Effective Natural Remedies for Anxiety

Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing. It can be done by looking left and right, hearing sounds in alternate ears left and right, crossing your arms and tapping your hands on opposite arms, or patting someone's legs left and right to help them. The idea is to stimulate the left and right hemispheres of the brain alternately while dealing with the trauma. I'm thinking it helps the emotional side of the brain and the logical side of the brain talk. You can read up on it on the net easily enough, but it's best that a therapist help adminster it for best results.

I heard that people in the 9/11 attack used EMDR with good results. I used it for getting past a rape and another invasive trauma. EMDR is the therapy that finally helped.

I take Rhodiola in instances where I feel anxious or a bout of anxiety is taking over. Rhodiola is amazing! I do not like taking prescription medication and this is a wonderful alternative!

Does anyone know of a way to introduce something natural like 5-htp, and cut back on the prescription antidepressants? I wasn't sure if they interacted safely at all.

I successfully transitioned from an anti-depressant, anti-anxiety medication(Paxil) to 5HTP-50mg by gradually reducing Paxil by 50% each day while increasing 5HTP TO 50mg. The whole weaning process took about four days. Note: experts say an anti-anxiety ant-depressant should never be stopped suddenly and I agree. I tried that once and found myself doing some irrational things.

CAUTION: I did find when I increased the 5HTP to 100mg, it actually increased my anxiety. This happened when my health food store brought in 100mg strength instead of the usual 50mg strength. Fortunately I realised what was happening and split the remainder in half and everything was fine from there on.

I have had a hard time calming my mind and body my whole life. Anxiety has been with me for as long as I can remember and I just had tried to live with it. It is an awful feeling when one just can not rest. It would be like my mind running around a million miles a second and me unable to focus ect. My most recent foray into educating myself with natural methods has turned me to the work of Dr. Abram Hoffer and Niacinamide. I bought this and all I can say is WOW! It has definitely worked on my anxious feelings and inability to focus. I currently take 1000mg three times a day and feel so wonderful.....better than when I was on benzodiazepines, as they left me feeling wiped out and dependant on them.....I also take a high quality whole food bound vitamin B complex and zinc.

Occassionally I will take some ground flax and mix it with cottage cheese or into a smoothie.....I tend to think that a solution lies in a nice balance of things, not just one thing. I also believe that I have food allergies that exacerbate these anxiety states.....however getting off of bread has been quite a challenge for me. But I am a work in progress! I hope this information helps someone else!!!!

Hello Angela,

Caricater mentions that taking Acetyl L-Carnitine can lead to oxidative stress. Oxidative stress, put simply, is an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants that counter free radicals. We don't want free radicals, they can lead to cancer. Alpha Lipoic Acid is an antioxidant.

Hi, I know this is a very old reply, however in your comment, you stated you took 50mg Acetylcarnitine, actually, I think you meant 500mg, they don't make 50mg, plus all the problems you had couldn't have been eliminated with 50mg, sure it's possible but improbable. My son has Severe Anxiety and he takes 500mg twice daily for 1.000mg. I will look into him taking more Safely. Thank you, Joseph

Anxiety Remedies: A couple of years ago I started feeling anxious for no reason at all. It became worse and worse until I couldn't stand myself. My doctor gave me xanax to sleep at night but I still had that anxious feeling all the time. I tried no-flush niacin and that helped a little. Then I tried rhodiola and that helped a lot more. I went for several months until I found holy basil. I find it works the best and has a nice side benefit. I can have my tea and still sleep as long as I take my holy basil in the evening. So for me it counters the bad effects of caffeine. I still keep the rhodiola and niacin around for backup and take them in the morning sometimes but nothing replaces the holy basil.

I suffer with social anxiety disorder, I'm anxious and have difficulty thinking clearly in general not just in anxiety situations.I got myself flaxseed oil and took a tablespoon.I felt better instantly. My thinking became a lot clearer and my usual confused anxious state diminished. It definitely has a significant effect on brain chemistry. I'll be taking it everyday now :)

I found this remedy when I was looking for herbal remedies for my daily headaches. I found 5-HTP. According to the article,some of the things it helped with are insomnia, headaches, anxiety & depression. I thought could it be? I immediately went to my husband to show him what I had found because he had problems sleeping at night as well. We went a few days later to our local drug store and picked up a bottle of 50mg. 5-HTP. We had decided on the lowest dosage available in our area, upping the dosage as we went along if it was necessary. We have only been on it for a few days now but there is a very noticeable difference. We both have been sleeping through the night and feeling more refreshed when we wake. My anxiety attacks are gone as well as my headaches. We both are much less snappish than what we were before. We haven't noticed any side effects so far. We are taking them with a meal or a small snack and so far we have stayed at 50mg. Thanks for the very useful information that lead to this discovery!

Rhodiola is amazing! I've been taking rr for about 6 months with fantastic improvements. I suffer from major anxiety/stress disorder, minor depression, was taking effexor xr for 5 years prior to this wonderful herb..the effexor caused me to gain 35lbs, made me sweat heavily, and actually gave me more anxiety, the sweating is still a problem, but is getting much better since taking rhodiola, almost gone, except when i get really anxious - socially, i start to sweat from my head/face..which is pretty dam embarrassing..DONT TAKE EFFEXOR! as this never happened before even with the anxiety i had.
Since taking rhodiola and stopping the effexor..i've lost the 35lbs that i gained..alot faster then iv'e ever lost weight before...so YES..it does help you lose weight..as long as you exercise hard and eat reasonably healthy. I dont eat that great, still eat pizza,wings, and drink beer occasionally. Just cut that deep fried food..mcd's etc to a minimum. EXERCISE is the key to losing weight with this herb, although when i took a break from working out...i still dropped a couple pounds.

