Tag: relaxation techniques

Natural Ways to Deal with Anxiety Attacks

Anxiety attacks are unhealthy to the overall well-being of a person. It can alter the way a person lives. If under an anxiety attack, a person thinks, reacts, and behaves abnormally. This happens because the chemicals in the body tip their balance, hence worsening the effects of anxiety even further. As a result, the person feels physical pain, experiences irrational fear, and shows disproportioned reaction over things.

His social life may suffer including his relationship to his friends, relatives, family, and even to him/herself. If the condition is not addressed and properly treated, the person may think that his life is worthless. In extreme case, he may commit suicide. Thus, on the onset of anxiety, treatment is necessary. Here are some of the possible natural treatments for anxiety attacks:

Meditation and relaxation techniques These are proven effective methods in dealing with anxiety attacks. Through meditation and relaxation techniques such as breathing techniques, the mind will be able to control the body. Meditation and relaxation techniques can be used during an anxiety attack to slow down the heartbeat, control breathing, and divert the mind away from the cause of anxiety attack. Although these methods require practice, once you learn the proper techniques, they are very effective.

Diet The food we eat plays a very large role in our overall health, including our mental health. A well-balanced diet and healthy eating promotes a healthy brain and a healthy body. It is advised to prefer natural or organic foods rather than processed foods or those with preservatives and chemicals. If the cause of anxiety attack is weight problem, adapting a diet that helps you reduce weight can solve the problem.

Exercise Aside from diet, another important factor that helps promote a healthy well-being is exercise. Studies suggest that as little as 30 minutes of exercise, 3 to 5 times a week can have great effects to the body as well as the mind.

Herbal treatments – St. John Wort, Hyperforin, 5HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan), Melissa officinalis, Ginkgo Biloba, passionflower, valerian, scullcap, California poppy, hops and lavender are used as an alternative to prescription drugs to treat anxiety. Natural herbs can be made as tea, but some of these are already available over-the-counter as powder, liquid, capsule, oil, tincture, tablets and tea.

Pray If you believe in the power of prayer, pray. Many studies show that prayer is an effective way to relieve stress and anxiety as prayers have soothing and calming effect both on the body and on the mind.

Laugh Laughter still holds the title as the best medicine. This is because when you laugh, your body releases endorphins or “happy chemicals” that help you to feel good and happier.

Identify where anxiety is coming from Sometimes, anxiety attacks happen for no apparent reason. But that doesn’t mean that there is really no reason. After all something cannot happen out of nothing. Thus, if you experience an episode of anxiety attack, there must be a trigger (it might be directly linked to the attack or it might come from something else, totally apart from the event).

Once you identify the cause of the attack (which is as important as recognizing that you are having one), it is easy deal with it directly and process your condition using the natural ways mentioned above or through medication and therapy.

What Can You Do to Stop Anxiety Attacks

Episodes of anxiety attacks can be uncomfortable, unpleasant and unhealthy. Because of this, most people head to the medicine cabinet for a quick relief. While some may find medications as an effective way to battle anxiety, there are more natural and equally effective ways of dealing your excessive emotion without subjecting the body to different negative side-effects.

Exercise Exercise improves the health of the body and mind, and improves the overall well-being of a person. A 30-minute exercise, 3-5 times a week is enough to provide anxiety relief. Increasing to at least an hour of aerobic exercise each day provides maximum benefits for relieving stress and anxiety.

Sleep A popular adage, “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise,” speaks of the importance of sleep in the overall health of a person. Qualitative sleep for 8 hours a day is a proven and effective technique to battle stress as well as anxiety attacks.

Healthy diet Along with exercise, diet plays an important role in the overall health of the body. Eating healthy food maintains the normal chemistry and hormones of the body as well has provides resistance to common ailments that increases the risk of anxiety attacks.

Avoid unnecessary stressors Most stressors are unavoidable and it is also unhealthy to turn your back to certain situations that need to be addressed. Still, some situations and people cause unnecessary stress that result to anxiety attacks. Avoid people that stress you out, learn how to say ‘no’, trim down your to-do-list, avoid sensitive topics such as politics and religion, etc.

Relaxation techniques Yoga, meditation, Taiji, progressive muscle relaxation, visualization and breathing exercises can reduce anxiety and promote the feeling of relaxation and emotional well-being.

Keep a positive outlook While it is very difficult to maintain a good attitude when experiencing an anxiety attack, it is very crucial to be more conscious and help stay in control over the situation to effectively battle your condition. Do not think “Oh no, not again!” or “I’m screwed” when an episode hits you. Think that it will be over soon and control your emotions so that your anxiety will now get worse.

If the abovementioned techniques do not work for you, it is probably time to consult a health professional about your health. Since symptoms of anxiety attacks may be a result of other psychological and physical conditions, you need to see your medical doctor first and get a complete physical in order to rule out any other possible causes.

If anxiety prevails and symptoms last for more than 1 to 2 weeks, especially if you have no idea why, see a trained therapist.

A person with anxiety disorder usually goes under medication, therapy or both. Prescription drugs for anxiety are usually antidepressants and benzodiazepines. However, they provide short-term relief and thus, other therapy is often recommended. Therapies given are cognitive-behavioral therapy and exposure therapy. They are both effective (especially when combined with medication) to treat anxiety disorders. Cognitive-behavioral therapy helps patients to replace negative thoughts with positive ones.

Exposure therapy, on the other hand, helps treat anxiety attacks by subjecting the patients to control fear in a safe and controlled environment. Through repeated exposure, patients gain greater self control and more confidence in facing fearful situation.

