Claire Evers

The information provided on this site is for educational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical or psychological advice. Consult a medical professional or healthcare provider for advice, diagnoses, or treatment. Claire Evers is not liable for risks or issues associated with using or acting upon the information on this site.

Mental Illness is an invisible diagnosis. People can’t see the wounds you carry or how much they weigh. If you’re here because of your own struggles with Anxiety or any other disorder, I hope you find some understanding here.

Anxiety Symptoms

In any disorder, symptoms will vary, but here is a list of common Anxiety syptoms.

• Difficulty managing fear or worries
• Irritability or a feeling of being on edge all the time
• A sense of doom or a reason to panic
• Sleep problems (falling asleep or staying asleep)
• Chronic fatigue (despite decent sleep)
• Brain fog
• Physical symptoms
  • Headache
  • Muscle Tension
  • Nausea
  • Diarrhea

For some, their symptoms aren’t limited to the above, they may even experience an anxiety attack or panic attack.

Panic Attack vs. Anxiety Attack

These two are separated by the source of the attack.

Panic Attack

Panic attacks are a response to something that has already taken place, or is still going on. Your response is to the present circumstances you find yourself in.

Anxiety Attack

An Anxiety attack is the result of built up stress leading to a future event. Anxiety is in the mind and lies to us about the future, therefore if your attack is about the future, not the past or present, then you will know which category you fit into.

The physical symptoms are the same, which is why the two get confused so easily. With either type of attack you might feel:

• shortness of breath
• sweating
• increased or abnormal heart rate
• confusion
• irritability
• nausea
• shaking
• chest pain
• feelings of agitation
• severe panic

Generalized Anxiety Disorder Symptoms

Johns Hopkins defines generalized anxiety disorder as a state of uncontrolled worry that lasts a minimum of 6 months and occurs on most days. The symptoms are a combination of the two lists above, with a few additions:

• twitching
• trembling
• hot flashes
• light-headedness
• trouble breathing
• urinating often
• lump in the throat
• being easily startled
• unable to relax

The reason for the extended list is that people with anxiety experience higher levels of cortisol and a breakdown of their gut flora. The combination of these two things can lead to a multitude of symptoms that, left untreated- at the source– can lead to a full physical breakdown.

It’s a diagnosis more commonly found in women, and yes, it’s hereditary.

But how do we cope with severe anxiety before it becomes crippling anxiety?

Anxiety Treatment

Talk therapy

With Cognitive Behavior Therapy this treatment allows for professional insight into your struggles. I know that visiting a doctor can be scary, and being vulnerable with a stranger is a difficult thing to do, but there are a lot of benefits of getting professional help from someone who is trained to help you understand where you’re at and how to help you move forward towards your goals.

If you aren’t up for visiting with a therapist in person, there are numerous online venues nowadays to explore with different types of plans for scheduling and payments.

If finances are a problem, ask around and you just might find a practitioner who can work with you on a sliding scale of income-based payments. What you pay is relative to how much you make. These types of programs are more common in hospitals or larger practices- it’s worth asking!

Medications

Another good reason to seek professional help is to make sure that if you are needing traditional forms of medication, you can have access to them for as long as you need them. Some people do well on traditional medications, and seeking professional help makes this possible. If you react poorly to a medication, double check to see how you should taper off a medication as the side effects can be more pronounced and longer lasting for several medications.

Supplements

Where some people improve on traditional medications, others, like myself- struggle. It’s zero fun being diagnosed with Anxiety and then reacting to meds. If you’re in this place too, I am so sorry. Here is a list of Supplements that could be worth a try to help compensate for the effects that anti-anxiety meds are intended to have.

