Medication that's available.Medication that some anxiety sufferers find useful comes in both man-made and natural forms. Sometimes, breaking a cycle of behavior is an important first step in finding a solution to a problem. Medication can be helpful to ?take the edge off? enough to allow support programs to work. There are things you can try before turning to medications such as learning how to breathe properly and using some sort of reminder to do your breathing. (I use a little battery operated device - for more info see BreathMinder.) If you are having anxiety symptoms, first see your primary physician to find out if there is any physical cause. If your physician makes no physical diagnosis, he or she may refer you for an evaluation by a professional who specializes in anxiety disorders. Once you receive a diagnosis, your decisions about medication will be clearer. "Complementary Medicine" As its name suggests, complementary medicine should work with modern western medicine to address the problems of a mental, social and spiritual nature in a more rounded way to deal with illness and disability. There's a great web site from a group called Shared Care that is a forum of communities to allow practitioners and manufacturers of devices and testing laboratories to evaluate their services against those of others in the field and in so doing to unify and raise standards of care in complementary medicine. In other words, they provide a site where alternative medicine and other complementary medicine can be properly evaluated and where you and I can log on and comment - good or bad. It has helped me sift through all the hype and hear what others have to say about things on the market. Things to avoid include coffee, strong teas, and soft drinks as they contain lots of caffeine - a stimulant we anxiety sufferers can live without. Be careful with sweets, especially milk chocolate, as they, too, can have an undesired effect on us. Using marijuana or drinking alcohol does not generally help relieve panic or anxiety and in some cases can intensify the feelings of fear and dread. Be careful not to "share" someone else's prescription medication - you should be under your own doctor's care and following that advice, not the advice given to other people. Online consultations are a new concept in health care that utilize the Internet to improve patient access to physician care. The patient does not receive a traditional physical exam by the physician, but rather completes an online questionnaire and communicates with the physician using a secure online communication tool. Although online consultations will never take the place of traditional medicine, they do provide a means for patients to receive treatment for a limited number of conditions that, in certain circumstances, may not require a physical exam. When you consider what you would have paid for a doctor's appointment and what the pharmacy would have charged, ordering medicine this way isn't that much more expensive. Breathing: Throughout my web site, you will find lots of information and references to scientific studies that show the benefits of proper breathing. When you move from shallow "chest breathing" to deeper breathing into the diaphragm, a better balance of oxygen to carbon dioxide is achieved. This promotes many positive health benefits that are outlined in greater detail elsewhere in this web site. Most people do not breathe from the diaphragm, but rather from the chest ("suck in your tummy" is not very good advice!) With practice, proper breathing can become a natural part of your life and the health benefits can be immediate and significant. Some people have managed to stop having anxiety forever after learning to breathe properly. An alternative to prescription medicines can be found in health food stores - either "brick-and-mortar" or on-line. I have found that there are some vitamins and herbs that help relax me and some that help replace vitamins and minerals I have shed. There are many natural remedies that date back to ancient times, which have been found to be helpful by recent clinical research. St. John's Wort, Lavender, and Passion Flower are all known to provide different levels of relief and calm. Some of these are blended together to create surprisingly effective, and 100% natural medications.
is indigenous to the Mediterranean, but is widespread throughout the world. It is often used as a general nervous system restorative, digestive calmative and to reduce blood pressure. Its active ingredients include volatile oil, tannins, flavinoids, tocopherols and choline. is another well-known herb which has made its home in countries all over the world, including Europe and Africa and is also used in Arab medicine as an expectorant. It is best known for its calming properties and as a tonic for the nervous system. Lavender contains the active ingredients tannins, coumarins, flavinoids, triterpenoids and volatile oil. - also called Passion Flower - is used as a sedative and for insomnia and can relieve anxiety and nervousness. Active ingredients include flavonoids, cyanogenic glycosides, alkaloids and saparin. It helps to calm and soothe and is also thought to reduce high blood pressure and nervous tremors. (St John's Wort) has been scientifically shown to relieve the symptoms of depression if used regularly over a period of 3 - 5 weeks. St John's Wort is often called 'Nature's Prozac' and is widely used as the anti-depressant of choice in many countries like Germany and in other parts of Europe. There have been many clinical studies which show the effectiveness of St John's Wort in the treatment of depression. A review published in the British Medical Journal quotes up to twenty-three clinical trials which demonstrate that St John's Wort works as well as many prescription anti-depressants, without the major side effects. Millions of people around the world have been helped by treatment with St John's Wort. Many clients say that it feels like 'the black cloud' has been lifted from their heads and that they have more zest for life!
|