Thanks to rhodiola, i'm almost back to my old self, except for this lingering little bit of anxiety. rhodiola works best with other herbs, acutally makes those other herbs work better then if u were to take them alone. My stress is so dramatically reduced, i almost feel normal again.

I'm currently on the search for the best combination to combat this left over anxiety issue, looks like i'll try 5-htp as people seem to have success with this combo.

I've been using the Arctic Root brand, from proactivebio, and currently trying out the
Ameriden brand..just google ameriden..you'll find it...apparantly its from Siberia where this
root was first discovered.

And as far as i know..you cannot grow it properly here, the active compounds will not be present
if grown here, needs that cold arctic condition to grow properly.

U have nothing but to benefit from taking this herb. I'm getting my whole family on it now!

and usually takes about 2-3 weeks before you really notice the effects!

Peanut Butter cured a anxiety panic attack. When I am having a panic attack or feeling one coming on; I just eat 1 or 2 table spoons of peanut butter (right off the spoon) and I feel calm almost instantly.

I want to thank the person who said that Rhodiola was the best for anxiety attacks. I read the article and immediately searched the internet to find get more information regarding this vitamin. I then went out to get it for my symptoms and it worked. I feel normal again, before I was having a panic attack daily. I didn't know what triggered it, but I was suffering regularly. I also tried the 5HTP and I take them both together, the 5HTP helps with my stiffness in my joints and relaxes my body and mind. I take both daily and had not had any problems in three weeks. It feels good to be normal again.

Back when I was really sick, anxiety became a terrible side effect that left me debilitated on most days. I got so bad that I had to resort to Ativan for a couple of days to stabilize me. In the meantime, I did research and discovered valerian root and hops. I got both in tincture form (for me personally works way stronger/quicker) and for severe anxiety will take about 10 drops of both. Within minutes I felt relief that was possibly better than that from the ativan. While I worked through detoxing and getting well, I had to use this combo a few times and it has never failed me.

Hi Joe,

I was tapered off a benzo which I depended on for sleep for way too many years. I had tried to reduce many times on my own, and couldn't, but with the help of a new "doctor, " actually a young nurse practitioner, we were successful. It took six months plus to slowly taper down to a very, very low dose which seemed almost microscopic, but then I just couldn't go any lower. She then prescribed Doxepin, a tricyclic anti-depressant at a low dose. At a dosage of 75 mg and up it treats depression, but they have found that a low dosage of 3 - 6 mgs helps with insomnia. It has helped me, a lot, I am off of the benzo and sleeping better, with a clearer head. I don't know if this will help your son with his issue, PTSD and benzos, but it might be another tool available for his tool kit.

I hope he has as good a clinician as my young ARNP.

At the time, I had no idea that taking twice my regular dose would have such an adverse effect as 5HTP was described to me as a vita-nutrient. So to me, it was the same as taking a double dose of vitamin C.

I have been experiencing shortness of breath and anxiety for some time. But recently the frequency of these attacks has increased and it started affecting me almost every day. This is so bad that I cant focus on anything but just dreading with fear when / what will trigger the attack. When I get my anxiety attack I feel I can't breath, my heart rate increases, my hands get very cold, body start shaking and my mind starts thinking that I am dying . It is very fearful state. In blood tests everything is fine. So my GP put me on some anti-depressant. which I don't want to take at-least until I have tried alternative method.

Thanks to Earth clinic it has helped me in this time. I have started making few changes in my diet and overall I can see improvements. Brahmi is one of the herbs which has helped me. I feel my breathing becomes easy almost within 15min of taking it.

Other things that have helped me are Folic complex 500mg, B12 1mg at night and ACV + baking soda.

This is my first post here. What I went thru in last few weeks was so bad that I felt to share my experiences with other who might be facing similar issues and this might help someone.

My naturopath just started me on this. Fingers crossed it helps! I found that so far exercise has been the best remedy but hopefully the ashwagandha helps keep things level when I can't exercise.

For anxiety, improve your digestion system. The gut is the second brain. Haven't you ever heard of the gut/brain connection? If you are not digesting your foods, this can wreak havoc on the entire body. I was getting very anxious with heart palpitations before and ever since I improved my digestive system by taking digestive enzymes and probiotics, I have been calm as can be.

I am giving an update. Holy Basil did not work, all though I thought it had. Just temporary relief. About five days later I ended up in the emergency room for a full blow panic attack and they gave me 1mg of valium, which brought it down. Also a temporary prescription of adivan, which really didn't do anything for me, chilled me only for a few hours. The next day, still anxiety, and so forth. It took me about 5 days of experimenting to figure out what was wrong - took 50 mgs of Dhea, and finally could breathe again, all anxiety left. It was my adrenals all along. Please do research on low Dhea, as there is a kind, I believe call Kudo, that inhibits it affecting other hormones in the body so that you don't grow a mustache, thinning hair. 50mgs is very high to take for any long period of time, check out info on Curezone or other forums.

I use flaxseed oil softgels of 1000mg or more. Cold pressed! Organic. I take as many as I need like 2 per meal. It helps with my anxiety so much, very quickly after I take them. I take them also prior to getting my period, which helps to balance mood then.

Flax's fatty acid profile: omega 3,6, and 9. Love it!

Namaste, Sunny

I seem to have panic attacks only in winters, maybe the lack of D3; who knows. The only natural thing that works for me so far is Peppermint tea. When I feel there is a PA in its way, I run and either prepare or buy ( if I am outside) a peppermint tea and the effect is inmediate. Is this a placebo effect or there is a compound in the mint tea that fights the panic attack? Honestly I dont know, but as long as it avoid a PA I will continue to try it. Hope this advice can help someone.