How To Help Yourself Through Anxiety - lots of natural tips

[northstar]

Hi everyone!

Because of the volume of people who come through these forums I often find myself repeating the same information over and over again to newcomers. I have no problems spending time writing to people who are asking for advice, but I thought it would be helpful to combine all the information I have gathered about anxiety on my own journey and put it all together so that I can give the link to people I feel would benefit from it :) I am not an expert on anxiety by any means, but I have learned a lot over the last year on my path to recovery and I hope that other people will find this helpful. The first person you should talk to about anxiety is your doctor, but I hope that the methods listed here will help you alongside whatever you do.

On my way to feeling better again I learned that recovery from anxiety takes a lot of effort, but it is possible. Anxiety takes away our sense of confidence and strength, it is important that we build this up again by being proactive in our own recoveries and there are LOTS of things that you can do to help yourself through it. A lot of people come here looking for answers and ways to help themselves naturally, I picked up quite a few tips on my own path that have been incredibly helpful. I am a firm believer that a combination of lifestyle change, proper nutrition and good therapy is the best treatment for anxiety sufferers, but you have to be willing to make the changes. A therapist once said to me "if you always do what you've always done, then you'll always get what you've always got". She meant if I kept living the way I was, things would never change. If I wanted to feel different I had to make the changes myself, they weren't going to happen automatically. This statement has really stuck with me. It took me out of the victim attitude and prompted me to take control of my own life again, I honestly think it is the best advice I've ever been given!

So a good attitude towards helping yourself, working with the anxiety and not allowing yourself to be a victim is the first thing you will need on your own journey :)

DIET & NUTRITION

I find that quite a number of people just don't want to listen to the advice on diet! They don't want to have to make the kinds of changes that are recommended even though it can help enormously. The truth is that your diet is a MAJOR factor in how you feel. Stress drains our bodies of the nutrients we need to feel healthy and OK, and if on top of that you're not eating a diet that gives you the nutrients you need or if you're barely eating at all then your body is going to feel even more drained and stressed out. So one of the easiest places to start healing is to start soothing your body with nutrients and giving it exactly what it needs :)


Vitamin B

There are a lot of B vitamins, they are important in the running of a happy nervous system. People stressed out with anxiety burn through B vitamins quickly. If you're feeling anxious your body is stressed, you use up those B vitamins and this upsets your body and nervous system further and then you feel even more stressed and so the cycle of anxiety continues. So one of the first things you can do is to start taking B vitamin complex, apparently they work well together so it's better to take a complex rather than 1 particular B vitamin on it's own. It will help to calm your nervous system and give you a better shot at dealing with stress! Ask your pharmacist or health store assistant for advice on the best one to take and make sure that it's compatible with any medication you're on. Oh and be aware that it will turn your urine bright yellow, so don't freak out when you notice it for the first time lol.

Here is a link to a more in depth article on why B vitamins are good for anxiety: http://www.manifest-your-success.com/ef ... xiety.html (http://www.manifest-your-success.com/effective-treatments-for-anxiety.html)

Magnesium is also said to be good for your nervous system, it is known to relieve tension. It is often possible to get a vitamin B complex combined with magnesium, again ask your pharmacist / health store assistant about this. When I'm feeling stressed I take a vitamin B complex with magnesium every morning with my breakfast. It is sometimes recommended if you're feeling particularly strung out that you take one in the evenings also to help with sleep. Please remember to ask your doctor about this, I'm not an expert!


Foods to Avoid

This is the part of anxiety advice that most people like to ignore in my experience! There are many things that we put into our bodies without being aware of how they affect us. The following foods are known irritants, stimulants or agitators to anxiety, they can be the source of or majorly irritate anxiety and depression. If you are having trouble with anxiety it is best to avoid these foods as much as possible or at the very least cut out excesses and keep them to a minimum as much as you can. Please be aware that if you eat / drink a lot of these foods that cutting them out suddenly can lead to withdrawal symptoms which can increase anxiety for a short while. It's best to wean yourself off things like coffee rather than going cold turkey, or have a chat with your doctor about the best way to handle it for your own situation. Don't go off everything on this list suddenly either, you'll give your body a hard time with that approach! Take things slowly, you don't want to put yourself under any extra stress.

Some people say that the following foods/drinks should be avoided altogether if you're sensitive to anxiety. I personally feel that it's OK to have them in moderation once you're feeling pretty stable. I cut out everything at the beginning of my own recovery, but that was mainly because of the fact that I had been very ill and wasn't able to eat much anyway! I now enjoy the things on this list every now and again, I really don't have the willpower to cut them out altogether, but I am well aware of how they will make me feel so I try to eat them as little as possible and only have them in small amounts.

1) Sugar & Processed foods e.g. pizza, white breads & white pastas

Sugar will send your body into a roller coaster of blood sugar highs and lows. You'll feel good for a while after eating it, but soon after you'll crash and feel awful. These constant ups and downs can really drain your body and bring on major mood swings, headaches, brain fog, and fatigue amongst other things. If you have anxiety sugar is really not your friend, so if you eat a lot of sugary foods then you really need to think about cutting down if not cutting it out altogether. Sugar doesn't necessarily mean putting spoons of sugar in your tea or binging on sweets, there is sugar is so many processed foods, you need to start reading the ingredients listings on what you're consuming and judging the amounts of sugar in them.

If you look across the internet you will find lots of people who report major improvements in anxiety after cutting sugar out of their diets, use google yourself to have a look!

Refined carbohydrates like white breaks and pastas burn up in your body rather quickly and can have the same effect as eating sugary foods. It's best to swap them for things like wholegrain breads and flours, these will burn up slowly in your body and keep your blood sugar levels stable for longer and help you to feel much better.


2) Caffeine

Unfortunately caffeine is also a major no-no for people who suffer from anxiety for many reasons. Caffeine is a stimulant! That means it's supposed to get you up and going. If you have anxiety you need to relax, taking a stimulant is not going to help. It puts your whole system on edge, increasing tension and making you feel strung out, it stops your body producing the natural hormones you need to sleep in the evenings and it can cause increased heart rate and palpitations which are often a main worry for people with anxiety. The cycles of withdrawal and exhaustion can leave your body worn out and stressed out, you don't need this on top of an anxiety problem. Did you know there are also several psychological disorders related to caffeine and caffeine addiction??

Caffeine doesn't just mean coffee, it also means tea, chocolate and soft drinks like coke, so you need to be very aware of how these types of foods/drinks are going to make you feel if you choose to drink them. Once again if you google anxiety and coffee you will find TONS of people across the world who have reported major improvements once getting rid of excess caffeine in their diets.

Please be aware that caffeine is very addictive and cutting it out should not be done all of a sudden if you're a regular drinker as the withdrawal symptoms can be difficult. Talk to a doctor about the best way for you to withdraw from it :)

Take a look at this video entitled 'Caffeine is a Mental Illness' for some more information: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... D=24156323 (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=24156323)


3) Alcohol

Alcohol is another one to avoid if you have anxiety problems. It will play havoc with your blood sugars (more on blood sugars & why they are so important later in this article!) and make you feel terrible. Like refined carbs and sugar it will burn up in your body really fast and a couple of hours later you'll come crashing back down and that's when it will make you feel anxious. A hungover person burns through their body's nutrients in no time at all! So it drains you of the vital nutrients you need to feel stable and happy adding to anxiety problems.

Unfortunately a lot of anxiety sufferers tend to use alcohol to hide from how they feel, but without knowing that alcohol will only add to the problem. It's best to avoid alcohol as much as possible or keep it to a minimum when you're having a drink with friends. I often have a glass of wine if I'm in the pub with friends, but one glass and soon I'll have heart palpitations so I have to be aware of how it's going to affect me with each glass I consume. In the past drinking alcohol would have given me those heart palpitations, but I didn't know that the drink was actually causing them, I just knew that all of a sudden my heart was racing and thumping really hard and that would make me worried and anxious. Now that I know that the alcohol will give me palpitations I don't panic when I feel them, I just know it's time to stop drinking lol.


