Overcoming Anxiety Disorders To Live The Life You Want.

My desire to help others understand themselves and to overcome Anxiety and live the life they envisage has a personal element to it. There was a period in my life when I had a lot of extra life stressors to deal with and I developed an anxiety disorder in the form of Panic Attacks. Consequently I ended up in a doctors’ surgery with multiple physical symptoms that I ascribed to a life-threatening illness. A physical examination ensued as a Panic Attack can be difficult to assess when it presents acutely.  My heart was pounding; there was chest pain and discomfort, I was dizzy, found it difficult to breathe and swallow. There was also a “pins and needles sensation” in my hands, feet and face. Naturally I was overcome with fear. Was I going to die?

That was over 30 years ago when quite often panic was overlooked as a potential cause. Back then the symptoms of my Panic Attacks were not recognised or diagnosed, and my G.P. enquired “ Do you think it might be all in your mind?”. In point of fact my Panic Attacks resulted as a consequence of my perception in a stressful situation.  So to some extent it was “in my mind!” Yet, I don’t believe that is what my well meaning, family GP meant when he asked the question. He subsequently reached for his prescription pad and said “I will prescribe something to help with your depression”. I left the surgery more confused and definitely more depressed.

My Panic Attacks were unrelenting. I became unrealistically worried and anxious about everyday things expecting the worst even when there is no apparent reason for concern. It resulted in me withdrawing from normal activities like shopping, walking the dog, socialising with friends and family for fear of having a Panic Attack in public. I feared being alone in the house in case I would have an attack and die. The persistent anxiety over having further attacks was leaving me in a terrible state of trepidation. Left untreated the attacks were going to cause me many problems and destroy my life. It was time to seek help and the sooner the better. I needed to control my anxiety levels, stop worrisome thoughts, and conquer my fears preferably without the support of anxiety medication.

It was whilst researching therapies to assist with Panic Attacks that I found homeopathy. According to trials homeopathy was just as effective as diazepam (Valium) and benzodiazepine (Lorazepam or Ativan) at treating Anxiety Disorders but without addictive or harmful side effects. It could be used as a sole treat­ment if I choose not to see a counsellor or ther­apist but nevertheless wanted some help to recover from anxiety. There were so many homeopathic med­icines that could be used to treat the numer­ous symptoms of my anxiety that it was hard to know where to start. After medical tests etc I deduced my symptoms were not due to a physical illness such as an underactive thyroid, heart condition, stomach ulcer etc, It is advisable therefore to talk to your GP first to make sure of the diagnosis before starting homeopathic treatment.

Anxiety or Panic Attacks affect everyone at some stage or another but homeopathy has remedies to help. With the right homeopathic treatment, those living with debilitating anxiety can once again look forward to enjoying happy, worry-free lives.That’s why I’m glad to help. This is what I hope to do for you in my blogs: to provide useful information, anecdotes, and the like so you can connect and know you’re neither alone nor misunderstood. I will indicate useful remedies especially for your constitution type that will provide relief from your Panic and Anxiety Disorders. Good Luck!

 Some Useful Remedies

Arsenicum One of the first medicines that I think of when I see someone with all the symp­toms of anxiety with depression, partic­ularly when there are gastric symptoms of indigestion and diarrhoea, combined with panic attacks, is Arsenicum album. This medicine is based on white arsenic which causes severe gastroenteritis if taken in a toxic dose, which is why it can help similar symptoms when taken in a homeopathic potency. Somebody doing well with Arsenicum will probably be neat, tidy but restless. They may look anxious and drawn and tend to have a fastidious way about them, being able to give a lot of detail to their symptoms. Often I find that such a patient has to tell me all their troubles in a very method­ical but sometimes time consuming way.
 Arsenicum patients can be convinced that they have a physical illness which is being missed because they feel so ill and may in fact end up having a num­ber of investigations such as endoscopy and colonoscopy before finally accept­ing what is wrong with them. They can feel that they will never be well again. Fear is a prominent symptom, causing apprehension and dread, with an over­whelming feeling that everything will go wrong, and they despair of their recov­ery. These can be patients that I have to try very hard to reassure and I will often use a 30c dose, three to four times a day, with Aconite 30c taken as needed if they are having additional panic attacks.

Ignatia Where depression follows from bereave­ment, loss, or a shock, such as witness­ing a fatal road accident, Ignatia can be useful. The symptom picture is typified by emotional ups and downs with mood swings and is often quoted in homeo­pathic reference books as “laughter alter­nating with tears”. Having suffered the loss of a parent, I know myself the separation feeling that one under­goes when someone close to you dies and I remember being able to talk quite calmly one minute, and then being overcome with tears soon afterwards before becom­ing calm again a few minutes later. Often the sufferer can prove difficult for friends and loved ones to deal with as they are so up and down, being resist­ant to sympathy and oversensitive to well meaning advice, which may be wrongly taken as criticism. Ignatia patients tend to “bottle things up” and cry and give deep sighs during the course of their con­sultation. It may be hard for them to talk if they are overcome with their miser­able situation and friends can find it well nigh impossible to cheer up such patients. Poor sleep is common and so is the feel­ing of a ball or something stuck in the throat, known conventionally as globus syndrome. I often give a few Ignatia 30c tablets to recently bereaved patients to take when needed, especially around the time of the funeral, and will use a 200c on a weekly or monthly basis for per­sistent depressive symptoms.

Natrum Muriaticum  Another remedy that can bottle things up, but reacts quite differently to the Ignatia patient is Natrum muriaticum. This is one of my most frequently used homeopathic treatments for symptoms of stress, such as those typified by mild depression. I find it very useful when a patient has never been well since a shock or loss and feel as if they have a glass wall between them and the rest of the world. Often they have been unable to cry since bereavement and feel that they have not grieved properly for their loss. They feel worse for sympathy yet are very empa­thetic people. They sometimes build up a barrier emotionally and can appear somewhat cold and distant. They can worry about upsetting people uninten­tionally by saying the wrong thing and also can take things the wrong way. I tend to view these people as the “salt of the earth” type, having a strong sense of duty, but can find themselves being overwhelmed by the responsibility of their work, especially if they are caring for an elderly or sick relative. Such patients can feel that they should be doing more, not less, and feel they must “just get on with it”, and yet feel more and more tired and low in spirit as time goes on. Grudges can build up, with resentment. There may be an increased sensitivity to noise; certain passages of music may move them to those long awaited tears, but without relief from their low mood. I have discovered to my cost that using too high a dose of Natrum mur can cause emotional upset without improving the symptoms of depression so I tend to use a one off dose of 200c when there is a clear history of a defi­nite cause to the illness and a daily 30c dose if the trigger is less clear.

Sepia When all energy is drained, and my patient feels that they are unworthy of anybody’s love or attention, I turn to Sepia, a rem­edy which I have written about in the past for its use in the menopause and post­natal depression. I have used this almost exclusively for women who are sad, silent, solitary individuals, completely lacking in zest. Tears are never far away and a feeling of having to keep emotions under control otherwise one will have to scream is typical of the strain that such patients can feel. There is a wish to keep busy but with no incentive to do so and these patients can spend hours sitting motion­less in sadness. Sepia women will often tell me that they love their husbands or partners but cannot manage the physical side of the relationship, which they feel is starting to cause difficulties for their other halves. Sepia usually suits women who tend to feel chilly and they can either feel incred­ibly hungry, being unable to ever feel full or have nausea at the mere smell of food. They often have a sinking, or “all­gone” feeling in the pit of the stomach, espe­cially when they wake, which is not relieved by eating.