Waiting to treat an illness until after it manifests is like waiting to dig a well until after becoming thirsty.”
~a teaching proverb of Traditional Chinese Medicine
Anxiety is the most prevalent of all mental health challenges, and it’s something that I work on with so many of my clients. So, just in case you or someone you love also struggles with anxiety, I’m sharing this two-part series of natural strategies to support you in finding relief.
We’ll start by laying the groundwork for a healthy nervous system and a more peaceful emotional life. Even though there are powerful herbs that are capable of relieving acute anxiety they shouldn’t make up your primary approach for coping. Suppressing a symptom with herbs is not much better than suppressing a symptom with pharmaceuticals. Though most of the commonly available herbs used for anxiety tend to have fewer side effects and less toxicity than pharmaceuticals and aren’t habit-forming, this approach still leaves the root of the problem unaddressed. Today, I want to talk about how to touch the root of anxiety, the deep places in the body and soul from which it can spring.
Listening to the Symptom
Anxiety, and especially full-blown panic attacks, are symptoms that demand attention. An attack of acute anxiety can be paralyzing. Feeling like your heart is going to jump out of your chest, like you can’t breathe, or like you’re coming apart at the seams—these kinds of feelings are cries from your body that need to be heard. “The body does not lie,” as the saying goes, and if you are experiencing anxiety, your body is surely trying to tell you something. Would you ignore a child that couldn’t breathe, whose pulse was racing, and who was terribly upset? Of course not. You would comfort the child, rock her, hold her gently, and make sure that she could recover her breath—or you’d rush her to the ER. Can you respond as lovingly to your own body when it cries for your attention?
Anxiety could be telling you that you’re not getting the proper nourishment that you need from your food which is exacerbating an imbalance in your neurotransmitters, or it could be that there’s something in your past or present that you need to face. Your own body’s wisdom is available to you if you’re willing to tune in, listen, and think metaphorically. And, of course, working with a counselor or psychotherapist (especially a body-oriented psychotherapist) can be tremendously helpful as you try to listen to what your body is saying to you. Here are some questions to ask yourself so that you can hear what your body is trying to say.
~What does it feel like when you have the anxiety? What colors, images, and sensations come to mind when you think about what the anxiety feels like?
~Are there specific situations that trigger your anxiety?
~Where in your body does the anxiety start?
~Draw a picture of your anxiety. What does it look like? Is it something that grabs hold of you from the outside, or does it seem to live quietly in your body all the time?
~What makes you feel safe, held, and comforted?
~How does the anxiety move? Can you trace the path it follows with your hands? Does it clench? Does it tremble?
Write, draw, speak, move, or sing—-but find a way to express some answers to questions like these so that you can better understand what your anxiety is trying to say. And then, perhaps most importantly, make changes in your life according to what you learn. The psyche needs to be listened to, but like any good friend, it feels insulted if you make space and listen to it but then don’t change your behavior in response to its needs.
Nourishing the Nerves
Anxiety is bound to be exacerbated by a diet that is deficient in critical nutrients, and by a diet that includes destructive substances that drain the body’s resources. Here are some dietary considerations that may help.
Whole grains are relaxing and grounding. And by “whole grains” I do mean literally *whole* grains that are still intact—not pasta or breads or other products that are made with whole grains. Brown rice cooked with a little bit of dulse for extra minerals (and the salty taste is particularly grounding) is a wonderful choice. Make sure that you chew your grains really well. They should taste sweet by the time you swallow them. The sweetness indicates that the digestive enzymes in your saliva have already begun to break down the grains, setting you up for good digestion. Whole oats (oat groats) are another tremendous food for people who have anxiety. Soak whole oat groats overnight (or for 24 hours if you can) in water, then gently warm them in the morning with cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and/or cardamom. You can add a splash of almond/rice/hemp/coconut milk to make them a little creamier and top with fresh fruit, raw walnuts, goji berries, pumpkin seeds, or other dried fruits and nuts of your choosing on-top.
