Can one beat anxiety without drugs?

Hi, I suffer from anxiety and I have since I was a little kid. Recently I found a therapist who has been very helpful. I personally have chosen to stay medication free and to try to tackle the anxiety myself. One technique that has been helping me is to be very aware of my thoughts. For instance, it is high stress time for me so I am especially on edge. The other night I was dizzy and feeling not myself. Immediately I started having the "what if" thoughts. What if I am going to die, what if I am losing control, and they just snow balled from there. I ended up calling my friend at 10pm and she had to stay with me for two hours. It is such an awful feeling, I hate it. Anyway, this is what I have been doing that helps me. When I start to feel the yucky anxiety feeling I make myself aware of what my thoughts are. I change a negative to a positive. Also, analyze your thinking. I felt dizzy again since the other night and instead of bugging out this is what I told myself. "okay, so you feel dizzy( I have strep right now which adds to the anxiety because I hate taking meds) you are not going to die, you just need to lie down. Stay calm." This thinking worked for me because I interrupted the negative thought process.

Anxiety is more about habit than anything else. Basically, you have trained your brain based on experience to be afraid of something, or think that you will have a panic attack as the result of something. Your brain is a bit like a muscle in that it has memory--whatever you do with it repeatedly, it gets better at doing. So the trick is, once you have trained it wrong, you have to train it right.

There are many, many different paths to success, but the result is the same. You train your mind to not have the hair-trigger reaction to things that cause you to panic. Instead, you understand that whatever it is is not really something to be afraid of. Once you repeatedly react correctly when faced with the situation, you will have begun to retrain your brain.

So, yes, this can be done without drugs. Some things that I know really help people are the hundreds of available resources on beating anxiety. I don't know that any one is any different than any other, other than one may work for you personally better. The point is, just get one and start retraining yourself right away.

Other great things to help--diet, exercise, and relaxation techniquies like mediation or yoga. Anything that helps train you to be calm and not in a state of panic.

Remember--there is no one right path to get there, but you owe it to yourself and everyone around you to start now. You can beat anxiety now--many people do it every day. I use to suffer from it horribly. Then I got help, and I wish I had done it sooner!!!

John Tavern

I think he is correct that there is no one size fits all cure but CBT is by far the most scientifically proven treatment and does not have any side effects. The only downside is that it takes some self-discipline to get started countering your thoughts in the TEA forms but once you do if you stick with them you will be highly likely to have some success and possibly feel as good as I do. It's worth the time you invest in them imo :-)

can someone help me i have anxiety realy bad i cant even go food shopping or get on a buss into town or do anythink i am 19 and am going to start college soon i am on betta blockers but thay dont helo am i going crazy?!!!! it all started from when i moved bk to england from spain and i got rely nerves about comming bk as it is such a diffrent way of life over there and i had been there for 2 years and my belly went and i got realy nerves when i got to the airport and it wont stop now it happens every time i get a little bit nerves and its tearing my relashionship apart he has had enougth i think i dont no what to do i even ended up in hospitle with it because i was so anxious i got stomac cramps the lot i always feel sick every day im a mess i neva used to be like this :? many thanx chloe

Hi there. I used to suffer very much from anxiety.

And ofcourse you can win against you anxiety without drugs. You just need to break the circle that is made in your conscience; circle made of fear and anxiety. That circle strongs each time we have fear/anxiety and/or panic attack, so we need to break it nicely. Anxiety is actually nothing bad, that's just our nature of surviving; something like instinct I'll say. But surely this "instinct" stops us for being who we are. All we need is to strong our will and battle against fears and anxiety.

You "just" need to overcome your fear, try to relax, meditate, take deep breaths, talk to friends etc. And I highly recommend to everyone before you use any drug; try Linden Method. That's what helped me really much, in fact that was the thing that helped me get rid of anxiety and fears.

Just type "CharlesLinden" in youtube and go on his channel. Watch his videos and battle your fears. :-)

Best luck.

It depends on how bad it is, and the reason why you have anxiety.

Hiya Chloe

I would like to help you in this matter as I had anxiety really bad one time and I felt really ill going out even just 5 minutes was horrible

but now im feeling great I can travel in other peoples cars and dont feel stressed or anything like that. as im in the uk it could be helpful to chat

I have been living with anxiety now for about 7 years but I know some ways to deal with it and make life easier.

 

For me, it's all about my breath. Learn and practice breathing exercises. I usually breath in for 5 seconds, hold for 5, and let out for 8 when I'm dealing with anxiety/panic attack. I really have to focus, because my chest will be tight and my breathing is shallow, and it's hard to hold your breath for that long when you're having an attack, but just force yourself to do it, and don't give up, and you will have control of your heart rate.

Hi, I am 22 and suffer from anxiety, one thing I find helps me is when the attacks accur I write down all the things running through my mind. For example ; money, felling like I'm about to let someone down etc. Then I go through my list 5 mins later and allow myself to read it knowing I'm worrying about nothing. Explain to myself how there is no reason for these thoughts to worry mean. It clears it straight away x

Try to train your mind. You probably have heard of the placebo effect right? Thats how strong the mind can be! You have to believe you are already better and slowly but surely your belief will help create the fact :)