Herbal Remedies for Anxiety

Herbal Remedies for Anxiety
You may be unable to avoid stress and anxiety, but you can take several measures to lessen the stress in your life. A
healthy diet, exercise, and relaxation are all vital in combating stress. In addition, you can add herbs to your diet to
help relieve stress. These herbs can be taken as a cup of tea in the evening to help you unwind at the end of your day,
or in the morning to give you a calm start
Many herbs should not be taken for prolonged periods of time so find a couple of favorites to mix up your schedule. Also,
talk to your doctor if you are on medications or have a serious medical condition before adding any herbs or supplements
to your diet.
If worry is keeping you up at night, consider adding a cup of valerian tea to your night time routine. Valerian will
relax your nervous system and will induce a deep sleep. If you don't need something as strong as valerian, try chamomile
tea. It's mild taste and smell is more palpable than valerian. While it won't knock you out, it does calm you down.
Chamomile is not for everyone. It should be avoided if you have allergies to ragweed.
Catnip might make your cat crazy, but it's a great herb that relieves stress in people. It contains nepetalactone which
acts as a sedative in humans. It will help you combat insomnia, anxiety, and nervousness.
Kava kava is another great herb to take to relive stress. Unlike many of the other herbs, kava kava does not affect
mental alertness, which makes it a great choice if you need some stress relief early in the day. This Indonesian herb
contains Kava lactones which help with relaxation.
Passionflower has been a folk remedy for anxiety for many years. It also helps relieve insomnia, muscle spasms, and pain.
You can often find passionflower combined with valerian in anxiety remedy formulas.
Finally, consider adding St. John's Wort to your diet. St. John's wort is a mood elevator which can help alleviate
anxiety. It is also good for combating the sadness, helplessness, hopelessness, exhaustion, and headaches that often
accompany anxiety disorders.
Although herbs should not be used alone to cure anxiety, they can help you reduce stress, get a restful nights sleep, and
better deal with the obstacles in your pat

Systematic Desensitization in Anxiety Treatment

Systematic desensitization refers to a form of psychotherapy used to treat anxiety disorders and phobias in patients. It was pioneered by a South African psychiatrist named Joseph Wolpe. This type of therapy sees a doctor cautiously exposing a patient to various stimuli that the patient initially fears. The theory is that the more desensitized a patient becomes to what was initially fearsome, the more he will be able to confront the source of anxiety and learn how to cope with his or her feelings.
Because of the sensitive nature of this practice, patients must first be taught how to relax and thus better control fear and anxiety responses that will later be provoked by the appearance of the feared object or situation. Once taught these coping skills, the patient will use them to react towards stimuli and overcome challenging situations involving anxiety. This practice is also known as graduated exposure therapy.
Common phobias, which are specific forms of an anxiety disorder, include objects like spiders, dogs, snakes or situations like being in a closed space, amongst crowds or in high places. Up until this point the patient has avoided these objects and situations. However, their exaggerated fears may have been interfering with their daily routine, hence they realize the need for some form of therapy to help relieve the constant anxiety.
That's not to say that they seek distraction, or ways to further avoid the source of their anxiety. Such distractions may include drinking alcoholic beverages, smoking and other addictive behavior. Even prescribed medication can be a distraction, as some medicines work as a depressant and merely slow the mind down rather than actually confronting the source of anxiety.
This goal of this therapy is to overcome the phobia by gradually exposing patients to the phobic object until it can be reconciled, tolerated and eventually accepted. The key word here is gradual. To expose a patient quickly and incautiously to their object of intense fear would be emotionally dangerous or even traumatic. Before the encounter ever takes place the therapist teaches the patient cognitive strategies that can be used to cope with anxiety in general and specific anxiety caused by the appearance of the phobic object. This lets the patient control their fear, and much meditation as well as relaxation techniques are introduced at the outset.
Some forms of relaxation techniques may include breathing techniques, or to reinforce positive thoughts. Another technique that might be used is called cognitive reappraisal, in which the therapist asks the patient to imagine what might happen if he or she would be exposed to the phobic object. This would result in the patient giving an exaggerated vision of disaster and yet contrast the actual exposure, which would be surprisingly peaceful to the patient.
This form of therapy is professionally supervised and safe to the patient's psyche. This is not the type of "Fear Factor" theatrics where patients are thrown into their worst nightmare and manage to instantly learn how to deal with it. Systematic desensitization, when done properly, is a very effective means of coping with anxiety and confronting the source of fear-not avoiding it.
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Leading a Normal life even though you have panic attacks