• Vitamin D3
  • Improves mood and energy
  • Dosage: 2,000 IU per day or 5,000 IU if deficient
  • 15-20 minutes of sun exposure is best for Vitamin D absorption
• Magnesium
  • Regulates sertonin and improves brain function
  • Also treats insomnia and sleep patterns, improves digestion, and cardiac function.
  • Dosage: 250 mg or less before bed.
• Melatonin
  • Easily tolerated, safe to combine with other meds
  • Aids sleep, reduce negative feelings that keep us awake
  • Dosage: 1-10 mg before bed
• Omega-3 Fatty Acids
  • Also known as Fish Oils
  • Improves cardiovascular health, brain function and mood
  • Foods: salmon, mackerel, herring, sardines, anchovies, flaxseeds, chia seeds, spinach and brussel sprouts.
  • Dosage: 1,000 – 1,200 mg per day
• Chamomile
  • Usually consumed as a tea
  • Contains apigenin which decreases anxiety by binding to anxiety specific receptors in your brain
  • CAUTION: if you’re on blood thinners, be careful of your dosage as chamomile can produce a blood-thinning effect. All vascular concerns should be addressed before you add this into your routine.
  • Dosage: 800-1,600 mg before bed (roughly one fully steeped bag of tea)
• Valerian Root
  • Works with GABA receptor, an amino acid that helps to decrease anxiety symptoms. Also works for depression, premenstrual syndrome and ADHD.
  • CAUTION: Be extra cautious with this if you also take sedating medications or benzodiazepines.
  • Dosage: 300 – 600 mg before bed
• Ashwagandha
  • Adaptogenic
  • Has a sedative effect and decreases cortisol
  • HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
  • Dosage: 500 – 1,000 mg per day
• Kava
  • Increases dopamine levels and reduces anxiety symptoms
  • Sometimes used recreationally for euphoric effect
  • CAUTION: Be extra cautious with this if you are also take sedating medications or benzodiazepines. Also, avoid overuse as recreational drug, as it can be harmful with too much use.
  • Dose: 1,000 – 1,400 mg per day
• TO AVOID: KRATOM
  • Can help with opiod dependency
  • Highly Addictive
  • May contribute to psychosis

Just to be up front- not every person reacts to each supplement the same– and it can take some time- a loading dose if you will- to start to notice the benefits of some of these. If you can, try and consult your physician in case any of these react with any medical conditions you have or with any traditional meds you take.

Also, look out for good quality products. USP labels, USDA NON GMO, GMP (Good manufacturing practices) and Third Party Tested Labels are usually a safe bet to get you a good product. In the U.S. it is legal to label something as organic, even if it isn’t. Check the labels and make sure it has one of the above mentioned to ensure you’re spending and ingesting wisely!

Lifestyle Changes

If you hit a fork in the road, don’t go straight. If you’re suffering from mild to severe Anxiety symptoms, it’s time to make a change or things will likely only get worse. Keep in mind that not all changes need to be permanent. You may experience ups and downs over the days, months or even years. Whatever your journey looks like, it’s okay to make accommodations that allow you to lower your stress levels and decrease your anxiety.

Avoid Substances

Alcohol, tobacco, recreational drugs and stimulants have a negative impact on your anxiety levels. Avoiding these substances will give you a better chance of controlling and overcoming your anxiety.

Relaxation Techniques

Deep breathing, mindfulness, meditation and mild to moderate exercise are all great approaches to dealing with Anxiety and the physical symptoms you experience.

For deep breathing practice the 4-7-8 rule: inhale for a count of four, hold for a count of 7, exhale for a count of eight. Repeat until you notice a change and are ready to return to your regular activity.

With Mindfulness, if you find you are experiencing heightened anxiety levels, look around you and practice the rule of 3‘s. Identify 3 objects, 3 sounds, then move 3 body parts. Deliberate actions like these help to ground you and don’t take long to perform.

To Meditate, check out my list on my post Stress and Anxiety for a list of types of meditation and their benefits. There are also apps- Headspace being a favorite- to help get you started.

Mild to moderate exercise– used alternatingly- can be incredibly helpful to lower your stress levels and rebuild physical and emotional strength. Even five minutes of stretching is beneficial.

If you’re looking for a list of creative activities to lower your stress levels, check out my post on Stress Reducing Activities.

Types of Anxiety

• Panic disorder
  • Unexplained, recurrent panic attacks
• Social Anxiety
  • Significant anxiety about being around others
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
  • Uncontrollable worry about future events
• Specific Phobias (individualized fears)
  • Caused by specific objects/events that are benign
• OCD
  • Characterized by routines that can impede a person’s basic ability to function
• Separation Anxiety
  • Characterized by excessive fear about being separated from a person’s home or loved ones
• Agoraphobia
  • Extreme or irrational fear of crowded or open spaces, fear of places with no possible escape routes, and fears of leaving home
• PTSD
  • Occurs after experiencing a shocking event that threatens a person’s life or well-being
• C-PTSD
  • The result of chronic trauma or ongoing denial of your basic needs
• Selective Mutism
  • A manifestation of the ‘freeze’ response: a person who is capable of speech stops talking around a specific person or trigger
• Health anxiety
  • The constant worry that you are ill or will become ill soon
• High Functioning Anxiety
  • Characterized by being highly organized, overly prepared, and perfectionistic
  • More common in women
  • Not readily diagnosed as people with HFA don’t necessarily experience the same symptoms as everyone else with other forms of anxiety

Feeling Anxious vs. Having Anxiety

The best illustration that I can give is that a person who is feeling anxious is like you’re in a car, driving in the desert. The sun is hot and the AC isn’t working the way you want it to, but at least you’re moving and within a reasonable amount of time you’ll be able to escape the blistering heat and get to your intended destination.

