Lifestyle Tips to Ease Your Anxiety

If you find yourself in a frequent state of excessive uneasiness or apprehension, you may be experiencing an anxiety disorder. Often anxiety is felt emotionally—like feeling dread, overwhelmed or panicked, but occasionally these emotions are accompanied with physiologically symptoms like breathlessness, heart racing, sweating, chest pain or discomfort. If these sensations sound familiar to you, know that you are not be alone. Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental illness in the United States and affects nearly 1 in 5 people at any given time.  

Freud believed anxiety reflected inner emotional conflict, but now we have a more biologic understanding of anxiety. Research demonstrates that anxiety results from the interplay of many factors including genetics, diet, environmental exposures, chronic illnesses and social and emotional well-being.  If we want to quiet the anxiety in our mind, we need an approach that supports each of these factors. 

Consider the following lifestyle tips for addressing anxiety:

Basics Protocol to Relieve Anxiety:

1. Eat an anti-inflammatory diet. Our mental health is an extension of our overall health. If our body is inflamed or deficient in nutrients, then your mental health will suffer. Food is the most important environmental factor when it comes to repairing your brain and keeping your body healthy. Eating well is an act of radical self-love. It unfortunately doesn’t come cheap, and often requires immense effort, but if you’re looking for the keys to the kingdom of feeling good, then look right in front of you on your plate.

   An anti-inflammatory diet focuses on nutrient-dense, unprocessed, whole, real food. It includes an abundance of vegetables; well-sourced meat, fish, and poultry, fermented foods, nuts and seeds; fruit; and plenty of healthy fats such as olive oil, avocado, coconut oil, and fatty fish. What is not present is sugar, refined carbs (i.e., bread, crackers, pasta, cookies, even seemingly healthy vegan or gluten-free replacement foods), and inflammatory oils, such as canola oil.

2. Actively manage stress. Our response to stress is regulated by a complex set of interactions between two parts of our brain—the hypothalamus and the pituitary glands and the adrenal glands. This subsystem of the body is often called the HPA axis. It is responsible for triggering the release of hormones needed to respond to stress. In pathologic anxiety, this HPA axis may become dysregulated. The normal cues to turn off the production of stress hormones are missed, and you may be left feeling stressed despite the threat being gone. Taking proactive steps to manage stress can help keep the HPA axis healthy. Activities like meditation and yoga are well documented to help relive anxiety and depression. These not your cup of tea? Try other reflective practices like journaling, making music or even coloring mandalas. The trick is to find a practice that resonates and make it happen. 

3. Prioritize sleep. Lack of sleep activates the stress circuit and inhibits our relaxation. Our modern life often keeps us up and plugged into our devices much later than we should be. The circadian rhythm of the human body works best when we fall asleep approximately three hours after sunset and wake with the sunrise. Try going to bed by 10 pm every night. Avoid blue light emitted from devices that can suppress your production of sleep promoting melatonin. Exposure yourself to bright light in the morning by opening the curtains, going for a walk or sitting with a lightbox. 

4. Exercise regularly. Exercise alone is a powerful tool to treat anxiety. In as little as 10 days it can make a dramatic difference. The best exercise is the one you enjoy and will faithfully complete, but studies suggest that resistance training may have a slight advantage over aerobic exercise at reducing anxiety.

Advanced Protocol to Reduce Anxiety:

Start with the basics, but if anxiety is still problematic further evaluation and more targeted treatment may be needed. 

1. Get a medical evaluation. Imbalances of hormones (thyroid, insulin, estrogen, etc.) blood sugar problems, nutrient deficiencies, untreated infections and toxic exposure may be contributing to your poor mood. A comprehensive discussion and laboratory evaluation with your physician are important. 

2. Monitor your Heart Rate Variability (HRV). HRV is the measure of the variation in time between each heartbeat. It is regulated by a primitive part of our nervous system called the autonomic nervous system (ANS). If a person is in a fight-or-flight mode, the variation between heartbeats is low. If one is in a more relaxed state, the variation between beats is high. The healthier our ANS the faster we can switch gears between fight-and-flight and relaxation, showing more resilience and flexibility. 

   HRV can be easily monitored and improved. There are a number of tracking devices and training apps available on the market that are specifically designed to help address anxiety. For more information check out heartmath.com and Elite HRV to get started. 

3. Try tapping. Emotional freedom technique (aka tapping or psychological acupressure) is an alternative treatment for physical pain and emotional distress. It has been extensively investigated for anxiety and has been shown to dramatically improve symptoms. Similar to acupuncture, tapping focuses on the meridian points—or energy hot spots based on Chinese medicine. Tapping is easy to learn and can be completed anywhere. Learn more here. 

4. Consider medication and/or supplements. Optimizing lifestyle is always the best place to start addressing anxiety. However, there is a place and time to add targeted supplements and medication. If the above strategies are not providing adequate relief or more urgent relief is needed, talk to your physician about making a treatment plan. 

If you’ve been feeling anxious, I hope you’re able to put some (or all) of these practices into place. I always recommend being in care with a good mental health provider to help you see your blind spots and give you support, but I’m hopeful that most people can heal their anxiety without medications and the side effects that often come with them.

If you’re experiencing depression or anxiety and need support, please call the National Depressive/Manic-Depressive Association Crisis Call Center’s 24-hour hotline at 1-800-273-8255.