Anxiety can be a starving beast.
It can ask for its ration inconveniently through stress, overthinking, worry, and debilitating emotions. This typically happens when we least expect it, leaving our reservoirs of clarity and vitality empty.
The good news about always being hungry is that it can serve as a danger barometer. It can signal when we should keep our guard up and when we can let our hair down.
Conversely, anxiety can create a distorted vision of how the world works. If we dwell too much in that vision, we risk becoming the main character of a script that doesn’t belong to us.
In a world where there’s at least one tablet for every issue we face, it can be tricky to tame this voracious beast - but not impossible.
In this article, we’re tackling the question on everyone’s lips: Can anxiety be overcome without medication?
As we’ll learn, overcoming anxiety without medication is worth exploring. When we piece together the proper mental diet, we can keep our anxiety in check with nurturing foods, thoughts, emotions, and habits.
When Did Anxiety Become a Thing?
Anxiety has always existed throughout the history of humanity. While it was seen more as a feminine issue in the beginning, nowadays, men and women are affected by it.
However, it wasn’t until the 1980’s that the American Psychiatric Association recognized it and its harmful effects. One of the first coined terms of anxiety was neurasthenia (from neuro for “nerve” and asthenia for “weakness”), an exhaustion of the nervous system. It primarily affected those who put too much mental effort into their work. A confirmation that anxiety creeps in when we’re mentally overexerting ourselves.
Still, it is baffling to think that, even today, many people struggle with the stigma of anxiety, thinking that asking for help may portray them as weak. Left untreated, anxiety can alter how we react to life and interact with others. But perhaps the area where anxiety debilitates us the most is the relationship with ourselves.
This modern world illness arrived with a huge price tag, nowadays known as General Anxiety Disorder, one of the most common types of anxiety.
General Anxiety Disorder can disrupt our daily balance because it can manifest differently. We might feel restless or edgy, distracted, tired, have unexpected pains, feel irritated, and experience sleep problems and worry - all because of anxiety. An entire spectrum of unpleasant emotions that we’ve learned to take for granted.
Debunking Anxiety
The most accurate description of anxiety is that it’s like waves; it comes and goes. The problem appears when we forget this and create a mental space for it to dwell and rule our thoughts.
Anxiety is a state, and just like any state, it’s ruled by an overriding emotion. From a constructive standpoint, anxiety before an exam can help us eliminate distractions and study harder. If we want a job promotion, a swash of anxiety can help us improve our performance. Kept under the right parameters, anxiety can serve us.
A better fitting word than generalized anxiety would perhaps be normalized anxiety. It can be beneficial to normalize anxiety for what it is - a normal emotion. We can recognize it when it starts arising instead of losing our North and falling prey to its hazardous subterfuges.
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Normalizing anxiety means being mindful of it because it allows us to become observers and see it as something happening rather than something happening to us. Learning to acknowledge its presence has nothing to do with learning to live with it. These are two distinct concepts; we should always aim toward the former. Recognizing that we’re feeling anxious can give us the tools to diminish anxiety rather than looking for means to coexist with it. |
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Since we’ve established that anxiety comes and goes, it can never be a pillar of our identity. Our identities are separate from anxiety. We are not born with it; we simply experience it at a certain moment. Instead of conceptualizing anxiety as a fixed trait, see it as a momentary feeling. Don’t allow what-if chaotic thoughts to shape your internal dialogue. Focus on this phrase instead: What if everything works to my advantage?
Yes, there are times when anxiety can take a dangerous spin. Anxiety can exacerbate when we marinate for too long in its misleading perceptions of our inner or outer environment. We may populate for too long an area where we feel unwanted, uninteresting, unworthy, and unuseful. We tend to feel inferior for no logical reason and lose focus on what’s real and unreal.
The worst thing about allowing anxiety to run our lives? It’s when we think others have access to our crippled opinion about ourselves and agree with the sense of inferiority we display. As if it’s a carved-in-stone truth.
But these are all tricks anxiety plays on us.
Determining our guidelines and sticking to them can help curb anxiety. It can allow anxiety to operate only under constructive circumstances - to motivate and fuel us to show up as better versions of ourselves.
How to Overcome Anxiety Without Medication
It is possible to defeat anxiety without resorting to medication. The key to that is mindfulness. Mindfulness is the quality of being conscious - a characteristic we all possess but are not entirely aware of. Infusing our everyday activities with mindfulness can allow us to gain stewardship of our emotions and improve our quality of life. Below, we’ll discover ways to overcome anxiety without medication to help us live more present and healthy lives.
- Healthy Emotional Release
It helps to get used to questioning your thoughts. Although our thoughts are subjective, they are influenced by many outer factors, such as others’ opinions and events. You can get rid of detrimental ideas that spring to mind. If you feel burdened and limited by anxious thoughts, it’s time to liberate yourself from them through an emotional release.
Write down everything that comes to your mind. Honor your inner voice and allow ideas to come and go. Populate the piece of paper with as many troubling thoughts as possible. Once they’re transferred to paper, there’s no need to carry them like a burden anymore. Make it a habit to expel your heavy thoughts on paper and allow them to take up space. Transporting them from your mind to paper can positively impact your mental hygiene and help you detach from negativity.
- Get Moving
We often forget how important stamina is when fighting anxiety. Moving will activate our stamina. This is a great way to dissipate stress and relax our muscles. Working out, walking, running, and other physical activities can infuse us with happiness neurotransmitters, such as endorphins.
Creating feeling-good sensations on demand works a pattern interrupt for the entire body. It forces our minds to stop concocting negative thoughts and disengage from pending mental dialogues. When you focus on moving your body, you disentangle from the negativity chords and use your energy to create positive feelings. The result? Your effort will be rewarded with a cascade of much-needed endorphins.
