Alternatives to medication? Supplements?

[joetosh]

Hey guys, I have recently been having some anxiety issues and would like to avoid going on medication.

My question for you all is: Do you take any supplements or natural products to help with your anxiety? If so, what do you use?

How effective is it?

What exactly do you suffer from mostly (anxiety, ocd, panic, phobias)?

And, is there anything you do not like about it?

If you guys could answer those few questions for me that would really help me out, thanks!

[Paxiled]

This question is very broad.  A natural approach to anxiety would include homeopathy, herbs, supplements, diet, exercise, etc.  What works for one won't necessarily work for you; natural medicine sees everyone as an individual.  This is also true with meds, but doctors and pharma don't admit it.  If you want a good overall discussion of what's available out there, try Natural Highs by Hyla Cass, a psychiatrist with UCLA.  It will help you with dosages, combinations, etc., since natural remedies are virtually never used singly.  For example, the person who mentioned ashwaghanda, that's an adaptogen that helps the body adapt to stress.  There are a lot of herbs that help do this.  Then are herbs and homeopthatics that directly affect GABA, such as valerian, kava, passionflower, hops, etc.  Then there amino acids, such as 5htp which makes serotonin, taurine which makes GABA or GABA itself, and glycine, which regulates glutamate.  If you saw a naturopath, you'd be put on a combination of things that helped you to reach a healthy state, and it would be done trial and error.  As to whether they work or not, they do for some and not for others.  Just like  meds.

[lisa990]

I bought "Kavinace" from an all natural pharmacy.  You can get it online too - it's made by Neuroscience.  Let me tell you....this stuff changed my life!  I was desperate to find something natural for my anxiety/panic attacks/phobias ever since I got pregnant a couple of years ago and lost the baby at 9 weeks due to the loads of medication that I was on.  That was the last time I touched any medication and had been suffering horribly ever since.  I was completely paralyzed by heart palpitations - they would happen all day, every day.  My cardio said it was not related to a heart condition (in other words....*hint, hint...you have anxiety*).  So since I was healthy, I heard about this pharmacy that was all-natural in my area.  I started taking it and within an hour, my palpitations were GONE.  And I didn't have another one for over 3 months - I felt so much more calm and relaxed.  At this point, I have them every once in a great while when I'm going through something stressful.  But I don't even take it every day.  Maybe once or twice a week.  I'm sure that if I took it more often (or even daily), I wouldn't have any palpitations at all.  But it's definitely been a 1,000% improvement over what I was going through before. Kavinace works to break down the blood-brain barrier to allow all of the GABA and other good stuff to get to your brain, like it's supposed to.  There isn't anything that I don't like about this stuff - my husband even uses it when he's having a bad day.  He is on blood pressure medication and there is no interaction for him.  Neither one of us has had any side effects, although side effects are pretty rare when you go all-natural.  This is my little miracle pill - it makes me feel great that I can take a supplement and not have to worry about all of those heavy-duty mental medications.  Check it out - google Neuroscience and it should come up....i don't remember the web address off the top of my head.  But make sure that you talk to your doctor before you start taking it, as you're supposed to do with all supplements.

[peggy64]

have you had your thyroid and adrenal glands checked? when those are out of balance they cause exactly what you described. Unfortunately, drs don't check those usually. They just want to give a Rx of xanax or some kind of anti depressant. When they might not be needed, but some thyroid medication would be needed.

[kgill78]

I have heard of ashwaganda and cordyceps helping.  I bought some but haven't seen any effects yet.  I have only taken either of them twice.