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Dr. Dave Rogers of Alpenglow Medicine sees anxiety as common. We can all experience anxiety, but what happens when it has a negative effect on our lives? Carson Daly shares his story dealing with anxiety.
Healthline has a great post on anxiety symptoms and recommendations of treatment. Here are some symptoms of anxiety.
What you can start doing to help right now to move past your anxiety? Dr. Rogers gives us 3 things that we should consider when addressing anxiety.
Seek counseling
Professional mental healthcare
Your primary care provider can help connect you to good counselors with experience in helping people with anxiety.
Friend help
Seek relationships that you already have to regularly meet. You probably have a friend that has struggled with anxiety and may have some guidance and help that can positively impact your journey.
A dear friend of mine, Jason, is a psychologist and shares an example of someone falling into a hole, unable to get out. His role is to jump down into the hole alongside his client, for he is familiar with this hole and knows the way out.
A supplement that you can take is l-methylfolate or folic acid. This supplement has been linked to mental health conditions including anxiety and depression.
Risks – l-methylfolate can have interactions with some medications. Higher doses can increase anxiety or if you take too much.
Recommendations – work with your doctor. Low folate levels can affect treatment for depression. Have your folate levels checked.
There is a connection with lower levels of folate and depression.
This is a first line treatment for anxiety and is part of the treatment regimen while working with your family physician or primary care provider.
BE THANKFUL
Check out Shawn Achor's TED Talk on thankfulness and our wiring. Dr. Achor is a Harvard graduate psychologist with a background in positive psychology.
Take a few minutes each day to write down 3 new things you are thankful for and one positive experience in the last 24 hours. Repeat this for 7 days or even better, do a 21 day challenge.
Thankful Challenge
Text the word thankful to our cell number, 719-249-5850. Make sure you put in your name, email and cell phone number. You will get emails and text messages to help encourage you along this 21 day challenge.
As Dr. Achor suggests in his book The Happiness Advantage we can re-wire our brains to perceive our world in a more positive light. From personal experience I have found this exercise very helpful.
Other Things You Can Try For Anxiety
Exercise
Effect of acute physical exercise on patients with chronic primary insomnia.
This study looked at exercise and sleep but there was a decrease in anxiety as well. Anxiety and sleep are definitely linked.
“Acute moderate-intensity aerobic exercise appears to reduce pre-sleep anxiety and improve sleep in patients with chronic primary insomnia.”
Get your heart rate up but not so much you are unable to talk while you are exercising. This can be in the form of using a stationary bike, fast walking, hiking, swimming, running, snow shoeing, or any other exercise that gets your heart rate and breathing up.
Sleep
Magnesium can be a great supplement for sleep. There is an added benefit of reducing blood pressure.
Magnesium Oxide is the most common. My cardiologist recommended Magnesium Gluconate, 400 to 500 mg daily.
For more on better sleep, check out this link.
Supplements and diet
Vitamin D is controversial and may have a role in mental health. It is low in a lot of different conditions. In Colorado your vitamin D levels tend to be low as we are more covered when we are outdoors. Taking Vitamin D may improve your mood. I know for me that this has been a positive supplement. If I miss a week then I can feel my mood change. How well Vitamin D works can also depend on the severity of your symptoms.
Increase your fish consumption. You can also add omega 3 fatty acids naturally occurring in nuts and seeds, and fish.
Reduce added sugars in your diet.
Reduce your alcohol, caffeine and tobacco use.
Any stimulants can affect your overall mood. Reducing caffeine intake as well as alcohol will positively impact your sleep but can also assist with reducing your anxiety.