Ayurvedic treatment to get rid of anxiety

Suffering from anxiety? Planning to seek a doctor's advice and start taking medicines? Well, medicines should be avoided as they try your calm you down artificially. The causes of anxiety are many and you need to work towards fighting the cause and not the symptom, whichis anxiety. There are many ordinary causes of anxiety including stress, lack of sleep, work pressure, emotional misbalance due to changes in life like divorce, pregnancy, or marriage, skipping meals, and unbalanced lifestyle etc.

If you are suffering from anxiety, you try to seek advice from an ayurvedic expert. Ayurveda unlike prescription medications works naturally and give permanent results. In addition, you don’t need to take ayurvedic herbs to get rid of anxiety. Here, we share some natural remedies for anxiety as suggested in Ayurveda:

Get Warm

Pacifying vata is what is required if you want to reduce anxiety. Cold increases it while warmth brings it down. This is the reason why many people tend to become anxious during the winters. If you are feeling too anxious, pamper yourself with a warm bath. You can also drink a glass of warm milk with saffron to reduce stress. Keeping a hot water bag under your feet while sleep would also help and make sure that you have a peaceful night.

Create and Maintain a Healthy and Balanced Lifestyle

If you really want to fight anxiety, this is one of the most important things that you need to do. Maintaining a healthy and balanced lifestyle can go a long way in reducing stress andanxiety. Make a routine and try your best to follow it. By routine, we mean, a fixed time to eat and sleep. It’s true that maintaining such a routine is very tough in our busy schedules, but it is not impossible too. Eat healthy and  do regular exercise.

Follow a vata pacifying diet. Avoid caffeine and other stimulants as much as possible. Eat less of carbohydrates and frozen food as well. Drink warm soups and your vata also like sweet, salty, and sour foods.  Do not drink cold water and always eat your breakfast in the morning.

Get an Oil Massage

Vata happens to airy and dry and so you are anxious, you tend to find yourself 'up'. A warm oil massage would bring it back to the ground. Ask someone to rub olive oil, or sesame oil on your back and feet. Put pressure in the middle while massaging your feet for immediate calming effect.

While massaging your feet, put pressure at the centre for an immediate calming effect. Massaging oil on the scalp, forehead, and temples also works wonder as far as reducing anxiety is concerned. Abhyanga (whole body warm oil massage) is the best way to reduce stress, though it is always not possible to undergo the same.

Practice Yoga

Deep breathing happens to be one of easiest ayurvedic remedies for anxiety. Taking deep breaths can reduce stress and anxiety. It also works magic when you are angry and you want to control your anger. Practice Pranayama every day for best results. Yogic breathing comes in different forms and you search online for them and practice what suits you the best. Forward bends also help in bringing down anxiety to a great extent. Doing child's pose is another yoga that you can try.

Meditate

Meditation in general is great for your healthy. Meditation is a powerful way to heal your mind and body. Simply sit for 10 minutes at one silent corner of your home and meditate. This would decrease anxiety and develop your concentration levels. Check out meditation videos on the Internet or you can also join meditation classes.

Don’t let stress suppress your life

Know about stress and how be to be stress-free

Stress, tension, and anxiety have become part of our daily routines; it has impacted our lives hugely and has become everyone’s behavioral trait. We see every task of our life as a new tension. Even getting a few hours of rest seems like a mission to some of us. Being in stress all the time results in releasing of chemicals into the blood, thereby affecting our health and giving birth to a new form of tension related health problem. Tension and anxiety hamper your body and mind in different ways, for example, you sometimes even forget to drink water, skip meals and are not able to interact properly with others. Stress may lead to health problems like asthma, diabetes, headaches, indigestion, etc. If stress is not managed it may affect a person’s psyche. 

Signs of extreme stress

The trickiest thing about stress is you don’t realize you are getting used to it. You don’t understand what is going on inside. It may seem normal how your body reacts to certain situations but, eventually you get used to it. Therefore, it is important to know the signals and symptoms of stress. Symptoms of stress can be divided into four categories. 

• Emotional Signals- Feeling of isolation and loneliness, depression, agitation, always irritated, unhappiness, anxiety. 
• Behavioral Signals- Smoking a cigarette, consuming alcohol, taking drugs for relaxing, excessive or no appetite, lack of sleep or sleeping too much, nervousness.
• Physical Symptoms-Dizziness, constipation, pain and aches, infections, abnormal heart beat rate.
• Psychological Symptoms- Loss of memory, negative attitude, poor judgment, unstoppable thoughts, lack of concentration. 