4) Sodas

Soft drinks or sodas are liquid sugar and caffeine!! Need i say more? lol. Honestly they're terrible for you, people sensitive to anxiety really need to pay attention to this fact!

I find that people are often less aware of this one and are really surprised when they hear it. It's best to keep them at an absolute minimum.



Other foods to keep to a minimum are fatty & fried foods, salty foods and MSG (MSG is found on Chinese food and crisps/chips/corn snacks). If you have access to organic food and can afford it then take advantage of it :) The basics of diet for anxiety are healthy, whole foods will keep you happy. These days information on proper nutrition and diet is so easily found, we have no excuses to indulge in unhealthy diets. It's all about moderation and making the right choices for your health. So you now know how all of these foods can make your anxiety worse, the choice is yours on what you put into your body and so you can choose to take this advice or not.

Here is a link to a short article on good diet choices for anxiety sufferers: http://www.anxietypanic.com/nutrition.html


Blood Sugar / Hypoglycemia

Low blood sugar problems, or hypoglycemia, is a rather unknown cause of anxiety. When I discovered it it changed my life :) Eating to keep my blood sugars stable is what I believe really helped me recover! I'm not very good at explaining the science of it, so here is a great passage from www.hypoglycemia.org (http://www.hypoglycemia.org) that explains it quite simply:

"Hypoglycemia - hy-po-gly-ce-mi-a (n.)
An abnormally low level of sugar in the blood.

What does this mean?
In simple layman's language, hypoglycemia is the body's inability to properly handle the large amounts of sugar that the average American consumes today. It's an overload of sugar, alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and stress.

In medical terms, hypoglycemia is defined in relation to its cause. Functional hypoglycemia, the kind we are addressing here, is the oversecretion of insulin by the pancreas in response to a rapid rise in blood sugar or "glucose".

All carbohydrates (vegetables, fruits and grains, as well as simple table sugar), are broken down into simple sugars by the process of digestion. This sugar enters the blood stream as glucose and our level of blood sugar rises. The pancreas then secretes a hormone known as insulin into the blood in order to bring the glucose down to normal levels.

In hypoglycemia, the pancreas sends out too much insulin and the blood sugar plummets below the level necessary to maintain well-being.

Since all the cells of the body, especially the brain cells, use glucose for fuel, a blood glucose level that is too low starves the cells of needed fuel, causing both physical and emotional symptoms."


The resulting drop in blood sugar can cause a whole host of problems that may sound familar to you, although it varies from person to person:

heart palpitations (often occuring an hour or two after a meal or waking you up in the middle of the night)
sweating
nervousness
shaking & trembling
headaches
tinnitus (ringing in the ears)
muscle twitches
lack of concentration
difficulty breathing
derealisation
brain fog
depression
panic
anxiety
generalised anxiety / free floating anxiety
extreme hunger
chest pain
crying spells
mood swings
exhaustion & fatigue
dizzy spells
lightheadedness
anger
blurred vision
sleepiness (especially after meals)
cravings for sugary foods
poor memory
irritability
weakness (feelings like "rubbery legs")
insomnia
waking in the middle of the night/in the mornings with anxiety/palpitations
symptoms seem worst in the mornings and get easier as the day goes on


If you find yourself recognising a lot of these symptoms then it's worth looking into hypoglycemia. It's very easily managed through diet, some sources say it's completely reversible :) Basically you'll want to eat foods that will burn up slowly in your body and release a steady rate of glucose into your bloodstream keeping your blood sugars stable and happy. The best way to do this is to keep a healthy diet and eat small amounts of food regularly. Try to get protein in with most meals, e.g. have a boiled egg for breakfast and snack on nuts. The foods I've listed above (the ones to avoid) will aggravate hypoglycemia, refined carbs, sugar and alcohol will all burn up quickly in your body sending your blood sugars soaring. If you eat a lot of these foods regularly think of the roller coaster of highs and lows happening in your body every day, no wonder you're feeling stressed and worn out.

A similar effect will happen if you eat very little or skip meals - you won't be providing your body with the fuel it needs to work normally and you'll put your whole system under tremendous pressure (not to mention the fact that you're not getting the proper nutrients your body needs!). So not eating very much is just as bad for you as eating the wrong kinds of foods. It's incredibly important not to skip means ESPECIALLY breakfast! Often people with hypoglycemia find that the mornings are when they feel worst. This can be down to the fact that you haven't eaten all night long so naturally your blood sugars are low. The best way to remedy this is to eat a good breakfast as soon as you can when you wake up. Bananas are a great natural glucose boost - at the very beginning I used to keep a banana by my bedside and eat it as soon as I woke up to tide me over until breakfast. I also often eat a banana a little while before I sleep or if I wake up at night and feel restless & unable to sleep. I find it very helpful to keep snacks nearby e.g. in my desk at work I keep a drawer full of fruit, nuts and popcorn and I snack on these healthy foods throughout the day.

I have read that it is common for hypoglycemics to have phobias connected to where they first experienced the low blood sugar problems. For example: imagine you are driving in your car when for the first time you experience heart palpitations, anxiety and maybe difficulty breathing. These symptoms are very distressing and you don't know what is causing them, it seems as if they're coming out of the blue. You start paying close attention to the symptoms and get more and more worried and it blows up into a panic attack. All of a sudden your world has changed, you feel uncertain, shaky and nervous at the very core of your being. Because you were in your car when this happened you then start to associate the car with panic and fear and a phobia begins. When you climb into your car you instantly feel stressed and worried and of course your body reacts to this and sends you into 'fight or flight' mode causing and endless cycle of panic and fear all connected to driving.

If you'd like to know more then talk to your doctor about it, it is possible to test for it. Here are some links to sites with further diet information:
http://www.hypoglycemia.org/
http://www.medicinenet.com/hypoglycemia/article.htm
http://www.anxietyforum.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3750

Here's an online test you might like to check out:
http://www.hypoglycemia.org/hypo_test.asp



OK now you've got tons of helpful information that's easy to implement, so start taking care of yourself and give your body the support it needs to be happy. Now let's see what you can do about getting looking after your mental health too :)

THERAPY

As well as the physical symptoms that come with anxiety there are plenty of mental ones that are difficult to deal with too, mainly an overall sense of fear and uncertainly, lack of confidence, depression and cycles of irrational worries that seem impossible to break. Many people also talk about feelings of impending doom. It's great to look into getting your body in shape through diet, and if you follow the guidelines above it can really help, but it is also very important to deal with these mental symptoms appropriately too. Therapy can be of major help in this area. I went to see a psychotherapist once a week for just over a year and to be incredibly honest it's the BEST gift that I have ever given myself. It opened up so much to me. The act of talking alone is a release. A good therapist will guide you through self discovery and help you to strengthen the parts of your personality that are confident and more rational. If you're having difficulty breaking cycles of worry or simply dealing with stress in an ordinary way then it's 100% worth discussing with your doctor or opening the golden pages to see who's in your area. There are often anxiety/depression help groups that you can join in your local area, have a look around and see what you find :)

I have heard many excuses from people unwilling to go to therapy, but most of them are just procrastination to be very honest. If you want to help yourself then you have to be willing to do the things that work! Some people say they can't afford it: I say if you had a physical problem you'd pay to see your doctor, it should be exactly the same with your mental health. Therapy doesn't have to be expensive, you can go as often or as little as you please, search out all the options available to you. Talk to your doctor about what you can afford. Some people say they don't want to talk to a therapist: I feel that this is fear talking, the part of ourselves who'd rather hide from our problems than deal with them. As someone who has experience, therapy is the most amazing space to talk in, it's a complete blank slate for you to work with and you have someone dedicated to support you & work with you through difficult times. I will admit it is hard to open up, but the benefits of it are just so many that it's not worth being afraid of. Facing up to your fears is one of the bravest things that you can do :) And I have also seen people who say that they don't "believe" in therapy: I'm not sure about this one, but I think it may be down to a basic misunderstanding of what therapy is, it's a bad idea to dismiss something as not working before you've really looked into it or tried it out :)

So if you find yourself collapsing under the pressure of the anxiety and really crippled with the worry of it then please do talk to your doctor about trying out therapy. As well as relieving stress by simply talking about our problems it can also help by leading you to understand how your mind works and how our ways of thinking can contribute to how we feel. It can also be handy for learning exercises to deal with panic and anxiety attacks and helping to build your confidence back up. You can focus on specific fears or phobias if you wish. You may discover triggers to your fear and learn to work with them. You will learn skills that you can put into place in every day life and a clearer understanding of how your mind works is a wonderful experience :) I highly recommend it! There are different kinds of therapies, talk to your doctor about the best one for you or use google yourself and look into what you feel would work for you. I found Neuro Linguistic Therapy (NLP) the most helpful, it works on breaking down unhelpful thought patterns and replacing them with healthier ones. It also gives you good down-to-earth advice and exercises that you can put into practice in every day life. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is also recommended for anxiety & panic sufferers, it's supposed to be excellent for those irrational worries or obsessive compulsive behaviours, ask your doctor for therapists in your area.

