bloating, brain fog, and much more. Incorporating a very whole food based diet that is rich in colorful vegetables and fruit and nutrient dense foods you can strengthen your gut which helps to produce the right amounts of serotonin your body needs to maintain a proper mental state.

7. Counseling

a. This is probably the best way to cope with and figure out the root cause to your anxiety. A counselor can help you talk through your worries and create a plan of action to help you cope with your anxiety in a healthy way. Even if you don’t struggle with anxiety having a counselor is something that can benefit you. Studies have shown that decreased depressive and anxiety symptoms are evident in effective counseling. (article)

Anxiety is a complex and frustrating mental health disorder. With the right approach and preventive techniques, you can take control of your anxiety and live a life full of abundance and happiness. This is not to be taken as medical advice. If you struggle with anxiety or depression, always talk to your doctor and schedule a session with a counselor about what methods would be best for your type of anxiety.