8 Tips To Help With Anxiety

We're starving for attention right now and so many people are anxious and depressed!

As a society we've always struggled to talk about mental health. Now it is so much worse post COVID.

The effects of social isolation might just be the biggest symptom of the pandemic that we didn’t take into account. 

So with the rates of anxiety and depression going through the roof, and the fact that people struggle to find help for these issues at the best of times, it’s vital that you know how to take care of your mental health!

Obviously if your anxiety has turned into a major health risk, then you need to seek professional medical assistance immediately. However, whether using medication or not here are 8 things you can do immediately to help you better cope with stress and anxiety.

1. EXERCISE

Exercise is one of the best ways to immediately upregulate your happy hormones (dopamine, serotonin, endorphins) and down regulate our stress hormones. Have you ever been angry or frustrated and then gone for a run or done some vigorous exercise and you’ve immediately felt better? So on those days where you feel like you’re going to explode with stress, or that you can’t get out of bed, then do whatever it takes to get up and get moving!

2. QUALITY SLEEP

Tiredness might be one of the biggest contributors to stress, anxiety, and then depression. Prioritize good quality sleep by developing a good bedtime ritual, be disciplined about stopping eating 3 hours before bed time, go to bed at the same time every night, and stay off electronics (or use blue blocker glasses at night)

3. RELAXATION TECHNIQUES

Experiment to see what works best for you - is it yoga? Meditation? Just simply sitting still every day for a few minutes and doing some deep breathing exercises? These techniques work great over time, but can also be used when you’re dealing with acute anxiety attacks.

4. DECREASE ALCOHOL AND SUGAR

Alcohol acts as a depressant (even though in the short term it’ll often feel like it makes you happier) and sugar wipes out your gut microbiome which in turn decreases your body’s ability to produce serotonin and the other happy hormones. Why do the tasty things have to be so bad?!!

5. CONSISTENT ROUTINES

Believe it or not our brain loves consistency. That’s why working from home has been so devastating - because we have lost consistency within our schedules and daily routines. Well that and complete isolation from the rest of the world for some people. So when you feel anxious or depressed just start working on things you can control by setting consistent tasks into your daily life and that will help more than you can imagine.

6. DIET

This is one of the most powerful, and probably the most underrated thing you can do! Outside of decreasing alcohol and sugar like we mentioned above, make sure your diet is high in Magnesium, Omega 3’s and B Vitamins - they are all great brain nutrients! Stick to eating grass fed meat 9ideally also organ meat but if you can’t stomach the thought of that use supplements and make sure you eat organic whole foods to avoid the pesticides and processed junk!

7. CHIROPRACTIC

We know through the large and growing body of research that when you lose normal movement within the joints of your spine, they cause an irritation to the spinal nerves which send and receive all of the messages to your brain. This irritation causes the messages going to your brain to be interrupted and (because these nerves supply the brain with all the information it needs to know what’s going on within and around your body) the brain then puts you into a fight/flight response (stress response). This leads to long term anxiety because you constantly have stress chemicals floating around your body 24/7. When you get adjusted by a Chiropractor, it helps relieve that spinal nerve irritation and improves the messages travelling to your brain and directly impacts the prefrontal cortex - the part of your brain that controls the stress response. So does Chiropractic heal anxiety and depression? Of course not! But is it a powerful tool to use to help you function better, adapt more efficiently to stress, and keep anxiety at bay? You Bet!

8. SUPPLEMENTS & OILS

Follow the same rules we mentioned in the diet section, so if you suffer from anxiety or depression you definitely need to be supplementing with at least B Complex vitamins, magnesium, and omega 3’s, but you may also need to add GABA. There’s also a range of essential oils you can diffuse, or apply to your skin to help, including lavender and chamomile oil.