Causes of Stress

The factors that contribute to stress are known as ‘Stressors’. Causes of stress can be of two types- internal causes and external causes. 

• Internal Causes of stress- Always expecting worse, stubborn mind sets, negative inner self, not able to accept reality.
• External Causes of stress- Peer pressure, relationship problems, financial burden, trauma or injury, poor work conditions, death of a close one.

Health Problems due to stress

Stress can damage almost every system in your body. From immune system to digestive system, reproductive or respiratory system and lead to health issues. Common health problems related to stress are-

• Heart Disease
• Skin infections
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)
• Neurological Problems

How to cope up with stress 

• Healthy Diet- Tasty and healthy food is one of the best stress busters. A diet full of carbohydrates, proteins, fiber, vitamins can help you in combating stress and keeps you always energetic.
• Exercise- Engaging yourself in some kind of physical workout increases the amount of blood flow in your body and maintaining your heart beat rate. Regular workout involving running, walking, swimming, yoga, and aerobics can be beneficial in relieving stress.  
• Link with others- Hanging out with your friends and family can also help in dealing with stress. Complementing and helping others can bring a lot of change within you. Spending time your pet also keeps your mood fresh.

Psychiatry: Approaching Mental Health Problems

Grappling with phobias

A form of anxiety that occurs only when you’re in a certain situation is called a phobia. If you suffer from a phobia, you typically try to avoid the situation that provokes your symptoms and you may become anxious even just thinking about getting into that situation. Some examples of phobias are as follows, starting with simple phobia and followed by the more complex ones:

• Simple phobia: You’re inappropriately anxious when faced with an object such as a spider or mouse, or in certain situations such as flying or being in enclosed spaces. Simple phobias commonly start in the early years of life following a stressful situation or some frightening life event, although experts don’t always know why this type of phobia occurs.
• Agoraphobia: You feel panicky or may even faint when you’re part of a crowd, out of the house or in a situation from which escape is difficult. To avoid these situations, you may avoid going out altogether, which can sometimes lead to depression and other mental health problems. It is thought that life experiences, genetic reasons and changes of chemicals in the brain may all play a role in causing agoraphobia.
• Social phobia: You have a strong and persistent fear of being negatively seen by others, and so you try to avoid social situations such as talking to groups, speaking on the telephone or going out with friends. In contrast to just being shy, social phobia can be quite disabling. Previous anxious or intense experiences in certain social situations may cause social phobias, particularly if you’ve always been shy since childhood and haven’t been able to fully develop your social confidence.

To avoid a phobia getting out of hand, consult your psychiatrist to discuss the many forms of treatment and therapy that are available. If you’re in a situation and start to feel anxious, try to relax and take control of your breathing. Open and stretch your hands, which can help release tension – our natural reaction to stress and anxiety is to close our hands or make a fist.

Handling panic attacks

Panic attacks are when you suddenly experience an intense feeling of apprehension or impending disaster. You’re likely to become anxious very quickly – often without warning and for no apparent reason. These attacks affect a lot of people and can be very frightening. Nobody really knows why panic attacks occur, but experts think that traumatic life experiences like the death of a close family member, unpleasant childhood experiences or changes in the chemicals within your brain, for example, may play a role.

If you suffer from panic attacks, you may recognise some of the following symptoms, at least four of which typically show during an attack:

• You suffer from a fast heart rate or palpitations.
• You feel short of breath or that you’re choking.
• You notice chest pain or discomfort.
• You feel dizzy, unsteady on your feet or faint.
• You feel sick or have stomach pain.
• You feel flushed or suddenly cold.
• You feel shaky and tremble.
• You’re afraid of doing something that you can’t control or that may seem crazy to other people.
• You feel like you’re not yourself.
• You may feel as if you’re about to die.

During a panic attack, try to tell yourself that you’re not coming to any harm, and that the symptoms you experience are due to anxiety. Remind yourself that attacks will pass, and ‘ride it out’. Try not to leave the situation that is causing you to have a panic attack and ‘confront’ your fear. By staying in the situation you give yourself the opportunity to discover that nothing serious is going to happen to you.

If you feel that you may suffer from panic attacks and that these attacks impact on your life, consult your psychiatrist. She/he can then exclude any potential underlying physical causes and discuss the different management options with you.