Various Treatments for Panic Attacks

The cause of panic attacks is still not fully understood. What is known is that it can happen to anyone, without any reason, regardless of age. Meaning, a happy and healthy person has an equal chance of experiencing a panic attack with those who are depressed and unhealthy. An episode of panic attack chooses no time. It can happen while you are at home, sitting on your couch, watching television, while driving, shopping or walking, at the office, etc. It can even happen while you are asleep.

Given such circumstances, methods of treatment may vary from person to person, depending on his conditions, symptoms, lifestyle, and frequency of attacks. Typically however, treatment involves psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and/or medication. Other treatments that can be employed are meditation, breathing exercises, relaxation techniques and herbal treatment.

Anti-anxiety medications such as Ativan, Xanax and Klonopin provide quick relief from the symptoms panic attack. Benzodiazepines have immediate effects, usually within 30 minutes to an hour. Benzodiazepines, however, are highly addictive and have some serious withdrawal symptoms. Anti-depressant drugs (Paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro, and Celexa) should be taken continuously before you can begin to notice the effects, usually up to 6 months to a year. You cannot take anti-depressant drugs just during an attack.

In addition, since you cannot anticipate when you will have such attack, only those who are diagnosed with panic disorder (or recurring panic attacks) can acquire these types of drug.

Panic attacks, as well as panic disorder, agoraphobia and other phobias and related conditions can be treated effectively by psychotherapy. Cognitive-behavioral therapy is proven as an effective way to reduce the symptoms of panic attacks or completely eliminate the condition. CBT focuses on changing the thinking pattern of the person from negative to positive thoughts as well as changing the way a person reacts or behaves when he encounters emergency or situations that can trigger an attack.

Another treatment similar to CTB that is worth mentioning is exposure therapy. This helps the person overcome his fear by letting him face those fearful situations in a controlled and safe manner. The result of this technique is that the person learns how to react positively on what he thinks are fearful situations. Moreover, through this experience, the patient learns that the situations he fears are not harmful and dangerous.

In many cases, medication alone or therapy alone is enough to completely treat the condition, but other cases require both treatment methods to effectively treat panic disorder.

Meditation, breathing exercises, and relaxation techniques have been found effective in reducing the chances of experiencing another attack. They help calm the mind and relax the muscles. Regularly practicing these exercises and techniques strengthen the body’s relaxation response.

Natural herbs such as bacopin, ginkgo biloba, passion flower, St. John Wort, hyperforin, 5HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan), chamomile, rhodiola, are equally effective since they have natural anti-stress properties. In some cases, using these herbs is sufficient enough to combat panic attacks. Many people also react positively using this kind of treatment.

Fresh leaves can be made as tea. Some are also available over-the-counter in oil, tincture, capsule, powder and tea. The best thing about these natural herbs is that they do not carry any side effects as compared to mainstream anti-anxiety and anti depressant prescription medications.

Achieving Mental Health through Anger Management

If you have even a passing interest in the topic of mental health, then you should take a look at the following information. This enlightening article presents some of the latest news on the subject of mental health.

When a person can no longer deal with the difficult situations in life, there are only two things that can probably happen: hullabaloo in vain and be forever depressed or be angry at the person or thing that caused the problem. Either way, the individual has no way to deal with his misery and when he can no longer take the pain, he blames everyone for his mishaps. Mental health is no where to be found. A business must know on how to deal with anger in order to achieve mental health.

Anger is inseparable to a persons life. Even children can become angry because of something. Anger is not something to be concerned about, it is not an abnormal state of mind but in actuality is a normal and healthy reaction of the persons mind and body to a certain situation that didnt agree with the person. Being boiling is never comfortable. Bearing the pain and grudge within your system can be destructive in time. Oftentimes, a person becomes fit to be tied after being sad or warped. Anger is a very good excuse to impaired different nation and strike fetch. Anger is an passion that gives the person experiencing it to become more aggravated.

Anger can become an external defense mechanism especially if the buffeted is applied physically and not emotionally. Although, anger becomes a threat when it is already contributing destruction to the lives of others. It is of natural accentuation to act angry in certain circumstances, its just a matter on how a person handles his anger is the real deal. There are multiple ways to manage your anger. Some of which are:

1. Relaxation techniques – Here, the person must find a way to calm down the system responsible for increasing the angry feeling which is the autonomic nervous system. These include:

Fast relaxation technique which is equated with deep breathing and allows the diaphragm to expand and increase oxygen intake

Meditative processes comparable mind and relaxation meditation.

Wait for a couple of seconds before regressing with the latitude. You can try counting from unique to ten before you react to the situation. This will give you a couple of seconds to run down events and what outcome can your anger produce.

2. Mental techniques are referred to the techniques that can change your expectations and beliefs in life which can replace your angry thoughts into innumerable casual and reasonable ones. You have to remember that the moment you become angry your entire system is affected. Unless you do something about making it more meaningful than destructive, your anger will just increase.

Techniques that are used for anxiety and depression can be of enormous help. It is also important that you talk to someone about your worries and how your anger has developed in order to be more enlightened.

When anger is repressed and is not effectively expressed in any means necessary, this can cause problems thatll bring further problems along the way. But this doesnt necessarily mean that expressing of anger anywhere and anytime of the day just because you feel like it is good. Balancing the approach which may include the acknowledgement of that anger and acting on it accordingly can help reduce the foreseeable crisis. This leave stable the mind and produce mental health in the person.
Of course, it’s impossible to put everything about mental health into just one article. But you can’t deny that you’ve just added to your understanding about mental health, and that’s time well spent.