Your mental health is important, make sure you take care of yourself if you need it, don't neglect it. Like I said before, I firmly believe that a combination of healthy diet and good therapy is the best way to combat anxiety, so give yourself the support you need :)


EXERCISE, YOGA & MEDITATION

Exercise is fantastic for anxiety! It promotes your body's production of feel-good hormones like serotonin that will naturally lift your mood and make you feel better. It will also distract you from the anxiety and wear you out naturally which will help you to get good sleep at night. Plus it's a good excuse to get out and into the fresh air :) Going to a class or joining a sports team can be excellent fun. If that's not for you then go jogging, get your bike out for a ride, take a brisk walk or do like I did and buy an exercise DVD to do at home in your own time. Don't overdo it, take things easy and at your own pace.


Joining a yoga class is a great plan, not only will it give you exercise but you will also learn breathing and relaxation techniques that can be very beneficial. Joining a class and learning to meditate will also help you to acquire relaxation skills that can be really helpful with stress reduction. If you don't want to go to a class then buy a meditation CD and try it at home in a nice peaceful space. I used to listen to a meditation CD to help me relax before sleeping, I found it very soothing and calming. If you're having a rough day then it's nice to switch on a good meditation and chill out for a while :)


GETTING GOOD SLEEP

Good sleep is another great way to help your body deal with anxiety. Naturally, feeling on edge all the time is going to take it's toll, so doing your best to make sure your body gets proper amounts of rest each night is a wise idea. Lack of rest will only wear your system out further and make you feel worse. If you're finding it hard to sleep there are lots of methods you can try out to aid natural rest, but perhaps that a whole other article in itself lol. Take a look around through the posts on this forum, you will find plenty connected to natural sleep methods.

Here is a link to some advice on getting to sleep: http://www.path2healthyliving.com/Natur ... edies.html (http://www.path2healthyliving.com/NaturalSleepRemedies.html)


BE KIND TO YOURSELF, SUPPORT YOURSELF & DO THE THINGS YOU LOVE TO DO

Another thing I want to address is giving yourself the support you need throughout a difficult patch. I found with anxiety that I tended to be very critical of how I felt, not allowing myself the space and time needed for healing but pushing on with things and doing my best to ignore the anxiety instead of stopping to take care of myself. Eventually I realised that it is incredibly important to be good and kind to yourself when you're feeling bad, don't push away from the feelings or ignore them. Accept how you're feeling and act on it, be good to yourself, be kind and make sure you reach out for help, do the things you need to help yourself and don't allow yourself to become a victim to your own anxiety. And don't ignore how you feel, it'll only make things worse in my own experience. Figure out what you need and do it!

So start doing the things that make you happy, it will lift your spirits and help you to be more positive, and it will distract you from anxious feelings. Make a date for yourself at least once a week where you do something that you love. Sign up for a class that you've always wanted to do. Take out a camera and start taking photographs for fun. Book yourself in for a massage. Learn to dance. Take your kids out for a frisbee game in the park. Go to the beach and listen to the sea. Buy a cookbook and learn how to make delicious cookies. Start a self defense class to build up some confidence. Basically go out there and face the world, live life, don't allow the anxiety to control you :)


OTHER METHODS TO CONSIDER

Here are some other methods that I found quite helpful when I was feeling bad, they either helped me to get vital relaxation time in or provided release and support when I needed it most:

Acupuncture

Aura-Soma Therapy

Keeping a journal and writing out the anxiety

Punching a pillow (you'd be surprised how much this helps!)

Cranio-Sacral Therapy

Talking to someone when you're feeling really bad (don't be afraid to reach out)

Learn about anxiety and what it does to your body - learning about how it works and the actual physical reaction in your body can take a lot of the power away from it, but STAY AWAY FROM GOOGLE! lol lots of anxiety sufferers have a tendency to google every symptom they have and come up with all kinds of illness like brain tumours and cancers which gives them even more worry. Google is not a doctor! If you have a problem go talk to your actual doctor, it'll be far more reassuring than any internet search engine ;)

Here is a link to a great resource, it's a group called Psychtruth who make very informative internet videos on anxiety and other mental health issues, you might find them quite interesting: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea ... d=40586223 (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.viewVideos&channelid=40586223)


ABOUT MEDICATION

I don't know a lot about medication except for the fact that I took about 3 Xanex tablets at different occasions when I felt in danger of actually hurting myself. I had to be coaxed into taking each tablet and to be honest they didn't really have much of an effect for me. I was almost put on Lexapro but luckily my doctor allowed me to try things my own way first and thankfully it worked for me. I'm absolutely not anti-medication. It can be quite helpful if someone is in an extreme state and really needs a chance to calm down before starting to work on getting better. But I do tend to think that meds treat only a symptom without looking into the actual root of the problem. All across the internet you will find people who have tried drug after drug with little or no success, this says to me that the drugs are really not doing the whole job. I think if you're going to take the meds route it's best not to rely on them alone to fix the problem, but if you put in place the kind of lifestyle changes I've written about here along with your medication then I think you have a much better chance of feeling better :) We all want that magic pill that will take the pain away, but unfortunately it really doesn't work like that, like I said before it takes effort and pro-activity from the sufferer.

If you feel you want to try out drugs talk to your doctor about the best one for you. A lot of people ask what is the best kind anxiety medication, unfortunately there is no answer to this question. Drugs will have a different effect on each and every one of us, so there is no way of telling if what worked for one person will work for you. And please don't take medication that has not been prescribed for you specifically. There several anxiety medications that are addictive and it's really best not to take them unless you're being supervised with your doctor. Your doctor is there to help you, if you feel like you need help then speak to them frankly and they will do their best for you.


SMOKING

Ok be prepared for some more bad news lol - smoking is not helpful for anxiety. Once again you will find many anxiety sufferers across the internet who have reported feeling much better once giving up cigarettes. Nicotine is a stimulant and can increase those "fight or flight" anxious feelings. It can also cause breathing problems which are often quite a worry for people with anxiety.

Many people will claim that smoking helps to reduce their anxiety. I heard recently that the truth about this is that all the cigarettes are doing is satisfying your body's craving for nicotine. Your body is feeling anxious because it wants that nicotine hit and is satisfied for a short while when you have a cigarette.

Once again it is not recommended that you stop smoking cold turkey, especially with anxiety, as the withdrawal symptoms can be quite difficult to deal with. Talk to your doctor about stopping, or call a helpline for information (there are so many of them these days!).


ORAL CONTRACEPTIVES

This one is often surprising to people who are taking them! And it came as quite a surprise to me too, I am convinced that they played a big role in my anxiety problems. Your doctor doesn't exactly tell you to watch out for major mood swings, depression or anxiety when you're taking them even though many women have had these exact experiences with them. We also don't think (I know I didn't) about the effect that taking these extra hormones is going to have on our bodies - our hormones are delicately balanced by nature, if we're putting more of them into our systems every day it's going to have some effect and unfortunately for many women the extra amounts of hormones tigger depression & anxiety. Birth control pills are also know to deplete our bodies of vitamin B which as you know from the beginning of this post is absolutely vital to a happy nervous system.

