7 Ways to Manage Anxiety Without Medication

Experiencing anxiety is a constant battle many people face; it is also one that is often underestimated. But while it is a fight that leaves little to no physical scars, it does have extensive effects on one’s mind and body.

Fortunately, there are many ways to manage and cope with this condition. If you’re constantly dealing with stress-inducing thoughts and need relief, you can cut the stress and calm your mind with these seven simple forms of anxiety treatment without medication:

Crucial Steps To Manage Anxiety Without Medication

1. Get a Good Night’s Sleep

Sleep offers a chance for your mind and body to rest and recharge. This is why doctors consider both the quantity and quality of sleep to be important.

If you’re having a difficult time falling asleep due to anxiety, you may need to make some changes in your bedtime routine.

Aside from these, you should also consider easing up on your caffeine and alcohol consumption. Caffeine (which is an “upper”) and alcohol (which is a “downer”) both mess up your circadian rhythm and cause your anxiety to go into overdrive. If you can’t remove them altogether, cut back as much as you can.

Take Note: Aside from soda and coffee, other things that contain caffeine include tea, chocolate, diet pills, and some drugs made to relieve headache.

2. Scream Your Worries Out

Talking to people you trust and care about is one of the most recommended practices for people with anxiety. But there’s another thing that can make you feel better: screaming.

When you were a kid, you were probably told to use only your “inside voice.” But as an adult dealing with a lot of anxiety-inducing situations, it’s helpful to let go once in a while.

Just remember that “screaming at the top of your lungs” doesn’t mean you’re free to cause fear in others and make people around you feel uncomfortable. It only serves as a healthy release of your emotions within a controlled environment.

Keeping your worries to yourself and fighting anxiety silently can make the battle more overwhelming. So rather than keeping it all in, you should embrace your worries as a part of life and let them out. Scream at the top of a mountain, punch a pillow, pound at your chest, or stomp your feet — do whatever helps you let it all out.

3. Get Moving

Everybody knows that regular exercise is vital for your physical fitness, but did you know that it is also helpful for your mental health?

Moving your body helps ease feelings of anxiety and allows you to feel a better sense of well-being. It is much like “burning off anxious energy,” which scientists confirmed is an effective way of managing anxiety in a review of controlled trials in 2015.

In 2016, a study about anxiety caused by stressful circumstances revealed that people who smoke when stressed could benefit from exercising.

How much exercise can be considered enough? Experts say at least three 30-minute sessions every week should suffice. Just remember to pick an exercise activity that you enjoy, so it won’t be too difficult to incorporate in your daily life.

4. Undergo Brain Training

One more effective non-medication anxiety treatment you can try is neuro feedback training, more popularly known as “brain training.”

Brain training programs have been found to facilitate awareness and help the brain return to the natural balance that is hard-wired into it. This helps reduce or even eliminate anxiety.

Neurofeedback measures the brainwaves and “trains” the mind to moderate how it responds to stress and anxiety. Keep in mind, however, that this treatment doesn’t help you manage the stress. Rather, it helps the part of your brain responsible for controlling how it reacts to your triggers.

5. Practice Calming and Relaxing Strategies

When you’re stressed, you subconsciously tense your muscles and clench your jaw. This often happens in people with anxiety.

To help you relax, you can try a progressive relaxation exercise. Lie down in a comfortable position before gradually constricting and relaxing each muscle group, from your toes up to your jaw.

Meditating also helps slow the thoughts that are always racing through your head. This can help you manage stress and cope with anxiety more easily.

Another widely used calming strategy is aromatherapy. Soothing essential oils like lavender have been found to help, but results vary for every person. Try out different scents to find the one (or a combination of a few) that works well for you.

6. Try Animal Therapy

Many people consider pets as part of their family. Considering the amount of love, support, and companionship people get from them, this phenomenon isn’t surprising.

Given their effect on humans, these animals also help people cope with mental health issues such as anxiety, according to a 2018 research.

Even people with pet allergies can benefit from animal therapy as a separate study published in 2015 revealed that taking care of crickets also boosts psychological health, particularly in older people.

Animal therapy is also effective in helping people manage stress due to trauma, based on a systematic review of studies that unearthed the benefits of grooming horses on mental well-being.

7. Know Your Triggers

Like allergies, knowing what triggers your anxiety can also help you cope with it. When you know what your anxiety triggers are, you can work on confronting them without causing worry or panic, or try to avoid them altogether.

To begin your list of triggers, think about the situations when you felt most anxious – examples can be certain places or a certain situation. Write them down if necessary and look for patterns in the information you’ve come up with. You can use this to avoid or manage feelings of worry and panic when you are exposed again.

Also, knowing what causes your anxiety can help you put things in perspective. This means you’ll be prepared to handle it with a clearer head next time, understanding that your worries may be unfounded.

Note- Remember that substances like alcohol are not a healthy way to deal with anxiety. If you feel you are self medicating with alcohol, look into getting free rehab for alcoholics.

Manage Your Anxiety

Anxiety is a condition many people can have difficulty facing. If you are one of them, try the medicine-free methods listed here to effectively manage your worries and live a happier, healthier life.