If you have ever experienced a panic attack, even a little one, you probably understand how it can be difficult for those who frequently experience panic attacks to lead normal lives. They are characterized by moments of extreme fear or panic, usually for an unexplained reason, that can make a person sick. Symptoms of panic attacks include shortness of breath, pains in the chest area, numbness in limbs, dizziness when sitting and/or standing, and times of extreme anxiety. These symptoms are brought on for a number of reasons, individual to different cases of panic disorders and different people.
With proper medication, counseling, and even behavioral therapy it is possible to lead a perfectly normal life, even if you do suffer from panic attacks, however frequent or seldom may they be. For those who have little or no control over their disorders, or who have not yet been diagnosed with a panic disorder may find it difficult to concentrate on things, to make friends, and to function properly at work. With effective treatment and understanding of your condition, however, you can avoid being one of these cases. People who have panic attacks are normal people; the only difference between panic attack sufferers and anybody else in the world is that their bodies and their brains react in different ways to fear. The body has a natural flight reaction to fear; your natural inclination in danger is to flee, or cower. Humans are not naturally brave beings at all. Panic attacks are just an exaggeration of fears that are brought on every day, by small things. They create an unnecessary amount of stress that can be avoided with proper therapy and medication.
With effective treatment, panic attack sufferers can drastically reduce or even eliminate the number of panic attacks they suffer each year, leading to a happier, healthier, and certainly more successful lifestyle. Panic disorder affects almost 20 million Americans every year; many of the people you deal with each day suffer from panic attacks in the privacy of their own homes, but can you tell? Probably not. The environment around you is proof evident that many people in the world have panic attacks, but they have their problem under control enough to where they are able to lead perfectly normal existences. Although panic disorders are not completely curable, advances in medication and therapy, not to mention public awareness, have helped to ensure that people are still able to successfully function in society, despite their problem
If you have panic attacks or have been diagnosed with a panic disorder, just remember that you are not alone and there is help out there. Talk to someone you can trust about the feelings you are having, and you may be surprised to find out the different ways you can go about molding your thoughts to ensure that you lead a normal existence, just like you deserve. Take control of your illness, and take control of your life.
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Panic Attacks are terrifying

Panic Attacks Are Terrifying!
One third of all the adults in the United States will experience some type of panic attack this year, whether it is a single event or part of an ongoing condition. Panic attacks are terrifying; ask one of those people, they will surely agree with that. Panic attacks are periods of extreme, disabling fear or anxiety that is brought on by a certain trigger. It can be accompanied by shortness of breath, dizziness, and even severe chest pains. Panic attack sufferers may easily believe that they are experiencing a heart attack or some other, more serious medical problem, when what they are actually feeling are the physical symptoms of a psychological condition.
Panic disorder is the chronic condition of people who experience panic attacks as an ongoing medical problem. Those who have been diagnosed with an actual panic disorder are usually prescribed medication to curb their attacks. With the variable symptoms that panic attacks carry and the variety of things out there that trigger them, it may take a few different dosage amounts or a couple different types of medication befoe you find the one that works the best for you. It is easy to forget to take your medication, or decide that you are done with it and don’t want to take it anymore for whatever reason, but your health professional knows what they are doing. If they prescribe you a medication for your panic attacks, it is important that you take it, to decrease the likelihood of you ever having another one of those terrifying episodes again.
While panic attacks can be extremely troublesome, you can keep the control of your life that having panic attacks can sometimes make it feel like you are losing. Outside of medication, therapy is also another way of possibly curbing your panic attacks. Panic attacks are often brought on by a certain trigger, or series of triggers. Triggers are things in your environment that cause your body to react; whatever it is in your environment that causes you to have a panic attack can be a trigger. It can be hard to figure out on your own what your trigger is, and without knowing what your trigger is it can be hard to guarantee that the attacks will stop. Talking with a counselor or a therapist can help you to understand what it is that causes your panic attacks, so you can takes steps to prevent them from happening to you again.
If you drink or do drugs, these things can bring on panic episodes as well. Caffeine is also known to bring on panic attacks so if you partake in any of the aforementioned and you suffer from panic attacks, consider quitting. This may help you reduce or even eliminate the panic attacks you are having.
Panic attacks ARE terrifying. If you are having panic attacks, keep in mind that there are ways to get around them, and there are people that can help. Talk to your doctor about your symptoms if you think the symptoms you are suffering from may be indicative of panic attacks.