- Ditch Caffeine
Many people over-caffeinate themselves with coffee or tea, forgetting that caffeine is a stimulant. Too much caffeine can cause dizziness, sweating, and restlessness. Taking a break from caffeine may initially cause resistance, especially if we’re used to relying on it for energy. Although caffeine can generate an initial energy jolt, it can raise anxiety levels. Caffeine can also induce depression because it minimizes the production of positive chemicals in our bodies.
Caffeine can create an imbalance in the body, as it blocks adenosine, a key mediator of sleep, causing dopamine to rise, explaining the verve we feel after drinking it. At the same time, it increases our heart pressure, which doesn’t serve well for someone feeling anxious and fidgety. Cutting back on caffeine should be done gradually. It may help to drink caffeine-free substitutes, such as matcha tea, instead.
Make sure you set up an environment that supports rejuvenation. Your bedroom should be dark, well-ventilated, and quiet. At least seven hours of sleep per night is needed to restore the nervous system and regain physical energy.
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But there's more to prioritizing rest than sleep. You can enjoy a mental restart if you press pause on your thoughts. Many people reiterate the unpleasant events that happened that day instead of going to sleep with an empty mind. It explains why, even after eight hours of sleep, we still feel tired and take the mental chatter from where we left it before falling asleep.
The bedroom should be a space for peace and silence, and entering it should trigger a calm sensation where thoughts can't run chaotically.
- Conscious Eating
Mindful eating can spark positive changes in your emotional compass and easily be implemented as a way of living. Using eating as a means to curb anxiety is like killing two birds with one stone. On the one hand, the digestive system massively benefits from you masticating food and eating slowly. Without feeling stuffed after eating, your body will feel energized and light.
On the other hand, creating an empowering food blueprint will help us cherry-pick the foods that serve our mental and physical well-being. Not skipping meals will prevent your blood sugar from dropping and prevent the rise of cortisol, the stress hormone. Aim for a nutrient-rich diet full of whole foods, vegetables, fruit, legumes, whole grains, lean meats, and fish. Consume foods rich in complex carbohydrates, such as whole grains: oatmeal, quinoa, whole-grain bread, and whole-grain cereals. B-complex, vitamin E, and vitamin C can help eliminate anxiety and stress. Lower potassium and magnesium levels increase levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. Bananas can drastically improve your mood because of their high level of potassium. Try to stay away from sugary foods and drinks, especially junk food.
- Mindful Goal Setting
Having a clear image of what you want to achieve will fill you with momentum. No goal should be too bold or scary. For some goals, however, they may take longer to come to fruition, so it might help to start with easily achievable goals than going after goals that require an extended amount of time and energy. Once you’ve proved to yourself that you can achieve an easy goal, it’s time to focus your attention on more audacious objectives. Mindful goal-setting is about setting a goal, sticking to it, and completing it. This helps you build a solid relationship with yourself and strengthens your commitment to honoring your promises. It makes you feel more confident in your abilities and helps you ground yourself.
- See No As a Positive Word
Many people fear saying no because it will make them feel selfish or weak. But that’s far from being true. Being of service is different from servitude. Your time and energy should become your non-negotiables if you’re aiming to create a peaceful mental environment. Putting yourself first has nothing to do with inflating your ego. Sometimes, people we care about will cross our boundaries, thinking they’re entitled to receive our attention because they’re family or friends. Other times, they will do it because they got used to it. Saying no will help you feel empowered and give you a sense of stewardship over your life. It will also help you filter the situations and people who receive your attention.
There is deep value in learning to treasure yourself more, including managing your resources wisely. Time and energy management will help you focus on yourself more, get in tune with how you feel, and remove the pressure of always showing up for others.
- Reconnect With Your Body
Breathing bridges the gap between our psyche and body. When we get stressed, we unconsciously resort to shallow breathing. Fast, short breaths can cause hyperventilation. This is when our bodies get tricked into believing that we need more oxygen, causing us to take deeper breaths. Instead of achieving a calm state through breathing, the hyperventilation process only worsens - and so does our anxiety. We might even experience chest pains and a rapid heartbeat, similar to a panic attack. That’s why staying away from shallow breathing is crucial to keep anxiety at bay.
On the other hand, deep breathing promotes the mind's presence. Also known as diaphragmatic breathing, it is based on longer and slower breaths from your stomach. Count to at least three for each inhalation and exhalation. This type of breathing allows the nervous system to relax, enabling you to reduce anxiety.
- Abandon the Need to Control
Don’t allow the need to control everything to consume you. Draw back from the driver’s seat and permit yourself to relax. Take a break and disconnect from everything. Many fear taking a step back because they think it will make them lose control. But control is an illusion. Anything can happen that can shatter the pipedream of being in control. You only want to resort to being in charge when you can influence an outcome with your behavior, such as leading by example. Influencing and inspiring others to follow suit is possible when you tackle life through a relaxed, positive lens.
Also, carve time for yourself to unwind and recharge your batteries. The world won’t stop if you stop - a powerful mantra that can serve you when you feel overwhelmed with stress and overthinking.
Freedom From Anxiety
Anxiety can be constructive when it raises our awareness of potential dangers. It can help us react fast and firmly and also avoid peril. When we lose track of our mental hygiene and allow stress and worry to take over, we know anxiety is no longer beneficial.
Unfortunately, too many people fall prey to anxiety, forgetting how powerful our subconscious mind can be. That's precisely why I created Freedom From Anxiety, an audio that will I've you back your sense of agency and help you navigate unpleasant thoughts with strength and peace of mind, knowing that you're in charge of your life.
I’ve made it my life’s mission to make peace of mind and the ability to reach your potential available to everyone
- and that includes you!
Here’s to true freedom, happiness and health! - Jamie Clarke