Anxiety

Over-the-counter medications and prescription medications have been used to help ease the symptoms of anxiety. Lorazepam (a benzodiazepine class of psychopharmaceutical drugs) is commonly used to treat anxiety disorders including generalized anxiety disorders, panic disorders, and phobias. While benzodiazepine drugs can provide rapid relief to symptoms, “the disadvantages to taking benzodiazepines include: 

• a high risk of abuse or dependence,
• sedative effects,
• secondary symptoms of depression, and
• psychomotor and cognitive impairment” (Woelk &
  Schläfke, 2010)

Also, with increasing possibilities of dependency comes increasing symptoms of withdrawal after the drug wears off. For people struggling with anxiety, having natural remedy options to provide symptom relief can be extremely valuable.

Homeopathy offers natural remedies as an alternative to psychiatric medication. For example, a study comparing the effectiveness of the homeopathic treatment of Lavender Oil to that of Lorazepam for participants with Generalized Anxiety Disorder found that both reduced symptoms by about 45%. 

Importantly, for both homeopathic treatment and psychopharmaceutical medications, the impact of the treatment intervention was short-term. A comprehensive approach that includes collaborating with a holistic psychotherapist to develop the internal resources that reduce the anxiety pattern can help bring about longer-lasting change towards overall health and wellness.

Some may find it surprising that holistic physiotherapy can be very useful in overcoming anxiety. Consider that a big part of anxiety is the feeling of overwhelm. Providing contact to the body helps to build the feeling of containment. Though it might seem unusual in mainstream treatments, several countries and non-Western schools of medicine have included physiotherapy as part of their treatment plan for anxiety for more than 50 years.

The body-mind connection is an important aspect of anxiety. For some, for instance, they are first aware of having anxious thoughts, and then experiencing distressing physical symptoms, such as rapid heart rate or distressed stomach; while for others, the sense of these physical symptoms can trigger cognitive anxious patterns. Returning the experience of ease to the body will shift the mind. Several studies on different holistic physiotherapy methods found physiotherapy could result in reduced anxiety as well as blood pressure (Moyer, C. A. et al. 2004; Arz et al., 2018).

It's also valuable to consider the benefits of holistic physiotherapy for someone who is experiencing combined health concerns. For instance, for many people, anxiety is commonly present with other health concerns such as migraines and IBS, both of which have benefited from incorporating holistic physiotherapy treatment.

Anxiety disorders are not all the same. What anxiety looks like for each person will differ not only based on the type of anxiety they are struggling with, but also their personal histories, the history of the anxiety itself as well as the resources that they have supporting them. 

Anxieties themselves involve a combination of cognitive patterns (thoughts and worries), physiological patterns (such as heart racing, upset stomach, etc.), and avoidance patterns (behaviors that people do, or don’t do, to avoid the experience of the anxiety) all of which have an impact on their quality of life. Working with a holistic psychotherapist experienced in treating different types of anxiety will help you understand your anxiety pattern more, discover the skills to manage the anxiety in the short run, and develop practices that lead to long-term changes in the pattern itself.