I am in no way telling you to stop taking your birth control pills! I'm just giving you something to think about. If you feel they may be playing a part in your anxiety issues then talk to your doctor about them. It is also good to think about taking a vitamin B complex with them to top up the vitamins they can deptele, just make sure with your pharmacist that any supplements you take are compatible with your pill :)



****

OK I think that's just about all I have at the moment! I really hope that some of you out there find this helpful. If I think of anything else I'll add it on, and please feel free to add on other posts with tips that have worked for you. Also please feel free to share this information with anyone else you think would benefit from it :)

Please let me know how you are all getting on, if you want to ask questions you're welcome to ask here or to PM me!

Éadaoin

[badheadsrus]

Of all the internet forums I have ever read(and there have been many on different subjects ranging from motorbikes to tropical fish)that is the best most infomative,comprehensive,helpfull post I have ever had the pleasure of coming accross.Well done and THANKYOU.

[Evilbob333]

An excellent, informative and well written post! And you say you're not an expert on anxiety! You know a damn sight more than the GPS i've been seeing! Thankyou for giving up your time to write this out!

I've attached a couple of links to some articles that back up what you've written about, specifically the importance of sleep. Thanks again Northstar!

This article concerns the stress response and gives some great insight into the stress response process and the cognitive processes that underlie it;

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc. ... 229&cn=117 (http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=1229&cn=117)

Although written concerning depression, i found this article had a lot of interesting points to make regarding the role of sleep in anxiety/depression. It also makes some very valid points regarding the types of therapy most effective in treating such conditions;

http://www.clinical-depression.co.uk/learning_path.html

These next two are online interactive CBT programmes that may be of some use to those who cant afford to see a therapist, or unable to attend therapy for any reason

http://moodgym.anu.edu.au/welcome

http://www.livinglifetothefull.com/index.php

Hope this helps back up the already fantastic article written by Northstar

[northstar]

badheadsrus thank you so much for your kind words, i really appreciate them :)

evilbob nice work on the added links, thanks for including them! i must have a look through them now. i want this thread to be all about help and resources, so really thanks for you additions :D

i know you recently started CBT and were pleased with the first session, keep us updated, it'd be great to know how you're getting on! i don't know much about CBT (when i asked one of the doctors about it she didn't want to give me a referral but thought the anxiety would just pass on it's own :roll: ) - so any first hand information on it is a good way to learn about it i reckon :)

i also just realised i left 2 important topics out of the post, smoking and oral contraceptives, so i'm gonna add them in when i get a chance!

[GetRidOfAnxiety]

Great post man, I'm allways happy to see people like you that like to help others, good work!

[dman50]

Excellent post Northstar. I wanted to expand just a little on your statement about helping yourself and not allowing yourself to become a victim.

As I look back now on a certain time of my life I acknowledge that I allowed myself to dwell on things that made me anxious. I ended up creating things in my mind that were not true. I feel that I victimized myself by allowing these negative racing thoughts to dominate my mind. Of course this only made my anxiety worse. I could not sleep and was getting very worn out and run down. This also made me angry. The negative thoughts made me feel sick when I had to leave for work in the morning. When I finally got fed up with this I decided to work on a technique that might help put my mind at ease. I did this by consciously replacing the negative crap with positive thoughts. I conditioned myself to change my thoughts immediately from negative to positive and did everything in my power to maintain those positive visions and thoughts until the negative stuff was gone. This was not easy at first, but once I started doing this the frequency of the anxious negative thoughts lessened.

Sometimes I would just go outside and change the scenery, go for a walk, read a book or just really focus hard on something pleasant that happened to me. Whatever the case, I changed the way I was thinking. In turn this helped me change the way I felt in a more confident positive way about my anxiety. Even more importantly I changed by life by getting out of the job I felt trapped in and hated. I also made a promise to never allow myself to get back in a situation like that again. This is another important point. Do not involve yourself with things that make you anxious or unhappy. Stay away from that stuff.

I am also a firm believer in regular exercise, eating a balanced diet, and avoiding too much sugar and caffeine. A Naturopathic Doctor once told me that if most people suffering from anxiety would just reduce or eliminate sugar and caffeine from their diet they would see an immediate improvement with their anxiety problems.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

dman50



:D

[Bree]

Great post. Can someone sticky it?

[northstar]

:oops: i know it's not good internet etiquette to bump your own posts, but i wanted to make sure this stayed on the main page for quite a while so that more people will see it, i hope no one minds :unsure:

[Axel8]

This stuff really is so helpful, as is this whole forum. GP's and doctors in general know so little about about Anxiety disorders. Some would argue that it is an area for Psychologists but so many of the symptons are so intensely physical you would think that other doctors would be more educated on the issue.

I wish I had found this forum a year ago. Although I have seen some good doctors I really think I could have saved myself alot of stress and mental anguish through these discussions and advice like that posted here

[182shaun]

yoooo
well id had anxiety for years, im 22, had a miserable last 5 years went to councilin and anti-ds for half a year, had horrible stress sweats, im a law student n cudnt concentrate ......... took things into my own hands exercise is amazing i lived such an unhealthy lifestyle of alcohol fast food n dvd nights ha... but started running n now am in a gym.... i look better am alot fitter ..... and am free from crippling anxiety. i eat well blah blah listen to this advice n the [ppl b4 me i havwe stopped my anti-ds i am now "fine" and so happy sure it may come bk but so what it will go again n it wont cum bk as bad as it used to be!!!!! get health maaaaaan

[northstar]

i'm glad you're all finding this helpful! i honestly would have loved to have had some of this information this time last year when i was suffering the most, i'm really pleased to be able to share it with others :)

[MakeItStop]

I agree that nutrition plays an important role in anxiety. I've been doing alot of reading about nutrition and anxiety and have found alot of interessting bits so I was very happy to see a post about it here. I always get anxiety after a night of drinking since it depletes vitamins and it really bothers my sleep so now I take vitamins a soon as I wake up. I have found that vitamins and exercise make me feel alot better and almost anxiety free. So many Doctor's are so quick to give out prescriptons when sometimes the answer is so simple. Who wants to take pills that make you feel like a zombie when you can feel much better without taking them??

Anyways, thanks for the post, I think it's GREAT!!!

[dolphin]

Thank you Northstar. The information you put up here I used when I was at the peak of my anxiety. I'm sure you had another post somewhere though.

I've only just started drinking coffee again after a few months now my anxiety levels have decreased.

[northstar]

I agree that nutrition plays an important role in anxiety. I've been doing alot of reading about nutrition and anxiety and have found alot of interessting bits so I was very happy to see a post about it here. I always get anxiety after a night of drinking since it depletes vitamins and it really bothers my sleep so now I take vitamins a soon as I wake up. I have found that vitamins and exercise make me feel alot better and almost anxiety free. So many Doctor's are so quick to give out prescriptons when sometimes the answer is so simple. Who wants to take pills that make you feel like a zombie when you can feel much better without taking them??

Anyways, thanks for the post, I think it's GREAT!!!

makeitstop that's fantastic news for you :D glad to see you've been able to make your way through too! what's really great now is that you're able to go out and drink, experience the next day anxiety due to the alcohol but you know that it's just a reaction in your body that you can fix by taking care of yourself and so you don't freak out anymore, it's amazing to reach that place :) it takes all the fear away from the anxiety and makes you feel empowered again.

if you're interested in nutrition and mental health there's a really great book you might like to read it's called the New Optimum Nutrition for the Mind by Patrick Holford (ISBN: 9780749927851) - he explains all this stuff waaaay better than me and he writes in a way that's easy to read for people like us who may not know a lot about nutrition :) i've just picked up another copy of it to give to my dad (he has anxiety & depression problems) who is starting to realise, having seen my recovery through diet, that it may be able to help him too! it's a great resource, you should be able to pick up a second hand copy on amazon or ebay pretty cheaply, over here it costs about €20 new so not too expensive.

anyway, great work, well done and i'm just so happy for you. i hope you continue to grow and that life gets better and better :)

[northstar]

Thank you Northstar. The information you put up here I used when I was at the peak of my anxiety. I'm sure you had another post somewhere though.

