Ways to Eliminate Anxiety Without Medication

Anxiety is a pesky problem for many Americans. It is a state of mind in which an individual is plagued with thoughts of fear of real or imagined danger. Along with anxiety, an individual may experience increased heart rate, trembling, panic, weakness and stomach aches. What can you do to treat anxiety without medication?

Admit to Yourself That You Are Anxious

• The first step in treating any problem is admitting to yourself that you have one.

Change Your Lifestyle

• One of the biggest causes of anxiety is the way you live, especially the way you sleep. Most people who suffer from anxiety do not get enough sleep. One step toward relieving your anxiety is to start getting more sleep.
  Exercise is very helpful in decreasing anxiety. It can clear your mind and make you tired enough to sleep. Exercise that focuses on breathing, such as yoga, and aerobics are very beneficial.
  If you drink alcohol, you should cut back significantly or quit drinking all together.
  Another thing you can do is stop watching the news. Often negative news headlines can send you into an anxious state.

Redirect Your Thinking

• Cognitive psychology is a subfield of psychology that focuses on the way we think and interpret situations. The techniques used by cognitive psychologists force you to challenge your thoughts. Those with anxiety generally display negative thought patterns. You may find yourself hearing a story about someone dying of brain cancer and begin worrying that this will happen to you; you may be too afraid to go to work for fear that you will die in a car crash--whatever the fear, you are constantly worrying about it. A way to beat these anxious thoughts is to think rationally about them. Do they really make sense? What are the actual odds of something bad happening to you? An effective way to redirect your thinking is to imagine a friend telling you these anxious thoughts. What would you say to try to help him? This exercise can allow you to separate yourself from your thoughts and to start thinking more rationally.

Meditation

• Meditation is way to achieve a relaxed state of mind. Meditation will help you focus on your breathing and on serenity rather than the nagging anxious thoughts that haunt you.

Talk to People

• Talk about all your anxious thoughts with a close friend, family member, counselor or religious adviser. This will allow you to vent all the things you have been thinking about. The person you talk to can help put things into perspective in ways you have not thought of.