Does anyone know of any quality supplement ingredients, or anything else for that matter, that can lower ones level of anxiety?
All productive comments are welcome!
Thanks!
Zeb
I used to suffer from anxiety and its flip side depression.
I tried the cure in a bottle approach and for me it did not work.
I tried herbal remedies, for example St. John’s Wart, Passion Flower, Valerian, Hops, Withania, Ginseng and a few others. With the exception of a few select preperations (most products contain no, not enough or poor quailty) of Panax Ginseng the rest IMHO are pretty much useless.
In terms of vitiamins, minerals and amino acids I found much the same.
I took prescription medicine for aniety and depression (Arroxpax sp?) for 6 months. Big mistake! Made everything much worse. Really worse. Plus takes a long time for the stuff to get out of your system when you stop taking it…
What I found that did work:
Cut out completley alchol (which was a problem in it self)
Try and cut out all caffine, still trying!
Diet and exercise. I used to run like a demon (i.e. 5km + a day) this helped a bit but I found that ONLY heavy weights really help me. Lots of singles and triples for compound exercises. Probally alot is the psycological effect of achievement in moving a lot a weight.
But really if you have anxiety something is causing it. The only way I found to really get better was to deal with it head on (i.e. identify the cause and remedy it).
Hope this helps and all the best!
5-HTP is supposed to work quite well for anxiety. Since it’s the direct precursor of serotonin it’s supposed to promote a more calm, relaxed state. Kava kava, and valerian I believe are supposed to be relaxing as well but I don’t have too much info regarding them. Supplements/drugs that target the GABA receptor are also a good idea although I don’t have too much info on them either. I believe GABA is more directly implicated in anxiety than serotonin is but they are both good avenues. My recommendation would be to do a google search, using keywords “GABA, serotonin, supplements, anxiety, drugs”. Hopefully you should get something usefull.
I’ve heard cognitive/behavioural interventions work quite well for anxiety as well. You may want to take a trip to the amazon website to see any books that may be able to help you in this regard. Going to a psychologist is extremely cost prohibitive. Unless if you have the bucks, go ahead. A good psychologist will run you around 100-200 bucks an hour. A cheaper and thus less trained psychotherapist that does not have a Ph.D. may also be an option although I’d do a lot of reference checking before hand to make sure you have the real deal.
Another thing is to stay away from stimulants (caffiene, ephedrine, etc…) as they can artificially create a sense of fight or flight which is the essence of what anxiety is. The feeling of danger, that you’re fearful of something in your surroundings. It may be a good idea to take an evaluation of your life to see what may be contributing to this danger/fear feeling that you’ve been having.
Goodluck
Depending on the source of the anxiety, some of it might have to do with style of thinking.
In general, people that worry about things that are outside of their control tend to feel more anxiety. For example, watching the news and worrying about the issues discussed.
If you’ve got stress and anxiety about issues you can’t control, simply remove those issues from your life. To continue the example, stop watching the news, the world will keep spinning.
The example is trivially simple, but it can be applied to a lot of real world issues. If things more directly within your life are causing anxiety, replace those issues with healthier ones for you. Cheer on Lance Armstrong instead of trying to fix everything.
Anyway, don’t know if anything I’m saying is applicable to your situation at all, but outside of supplements, studies have shown that people are bothered by things a lot more when they are not in control of those things.
Hi ZEB. I suffer from generalized anxiety disorder. What has worked best for me is Paxil CR daily, and when I know I am going to be in a very stressful situation (i.e. public speaking, etc.), I take some Xanax.
One word of caution, however. Once you get on Paxil, you pretty much have to stay on it for life because your body becomes somewhat physiologically dependent. In other words, when you stop taking it, you have very bad withdrawals. Very bad.
Other options that may work are Buspar, and I believe Zoloft.
The best thing to do is talk with your physician. You will probably have to try a few drugs to find which one works for you.
Good luck.
You might try something called Omegabrite. It is an omega3 supplement that is almost all epa, a 7:1 epa/dha ratio. I have not used it, but my stepmother told me about it. She has some depression and has taken many antidepressants but she said most are too strong, make he feel weird, etc. She said after taking omegabrite for a couple of weeks she could feel the effect. She said it is not drug-like, but she was pleasantly surprised by it’s mood-enhancing effects, much more that she expected. I’m not sure how similar depression and anxiety are, but it’s worth a shot.
Zeb,
I’ve got Generalized Anxiety Disorder as well. My doctor prescribed some Paxil, but I’ve read too many stories from people who had really bad withdrawl symptoms, so I refuse to take it for right now.
I’ve read that some studies show that CBT (cognitive-behavioral therapy)is a better remedy for anxiety than medication alone – it lasts longer and has no side effects.
Check out any Universities near you to see if they have a CBT program there. You may be able to talk to a resident for cheap and it will be closely supervised by the Prof. and staff.
Good luck Zeb. I know how much it can suck going through this.
My dog died recently and my Mom just passed. This along with stress on the job and other things. It’s been tough on me as I am supposed to be the strong one.
Thanks for all the replys gang. It’s nice to have the help.
Read Healing Without Freud Or Prozac by David Servan-Schreiber.
He is a clinical professor of psychiatry at the university of Pittsburg.
His book is grounded in peer reviewed research and offers a number of alternative routes to dealing with depression and anxiety. I cant recommend it highly enough. As someone who has avoided the traditional western approach of treating symptoms rather than causes it opened up the whole area of holistic therapies.
This book is not some new age tree hugging panacea. His research is an rounded and integrative approach to well being. For anyone who is interested in fulfilling their potential this book is a must.
It deals with excercise as a route to mental wellbeing and also has a very informative section on diet, particularily omega 3 fats.
Check out his website.
Hope this helps.
Ranski
Sorry to hear about your dog, ZEB. My little girl, Silk, is a member of the family. She’s as dearly loved as any child could be. I can only imagine what you’re going through.
For knots-in-your-stomach type anxiety, I like L-Theanine. It will definitely take the edge off of things. A plus is that it increases focus. It’s added to a lot of food over in Japan where stress levels are high.
You can read more about it at the LEF web site.
I have had problems with anxiety and depression for a long time, and have suffered some serious anxiety attacks and bouts of depression. The two things I have found to be most effective in treating both of these problems have been 1) meditation and 2) focusing on one thing at a time. These two things are pretty simple but they both require work and discipline at the beginning. I learned how to do these things through studying Eastern religions/philosophy and psychology (especially cognitive psych.)
Taking the approach I have taken works well for some people but it requires a lot of self motivation and curiosity (two things that can be a major problem for a person suffering from anxiety and/or depression). I would also add that seeking professional help is the best choice for most people, and that a psychologist is often a better choice than a psychiatrist, if you can find a good one.
Try phenibut