I've only just started drinking coffee again after a few months now my anxiety levels have decreased.

dolphin great news from you too, the anxiety is fading :D woo! it's a great feeling when you realise you're getting better and it's all because of hard work that you're putting in yourself! it helps you to regain that inner strength. well done :)

i personally stay away from coffee cause my body just doesn't seem able to handle it, but i have started to drink tea again on the odd occasion, although i have to limit it to one or two cups early on in the day or else i can't sleep! my dad has just reduced the amount of coke and tea he drinks too after hearing from me so many times how it's only adding to his own anxiety problems. but it's nice to be able to enjoy these things in moderation :)

[Robbed]

I find that quite a number of people just don't want to listen to the advice on diet! They don't want to have to make the kinds of changes that are recommended even though it can help enormously. The truth is that your diet is a MAJOR factor in how you feel. Stress drains our bodies of the nutrients we need to feel healthy and OK, and if on top of that you're not eating a diet that gives you the nutrients you need or if you're barely eating at all then your body is going to feel even more drained and stressed out. So one of the easiest places to start healing is to start soothing your body with nutrients and giving it exactly what it needs :)

We all know that improving our diets is a good thing. The problem is that it is so damn HARD to do. Unlike quitting smoking or drinking, where all someone has to do is give up something, improving diet means giving up something AND taking on something that is unpalatable. After all, if changing one's diet was enjoyable, we would all have already done it. I think that what gives me the BIGGEST problem here is dealing with the 'yuck factor' of eating new foods. Simply put, VERY few new foods taste good to me. And when I say 'don't taste good', I mean taste REALLY bad. I would gladly settle for something that is tasteless or 'tastes like cardboard' over the 'abu ghraib' experience at the dinner table that seems to come along with healthy eating. I don't know whether I am unique in this respect. But I would sure like to find a way to improve my diet in a more painless manner.

[northstar]

We all know that improving our diets is a good thing. The problem is that it is so damn HARD to do. Unlike quitting smoking or drinking, where all someone has to do is give up something, improving diet means giving up something AND taking on something that is unpalatable. After all, if changing one's diet was enjoyable, we would all have already done it. I think that what gives me the BIGGEST problem here is dealing with the 'yuck factor' of eating new foods. Simply put, VERY few new foods taste good to me. And when I say 'don't taste good', I mean taste REALLY bad. I would gladly settle for something that is tasteless or 'tastes like cardboard' over the 'abu ghraib' experience at the dinner table that seems to come along with healthy eating. I don't know whether I am unique in this respect. But I would sure like to find a way to improve my diet in a more painless manner.

some very good points robbed. for me as soon as i realised what was happening with my diet i immediately put the changes in place, i can't say that i found it very hard because honestly my life was getting out of control and i felt so unbelievably horrible that i would have done anything to feel better again. my thinking was i can go without these things or i can go on feeling like this and possibly end up in a hospital or dead by my own hand, that may sound extreme but that's the truth of how i felt.

and to be honest i didn't actually find the changes very hard, i love vegetables and fruit so really all i had to change was to just simply start eating regularly and not skipping meals, eating a more all round healthy diet and giving up on excesses of sugars, caffeine and other irritants like the amount of coke that i drank. i don't find many healthy foods unpalateable and often find that my body at times craves them if i've been eating badly.

when i say that people don't want to hear the advice about diet it's because in my experience people don't want to be told that sometimes the things they love can be the source of a problem - it's not actually that their diet may be all that bad, but they just don't want to give up the extra amounts of caffeine or sugar or the daily glasses of beer that may just be adding to the anxiety. i really don't believe it's all that difficult to eat healthily or regularly, but to give up our vices is the hardest thing lol.

your problem however sounds different, and actually reminds me of a problem that my boyfriend has with food. i believe that it's not that you don't want to change how you eat but that physically you find it very difficult. with my boyfriend i'm convinced its a mental thing, he's already set the situtation up in his head that certain types of foods are disgusting, refuses to eat them or when he does really finds them repulsive. i think it happens because he believes it will but he insists this is not the case so perhaps i'm very wrong. another reason i believe it's a mental problem rather than physical is because there are certain foods that he will eat in certain cases but won't eat in others - for example there is a certain type of breaded fish that he will eat happily as long as it is not too thick, if it's too thick then he says it tastes bad but i believe it's actually the thicker texture of the food that he is reacting to.

he also likes to cover most foods in tomato sauce which is fuuuull of sugar lol. his favourite foods are sugary processed ones, foods he ate in childhood. basically he eats a lot of sugar and refined carbs & i believe that he is addicted to them, anything that doesn't have additives/sugar tastes bland and bad and anything that doesn't fill him up like refined carbs leaves him unfulfilled.

so physically anything that doesnt taste like sugar he doesn't like to eat and mentally anything that has a difficult texture he won't eat either. it makes things really difficult for him & actually he's quite upset about it because it makes eating very difficult and not an enjoyable affair at all which is a shame cause eating should be one of the nicest things you can do :(

so i'm not sure quite where you may fit in, if it's a mental issue because you're finding something like textures difficult or if you've set the situation up before you try something new so that you expect it to taste bad, or if you're used to eating processed foods and can't really stand the taste of something unless it's enhanced with sugars/salts/additives? or maybe your case is totally different altogether? i'm just guessing here so please forgive me if i'm totally wrong.

what is your current diet like? do you eat regularly? what is a new food for you? what is your idea of healthy eating? what foods give you the abu gharib experience and what foods do you really enjoy? do you take any supplements to help out with your nutrition if your diet isn't giving you what you need? the reason i ask all these questions is to try and get a clearer picture, i don't know if i can help you but i may be able to suggest something?

[Robbed]

I guess I do share some common ground with your boyfriend. I have to admit that I DO tend to have a liking for sugary, processed foods. To me, sweet is just plain good. Another thing I seem to share with your boyfriend is a tendency to like certain foods only under certain situations. A good example of this is pizza. I just can't eat ANY old pizza. For instance, we have a chain called Round Table Pizza here in California. And their pizza is good. There is a place in Berkeley that sells pizza by the slice called Blondies. And it is AWESOME. But I won't eat Pizza Hut. Frozen pizza? FORGET IT! Also, unlike most people, I HATE pizza with a gazillion toppings piled on it (more on this sort of thing later).

On the other hand, you might be surprised to hear that I actually like MOST fresh fruits and MANY fresh vegetables. And by fresh, I mean that canned and frozen are out of the question. Blueberries are one of my favorites. I just won't eat them any other way than fresh and alone (more on this later as well). And lately, I have been getting some seedless tangerines that I seem to be going through quite fast. I am also one of the only people I know who will actually just chomp down a red bell pepper. BUT, I run into SEVERE problems if these things are combined and cooked up in some sort of a prepared meal. Just trying to eat some sort of soup, stew, cassarole, etc that has a bunch of stuff mixed together and cooked up is plain-old excruciatingly difficult for me. And literally to the point of being impossible. Unfortunately, I know that eating such prepared foods is what healthy eating is all about - it is just hard to get variety food-wise when you just sit there and chomp on a single fruit or vegetable item.

I should also add that meat (and other 'protein foods') gives me problems. This is an odd one, since most people seem to LOVE meat and HATE veggies. Meat just tastes plain bad to me. And this does not really seem to change, even after eating it for a while (believe me, I have tried). I should also add that my mom has an aversion to meat. I don't know if this could possibly be a genetic thing. But I guess it is possible. In any case, maybe this is somewhat of a blessing, since it keeps me from eating fatty burgers all the time. But it makes protein somewhat hard to get. Currently, I just guzzle milk to that end (nonfat milk is certainly nice and bland and inoffensive).

As far as whether this is all psychological, I guess it could be. Perhaps I would get a little more pissed off if told that before the whole anxiety thing started a couple of years ago. But at least anxiety disorder as taught me that 'psychological' does not mean trivial. Of course, I have generally found anxiety disorder to be MUCH easier to overcome than this whole eating problem. I have made significant headway against anxiety disorder in the last couple of years. But when I actually thought that maybe dietary changes would help at the beginning of this anxiety thing,I found that trying to eat some vegetable soup my mom made was worse than any panic attack I could possibly have.