Nourish the heart. Stick your tongue out and look at it in the mirror. Is the tip bright red? If so, you might have a condition that’s referred to in Traditional Chinese Medicine as “heart heat,” which refers to a complex picture of symptoms that can include anxiety, insomnia, and worry. Bitter foods are cooling and nourishing to the heart, and from a Western perspective they’re full of minerals, antioxidants and other beneficial compounds, including some very special ones that act on the nervous system particularly (such as the indoles in kale.) Chewing on greens has also been shown in clinical studies to reduce stress. And it makes sense—-don’t cows seem abundantly calm? They chew on grass all day. Great bitter foods to choose include kale, dandelion leaves, arugula, and romaine lettuce.
If you don’t see much red in your tongue but are generally pale, tired, and worn-out with frequent bouts of anxiety and insomnia, you might benefit from “blood building” herbs & foods. A great place to start is with 2 tbsps of blackstrap molasses per day. You can mix it in to food, make a gingerbread drink with dried ginger and almond milk, or eat it by the spoonful.
Sea Veggies (aka “seaweed!”) Anxiety can be a state that makes us feel like we’re coming out of our skin. It can feel very upward moving, fast, frenetic. The taste of salt is profoundly grounding, but it’s not just any salt that I want to recommend to you. Table salt is stripped of its mineral content and is full of all kinds of additives and chemicals that certainly don’t have any therapeutic value. Sea vegetables like nori (used to wrap sushi rolls), dulse (great sprinkled on salads), wakame (a crucial part of miso soup) and kelp (sprinkle kelp powder on popcorn—if you dare!) contain a staggering amount of minerals, which is really helpful for a large proportion of American society. We are devastatingly deficient in minerals. In a pinch, you can literally taste a pinch of salt during an acute anxiety attack to help ground yourself. (Natural sea salt would be best, but use what you’ve got in a pinch.)
Magnesium deficiency is highly correlated with anxiety. Drinking stinging nettle infusions, eating lots and lots of greens, and using a liquid magnesium supplement when indicated are wonderful strategies to replenish this crucial mineral. If you eat a lot of sugar and don’t eat many greens or whole grains, this is the first place I’d look if you were my client. Sometimes fixing a magnesium deficiency is the only intervention someone needs to have their anxiety vanish like fog in the sunshine.
Avoid caffeine, tobacco, refined sugar, white flour, and alcohol. Use chocolate consciously. You’ve heard it all before. The fact is that caffeine is a powerful stimulant and it can induce feelings of anxiety, so it really doesn’t have any place in your life if you’re trying to recover from anxiety issues. Commit to your health and give it up until you feel back in balance; the occasional indulgence in caffeine isn’t a big issue for people who don’t have anxiety or other health concerns. Refined sugar literally strips minerals from your body, wreaks havoc with your endocrine system, and can create mood swings, depression, and anxiety. White flour has similar effects. Alcohol is a powerful depressant that alters brain chemistry, depletes B vitamins (deficiencies of which are highly correlated with anxiety) and is not conducive to physical or emotional healing. Chocolate, in very small amounts and without refined sugar added, is a bitter food (nourishing to the heart!) that is full of antioxidants and minerals. But it is also stimulating, and it can be habit-forming for some people. If you can have just a little very dark chocolate, go for it.
And a word about a rather infamous herb. There are a lot of people who use marijuana to self-medicate their anxiety. If you identify as someone who may be using marijuana this way, I’d offer that you may want to re-examine your relationship with this plant. Cannabis certainly does have valid medicinal uses. It’s a powerful yet gentle plant. But self-medicating anxiety with cannabis tends to blur the lines between recreation and the numbing of unwanted feelings. This doesn’t help you address the underlying causes of your symptoms, and it isn’t really about healing. You might consider shifting your diet to include more nourishing foods, bringing in other means of self-care, relaxation, and altering consciousness without biochemical agents, and trying other more effective (for anxiety) plant medicines.
Next week….the herbs!
Next week I’ll share with you some general information on teas & infusions, tinctures, inhalations, and flower essences that can be helpful in coping with anxiety. I urge you to start with the information in this post first. You and any practitioner you work with must spend some time considering the whole picture of how you’re functioning, how you’re feeding yourself, how you’re sleeping, how you’re living your life—before applying plants, pharmaceuticals, or other outside therapies into the system. Diet, sleep, and the emotional realm are almost always good starting places for chronic conditions.
And that being said, I can’t wait to introduce you to some kick-ass herbs that are capable of stopping anxiety in its tracks!