If you have an anxiety diagnosis, you are more like the desert hare who hops around with those big floppy ears to help them adjust to the desert heat. Or a cactus that sits in place, praying for the rain so that- on a good day- it can sprout a beautiful flower just to show that it’s still alive.

People with mild to moderate Anxiety are like the desert hare, still able to move, but living in the desert heat, running and hiding from our real or perceived predators. Those with severe anxiety are like the cactus. We can’t move and we’re covered in prickly little needle-like triggers. We feel isolated. Alienated. Misunderstood and unappreciated. It’s a lonely existence with no way to fully communicate how we’re feeling or what we need.

Crippling Anxiety

Any long-term illness has the ability to cripple your ability to function normally. Instead of growth and development, you decay and your body forgets what it was meant to do.

We all have our challenges, and with anxiety, the same is true.

Physical challenges of Anxiety

• Heart palpitations, racing, irregular beating
• Immune suppression
• Lowered lung efficiency
• Digestive problems
  • IBS is a common trait associate with Anxiety
• Lowered energy levels

Practical challenges of Anxiety

• Concentration or brain fog issues
• Lowered productivity
• Increased sick days
• Job loss
• Isolation from loved ones while trying to cope with Anxiety
• Being misunderstood by others
• Being misunderstood by medical doctors when reporting physical complaints

Medical challenges of Anxiety

With COVID, many healthcare workers were trained to ask people how they were doing and to make note of when someone came into the hospital or doctor’s office expressing symptoms of depression.

Anxiety is not depression and it can take a myriad of tests to get to an anxiety diagnosis. If you think you may be struggling with Anxiety, be sure to speak up and point your medical professional in that direction so they can give you more immediate and accurate recommendations to help you on your journey.

Depression and Anxiety

Have one long enough, and you’ll become familiar with the other. They’re actually considered symptoms of each other. With anxiety, you might experience depression as well as the typical irritability, OCD or panic based symptoms. With depression, your symptoms can include anxiety as well as a general feeling of being low, a loss of interest in things, chronic fatigue and pain. One diagnosis can lead to the other, and treating both equally is imperative.

Severe Anxiety

Anyone who deals with severe anxiety is fighting a battle against a demon they cannot see. The logical world no longer applies to you because you are caught in the vice grip of your demons, AKA the neurological pathways that once sought to protect you from harmful situations. But even if you escape the situation that caused the original source of anxiety, the pathways are there, and so, in your mind, you are still there.

Your entire nervous system lives in the environment that hurt you, no matter your location, no matter who has access to you or not.

This is severe anxiety. It traps you. What once protected you- your nervous system and its’ ability to pick up on clues for things that might hurt you- is now just another adversary.

We are fighting for survival moment to moment.

Normal people breathe. Severely anxious people gasp then plunge back into a cess pool where electric eels surround you with unwanted impulses to snuggle you and jar you back into a frozen world of helplessness all while lighting your entire brain and body on fire.

Ever see a panic attack? Meet the inside of a brain that belongs to a person with anxiety. Only it doesn’t end. It’s dancing the cha-cha nearly 24/7/365.

I know this sounds harsh, but if you’ve never dealt with anxiety and are wondering what the fuss is about, please know this is how harsh the world feels to those of us who suffer from severe anxiety.

Overcoming Anxiety

It will take time, and you will need to work hard.

If you struggle with anxiety don’t ignore your physical health. You need to walk and move. A few minutes is fine, but 40 minutes a day is said to decrease anxiety symptoms by over 50%. Take deep breaths. Stretch.

Take a probiotic– it’s not just good for your digestion, it’ll help your immune system get back to where it needs to be and help regulate your hormones.

Talk to someone. If you can afford a therapist, great. If not- a friend or family member or a stranger in a support group.

Whatever you need to do for yourself, do it. Even if that means taking medication- short-term or long-term. Normal meds didn’t work on me, and I had to go with a couple natural products: Ashwagandha and Magnesium Glycinate. Don’t exclude your options just because some doctor isn’t familiar with it. Be your own research analyst. Go with what works for you. Everyone is different.

Anxiety disorder self care may involve regular rest, or even a sabbatical. Some people choose exposure therapy to help them find ways to deal with anxiety, others restructure their lives to avoid stress. There are a lot of different paths to take. Choose the one that recharges your batteries and returns you to a feeling of peace.

If you know someone who struggles with anxiety, buckle up. This isn’t their rodeo. At least not by choice. Help support them in making healthy choices for themselves. And please stay patient. They need you more than they are capable of communicating it to you. You could very well be their lifeline. In which case, don’t be afraid to ask for help and support for yourself when you need it, too.

We’re all human and sometimes what we need is a little grace in the middle of our storms.

May God Bless and Keep You.

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