[northstar]

sounds quite tough robbed, way more difficult than what i've been my boyfriend go through, and to be honest i don't quite know where to beging to offer you advice. i only really want to stress that diet really can affect how we feel, if you're not getting everything you need from your diet then it can lead to many kinds of problems.

in fact the best thing i think i can tell you to do is to get your hands on a book you've probably seen me recommend elsewhere on this forum - it's called New Optimum Nutrition for the Mind by Patrick Holford and really it's way better at explaining the nutrition stuff than me. plus it will give you an idea of how you may be able to supplement the nutrients you're not getting from your diet.

it may also be a good idea to seek out a nutritionist who can help you out with the eating problems you have, or who can guide you to a diet that you can handle?

[Punk Rock Steve]

Northstar...your post is just incredible! What an amazing summary of all that can be done to help us with our anxiety and panic. The really hard part is applying it all, but like they say in the 12 step program I'm in...it's progress, not perfection :)

[northstar]

hey glad you like it steve! there is a LOT of stuff in there alright lol. i think the key is taking it bit by bit and figuring out what works best for you :) but it is good knowing that it is a lot you can do to help yourself, it helps you take back some of your own inner strength. i hope you find some helpful stuff in here, let me know how you get on!

[broadwaymaven]

robbed, many people have an aversion to having foods mixed together. Usually that is something that started during their youth. Children often have a fear of trying new things because it doesn't sound or look appealing. They create reasons in their head on why it doesn't taste or feel good. Some people believe that you must expose a child to a new food upwards of 7-11 times before they feel comfortable eating it and enjoying the foods. If you want to try and learn to like these foods, you may need to mentally talk yourself into the fact that there is nothing wrong with the foods. If you like the foods separately, it is a matter of finding the compinations of your favorite foods that appeal to you. Start easy. Take fresh blue berries and mix them with the tangerines that you mentioned liking. They taste good separately and they compliment each other so you should enjoy them together. Give it a fair shot before you decide you aren't going to like it. You may find that you can open yourself up to wonderful tastes and experiences and find real join in it.

As for not tolerating meat, I have heard of this happening on a number of occasions. If you don't tolerate it, don't eat it. There are many other sources of protein that you can get. Just be sure to get enough and supplement your diet with vitamins (ie B complex) that are found in those foods.

So as far as not mixing your foods, you can still eat a very healthy meal. For example:

Breakfast- eggs (whatever form), sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper, whole wheat toast with jam, butter, or whatever makes you happy.
Snack - blueberries and yogurt
Lunch - salad or vegetable (fresh or cooked), baked potato with favorite topping (I love shredded cheese and steamed broccoli) or some sort of whole grain rice pilaf, a piece of fruit.
Snack - glass of milk and a piece of fruit and a hand full of nuts like almonds
Dinner- salad or vegetable (fresh or cooked), whole wheat pasta with tomato sauce or sauce of choice, fruit for dessert.
Snack- glass of milk and 1 or 2 cookies (I choose something with oats in it)

As you can see from that menu, non of the foods are mixed together and each meal contains protein, complex carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables. You should also be able to get your servings of fruits, vegetables, dairy, and whole grains. By eating 6 smaller meals a day, you can maintain a better blood sugar level and reduce moods swings caused by low sugar.

I hope this is helpful.

[Robbed]

Breakfast- eggs (whatever form)

I don't know that there is much (if anything) out there that I dislike more than eggs.

[Giz]

If you cant stand eggs then other sources of protein in the morning will do, such as seeds & nuts..
You just need the protein with complex carbs and B vitamins to make seratonin.. If you dont have the ingredients you wont get the neurotransmitter!!

[Robbed]

robbed, many people have an aversion to having foods mixed together. Usually that is something that started during their youth. Children often have a fear of trying new things because it doesn't sound or look appealing. They create reasons in their head on why it doesn't taste or feel good. Some people believe that you must expose a child to a new food upwards of 7-11 times before they feel comfortable eating it and enjoying the foods. If you want to try and learn to like these foods, you may need to mentally talk yourself into the fact that there is nothing wrong with the foods. If you like the foods separately, it is a matter of finding the compinations of your favorite foods that appeal to you. Start easy. Take fresh blue berries and mix them with the tangerines that you mentioned liking. They taste good separately and they compliment each other so you should enjoy them together. Give it a fair shot before you decide you aren't going to like it. You may find that you can open yourself up to wonderful tastes and experiences and find real join in it.

This actually IS something that started in my early years. But the way that a food looked or sounded was not the real problem for me. The REAL problem was (and still is) the way that a food SMELLED. This is a little more serious than appearance or name, since so much of what we consider to be taste is actually smell. And if a food doesn't smell goodto you, it probably dosn't taste good, either. I recall trying to eat various foods MANY times in the past, only to find myself gagging because it tasted SO bad to me. In fact I constantly find myself around other people eating various foods, and wondering how they can enjoy something that smells so vile to me. But I guess it is just me.


If you cant stand eggs then other sources of protein in the morning will do, such as seeds & nuts..
You just need the protein with complex carbs and B vitamins to make seratonin.. If you dont have the ingredients you wont get the neurotransmitter!!

Currently, I tend to get alot of my protein from nonfat milk. I know that, for whatever reason, milk is considered 'dairy' rather than a protein containing food on the food pyramid. But dairy protein is actually a VERY high quality protein, which is particularly rich in tryptophan (which is used to make serotonin). I'm not sure how good it is when it comes to B-vitamins, though.

[broadwaymaven]

I know what you mean about eggs. I don't generally like them either (one of my only taste aversions from childhood). I tend to eat egg whites since they don't taste like anything (the icky egg taste is in the yoke for me). That meal was just a suggestion. Plain or flavored yogurt is a great source of protein. I make high quality oatmeal and use milk and yogurt to make it creamy. That might be an option.

Robbed, try not to limit yourself. I understand that you don't like them. Don't make it so much of a problem. Focus on the foods you can eat and that you enjoy. You can continue to try new foods when you want to. A little taste of a food that doesn't smell good still may taste good or vice versa. I love the way coffee smells but until very recently, I hated the way it tasted. Same with any form of alcohol. However, eventually I've aquired the taste. But in some cases it took me 20 years to get to the point where I appreciated it. Focus on what you enjoy and experiment with them.

Just remember to take vitamins since you do seem to have a limited diet.

[Robbed]

Same with any form of alcohol. However, eventually I've aquired the taste. But in some cases it took me 20 years to get to the point where I appreciated it. Focus on what you enjoy and experiment with them.

Interesting that you mention alcohol. I don't like the taste of it, either. Beer seems to be particlarly hard for me to stomach. At least with something like Vodka, you can just pound a shot, and it is gone. But no such luck with beer. Then again, I don't really care for the effects of alcohol, either. And the taste of smoking is just vile to the extreme for me. I guess taste aversions are not entirely a bad thing!

As for taking 20 years to appreciate the taste of a food, that sounds kind of scary.

[Giz]

OK, well number 1..
Milk is and should be a whole food. All this stuff like slimline milk, supermilk etc is just marketing.. At the end of the day, theres no need to mess around with milk.
2. Its got no B vitamins at all, except perhaps B12.. And if youre in the US too much milk is a bad idea, as its pumped full of a chemical called Bovine Growth Hormone-which the human body treats as estrogen..Too much estrogen will mess up your hormone levels-much like the oral contraceptive would. It can also cause you to gain tremendous amounts of weight and develop breasts.. And thats not to mention the other health problems involved..(Mainly cancers) If you drink a lot of milk, make sure its Bovine Growth Hormone free. Sadly, cows get pumped full of antibiotics too, which decreases your intestinal flora-causing you to feel run down and weaken the immune system. So live yoghurt is a must, and I dont mean those probiotic sugar drinks like Actimel, I mean real live yoghurt.

I just hope you mean you are using milk as protein in breakfast and not in general!!
Bear in mind that milk is intended to nourish a growing calf, and they grow at a much quicker rate than us, so too much milk is not good for you-especially if you arent getting enough magnesium, manganese, boron & silica-as well as vitamin D and exercise, other wise all that calcium will be going to waste-or worse still building up and depositing around the body..
(You get all those things from greens and seeds, the calf would be eating grass to utilize all that calcium)

It is a good quality protein, but you should vary your sources, and never only get any nutrient from one source only.
In general too much of anything is a bad thing.. You should always have a bit of everything (intolerances excluded of course) rather than lots of one thing and not so much anything else..

And yes-smell is very important, in fact it determines taste in most cases, thats why when you have a cold you dont taste things properly.. If you have a fondness for sweet things then perhaps using a good quality honey in your cooking, or in herbal teas.. You never know, there could be a whole load of foods out there that youre missing out on purely because youve not even heard of them (that happened to me when I started studying nutrition).

[Robbed]

2. Its got no B vitamins at all, except perhaps B12..

I wouldn't go so far as to say that. Remember that milk is mostly water. So while milk does not have much in the way of B-vitamins (it's mostly H2O), milk solids contain a decent amount. By the way, if you drink four glasses of milk a day, you get 29.3% of the DV of thiamine, 101.6% of the DV of riboflavin, 4.4% of the DV of niacin, 22% of the DV of pyridoxine (B6), 63% of the DV of B12, and 13.2% of the DV of folate. Although this makes milk rich in only riboflavin and B12, it is only truly devoid (relatively speaking) of niacin.

[Giz]

The DV is not really a good amount of B vitamins, theres a vast difference between the DRV or the RDA and the ODA (Optimal Daily Intake)

Someone suffering from Anxiety wants to be getting 100mg of B3 (Niacin) 100mg of B6(pyridoxine) 100mcg of B12 (Cyanocobalamin) and 1,000mcg of Folate.
As well as magnesium-as Northstar already mentioned, and Chromium to help balance blood sugar levels..

I just noticed you are indeed in the US, are you making sure your milk is BGH free? They give it to the cows to make them produce more milk, so if its BGH free it will say so (provided they didnt go ahead and decide to remove the differentiating labels-they were threatening to do so) Its a very important factor as already pointed out, hormones (estrogen dominance in females, testosterone deficiency in males) can play a huge role in psychiatric disorders.
If theres too much estrogen in your body, you will most likely be feeling how you shouldnt! :)

[Robbed]

Someone suffering from Anxiety wants to be getting 100mg of B3 (Niacin) 100mg of B6(pyridoxine) 100mcg of B12 (Cyanocobalamin) and 1,000mcg of Folate.

Let's face it. It is IMPOSSIBLE to get these kinds of amounts of B-vitamins from foods. If this is TRULY what an anxiety sufferer needs, then supplementation is essential, and any pittance (in comparison to these numbers) that you get from food is irrelevant.

[Giz]

Well supplementation is always an option..
But when you add in seeds, wholegrains and vegetables then you get a whole lot closer..

Sadly those who suffer from anxiety seem to have a higher need for B vitamins. This is most likely as the stress response uses them in such vast quantities, they are used in the process of methylation, which is basically where one neurotransmitter is converted into another, and they are used for energy..When you get stressed out you start to produce cortisol, which needs vitamins B & C to detoxify it, there goes more B vitamins..
So you can see they get used for so many things relevant to anxiety that being short on them is bound to lead you on an anxious path.

Our fight or flight response-which is now known as stress and tension used to be an infrequent ocurance, and we would run off all the extra adrenaline pumping around our bodies, and that would give us exercise so we would literally "work off" the stress..
These days we get stressed but its like theres no let up, stress enters our lives daily, and we dont always get to work it off.. So our need for B vitamins has increased. So if you dont think you are getting enough from diet a supplement (but be sure to buy a good quality naturally sourced one rather than a synthetic one) may be of benefit, but dont rely on the supplement for all of the nutrients, as you still need to eat well!!

:)

[Robbed]

Well supplementation is always an option..
But when you add in seeds, wholegrains and vegetables then you get a whole lot closer..

Not really. I actually looked over a book of nutritional data , and could not find ANYTHING that could give you 100mg niacin, 100mg pyridoxin, 100mcg B12, and 1000mcg folate from ANY kind of reasonable amounts of food. Consider these numbers below from a few representative foods (including brewer's yeast, often considered the best food source of B-vitamins). Keep in mind that the numbers are thiamine(mg), riboflavin(mg), niacin(mg), B6(mg), B12(mcg), folate(mcg).

Shelled Pumpkin Seed (1 cup) : .29, .44, 2.41, .31, 0, 79.4
Walnuts (1 cup): .11, .04, .3, .16, 0, 18.7
Whole Wheat Bread (1oz), .1, .06, 1.09, .05, 0, 14.2
French Bread (1 slice) .14, .09, 1.16, .01, 0, 8.8
Broccoli (half cup): .04, .09, .45, .11, 0, 39
Tomato (1 cup): .07 .05. .62, .1, 0, 10.8
Turkey (1 cup): .09, .18, 9.57, .76, .52, 8.4
Brewer's Yeast (1 oz): 4.37, 1.2, 10.61, .04, 1.41, 1.1

What's kind of interesting about these numbers is that they show just how hard it is to get even the DV of B-vitamins from food only! Especially if you don't consume something like brewer's yeast (and most people don't!).

[Giz]

I apologise Robbed-you are completely right, looking back over my notes there and those are supplementary ranges I quoted..
Having said that, we should still be aiming to get B vitamins from as many natural sources as possible, as there are usually co-factors in the food which may make them more bio-available or even boost their effectiveness..

I guess what Im trying to say is we cant rely on the supplements to provide all of our needs as they just cant. Nor can we limit ourselves to a narrow spectrum of foods as each food contains different elements beneficial to us.

I think I perhaps got the impression along the line that a lacking diet would be what went alongside the supplements, and this would do some good-but not as much as a varied diet would!

I apologise If I misunderstood, and hang my head in shame at the mistake re the doses.. You are completely right-these are indeed, supplementary ranges..

[Robbed]

I apologise Robbed-you are completely right, looking back over my notes there and those are supplementary ranges I quoted..

No need to apologize for something like this. BUT, when I look at these numbers, I have to wonder just how good it is to be taking these kinds of megadoses of ANY kind of vitamins. Given the relatively low amounts of B-vitamins in foods, I just can't see how our bodies could REALLY benefit from amounts that are orders of magnitude greater. In fact, even taking a multivitamin that gives 200-300% of the DV for B-vitamins makes for quite fluorescent urine. Yes, I am absorbing it (otherwise it would not end up in urine). But it seems it can't use it. So it is getting rid of it. And this is with a couple of times the DV. Could 20-50 times the DV REALLY be a good thing?

[Giz]

Well they do say the taking high doses of B6 (pyridoxine) can cause mild tingling in the extremities..

The toxicity levels for B vitamins are very high;
B1-not a concern
B2-none known
B3-none below 3,000mg
B5-none known below 600mg
B6-toxicity reported in dosages above 1,000mg when unaccompanied by the rest of the B complex
B12-no toxicity level, but rarely allergic reactions to the injection occurs
Folic Acid-gastrointestinal problems & sleep disturbances have been reported in dosages above 15mg.

The bright yellow urine is a by product of Riboflavin, or B2. It can be an indicator of both loss and excess-so its not the best guide in dosage for B vitamins. As you can get it when not taking supplements, and supplements with as little as 10mg will result in this pigmentation of the urine. However, in order to get 100mg of B3 & B6 the supplement is invariably going to contain 100mg of B2 also, so youll end up taking it anyway.. Good news is it will do no harm, and like vitamin C, if you dont need it, the toilet will get it

:)

[northstar]

i'm sorry i haven't been around much lately to talk to you all on the boards, life has been hectic! in a good way lol. i'm bumping this because i think there are quite a few new members who could do with a look through here & i hope that it helps out some of you out there :) if anyone has any questions or worries please feel free to PM me :)

[northstar]

time for another *bump* i think ;) all these spam messages are making a mess of the forum :)

[northstar]

i'm shamlessly bumping this again! i hope no one minds, but i think there are a few new souls here who could do with a read :) xx

[northstar]

*bump* :)

there are so many names here i haven't seen before, i hope some of you will find this helpful!

[Phontane]

Hi everyone.

I am a 32 year-old male that suffered from an exertional heatstroke in May during a 10k race. I woke up in a hospital and got released the same day. After three days I could not sleep anymore and got worried about possible damage to my organs, including brain damage. My neurologist said that I am totally fine and gave me Lexapro to calm my anxiety. After taking two pills I went crazy and had suicidal thoughts. I stopped taking the pills and got better but the anxiety and the sense of doom gradullay returned until it got so bad that I checked myself into a mental ward. There, they said I went through a mixed manic episode and put me on Risperdol and Depakode. When I was released and spoke to a new psychiatrist, he said I should not be on that medication since I am clearly not bipolar but suffer from GAD and was traumatzied through the heatstroke. I am now off the Risperdol and he gave me Klonopin to deal with the anxiety. However, everyone says that Klonopine is highly addictive and I am reluctant to take it, although it is often the only way the symptoms become tolerable. I have also started seeing a psychotherapist. Anyone went through a similar ordeal...? I would really like to know what is going on with me. I wish I could treat my anxiety without medication but it almost seems impossible.

[Georgec]

Phontane, I don't mean to just ignore your post, but you should start your own thread instead of tacking it on tot he end of this long post...so it could get its own attention...


I just wanted to comment about the main post here. Northstar, you sure are a strong believer in exercise and diet for helping anxiety. To some degree I agree with you. My only concern is that when I had anxiety I kept the same diet from when I first had a panic attack until I had my last. The interesting thing is that my diet was always at least moderately healthy. So, this give me cause to believe that you if you have unhealthy diet, it needs to change in order to rule out any problem physically with the body's functioning.

I also want to comment on the little bit you talked about self confidence and things of that nature. I think this is very important. I think anxiety is closely related to confidence and assertiveness. I've read that many people with anxiety are very passive. Many people I've spoken to over the phone with anxiety will listen to me tell them that statement and say, "wow George, that was really on the money right there."

I don't want to get into my own theories about anxiety here and what the best route to recovery is so I will end with that.

Great post by the way. These tips are very important and should be followed.

Thanks,

George

[joey9]

The reason people with anxious personalities tend to be passive is because anxiety is all about fear. And some people are wired differently to deal with fear than others - introversion, sensitivity - these are biologically driven and its what makes some people be better or less able to deal with scarey things - be they new situations, internal thoughts, physical sensations etc. In addition to this introverts are far more easy to condition than extroverts - i.e. show an introvert a negative consequence to a behaviour of theirs and they will learn far more rapidly to avoid that behaviour in future than an extrovert.

Please note that I have used the term 'anxious personalities', because of course it is possible to induce an anxious state in anyone, regardless of their underlying personality type if the conditions are right.

I have found in my own personal experience of anxiety that people who are naturally 'timid', introverted etc. are more likely to develop anxiety as a response to stresses - be they physical or psychological - whereas more extroverted people tend to suffer more from depression.

[fernandogress]

Your ideas are cool dude.The nice collection of this posts.This is really good information....It was really very helpful for me.Thanks for sharing me.

[northstar]

some of you may be interested in the holford diet which is basically eating to keep your blood sugars stable, i believe that any person suffering with anxiety should give it a try as it's designed to keep your body and mind stress free.

it's pretty much what i've been talking about here, avoiding stimulants like caffine and sugar, eating regularly and eating foods that will keep your body at optimum levels for working properly :) a happy body = a happy mind!

if you type holford diet into google you'll find the website or call into your local book shop and ask about books by patrick holford, he's a great writer so its easy to understand. i just picked up a copy of one of his news books and it's pretty great :)

[dtrotter]

You can eat alot of high carbohydrate and protein food. Generaelly carbohydrate can make a person happy by eating. however, to feel mroe fulfilling you have eat some proteins.

Aside from that, you can feel happy by learning the fact that you have countless chances and time to fix yourself.

[kattchi]

hi, im just bumping this thread as i think it is full of really really useful advice. ive been trying lots of it out and am feeling so much better. been eating a banana as soon as i wake up and the difference in how i feel is amazing! no more nausea!

[DTrotter9]

Dear northstar - i must say u did a very good research on Anxiety. Ur post is very informative and useful too. These tips help us a lot. In my opinion if you want to find a permanent cure. Then u can go for PRANAYAM an old form of Yoga very quick in revealing our anxiety and depression. and also good sleep and good healthy foods r help us a lot.

[northstar]

i'm glad people are finding this helpful, i learned a lot when i was suffering with anxiety and i'm very glad that my experiences are helping others now :)

[northstar]

i'm bumping this again :)

[BM]

I've been eating pretty healthy recently, but the other day I thought well, I've been feeling good recently, I can afford to have a chocolate bar (which would have had about 50g sugar)... so I had one in the morning. Later in the afternoon, I felt like absolute balls, and I didn't know why. I wonder if it was the chocolate bar... I think I'll steer clear of them in the future just in case.

[Stainboy]

Thanks for taking the time to gather all the info into one post, a lot is common sense but it is always helpful to have it in one place explained very well.

My diet is terrible at the moment, this year I seemed to have learned to starve myself which is new for me. I'm not eating much at all at the moment. It got pretty bad a couple of weeks ago and while at my friends place I was dizzy every time I stood up and almost fell over. It's not on purpose at first, I'm just terrible with routine when left to my own devices but once started I get a morbid satisfaction from it. It's horrible really. I even actually really like fresh fruit and veg and don't like greasy takeaways and things. The only "bad" thing I would have trouble doing without is my tea, I love my tea, it's such a comfort that I worry that not having it would cause me more problems psychologically than the caffeine and sugar it contains. It is my only sugary food though, I don't have a sweet tooth at all for anything else.

Sleep also has always been a problem for me. I have never slept properly. Even as a toddler I found it easy to stay up late at night and never wanted to go to sleep. I am happier at night. I don't suffer a lot of insomnia but don't like to try and sleep in silence, I have to go to sleep listening to the TV, something with talking in so I feel like I have company. I dream a lot and can count the number of times I've woken up feeling like I've had a good night's sleep on one hand. Also, the more sleep I get the worse I tend to feel. When in an anxious/depressed phase like at the moment I fear sleep even more as no matter how positive I might be beforehand about the next day and everything I'm going to accomplish, going to sleep is just too likely to reset all that and have me wake up suicidal. I've clicked some of the links in the post to open in another tab and will have a read of them in a moment.

Thanks again for something very interesting to read.

[Giz]

Hey Stainboy-sounds like youre not utilising or getting enough minerals..
Check youre getting enough vitamin D (from the sun is best-if your shadow is longer than you are then youre not making vit d from the sun, and if youre above the 52nd latitude then this time of year youre not making any, for fair skinned people 20 mins is usually enough time in the sun to make plenty-enough to get a colour, NOT burn! So a supplement of D3 may be useful).
Minerals-you need calcium, but you need magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, and boron.. Luckily these are all found in seeds and dark green leafy veg. Might be worth supplementing in the short term..

Being too low on minerals results in the body pulling minerals out of bone to neutralise acid in the body (fizzy drinks and meat products, refined grains and some fruits raise the bodies acid levels, and the body is working hard to retain an alkaline state)-this leads to osteoporosis and funnily enough-epilepsy..(recent studies have shown that epilepsy may be a magnesium deficiency!)

So try to eat as much veg and as little meat as you can, white meat and fish are ok-in small doses..Nuts and seeds are better.. But thats not to say you have to be a veggie.. But try to get 80% veggies-as close to raw as possible and organic as often as possible, non organic food needs to be scrubbed before eating it..

Dont go total veggie without learning about vitamin B12 and vitamin D-many veggies lose out on these vitamins.. Theyre both related to depression so be sure not to neglect them!!

[northstar]

*bump* :)

[northstar]

*bump* :)

[eyeeye]

Really good advice-especially about avoiding Google!!!