Depression and anxiety: 10 tips from natural medicine to get out of the loop

Anxiety and depression may seem like opposite situations. However, they can appear hand in hand with special characteristics in certain types of people –such as very active people, fighters and perfectionists–, creating a complex situation to recognize and treat.

In fact, as you will see in this article, several manifestations of anxiety and depression are common and even Anxiety can be a manifestation of depression.

We could say that there is a specific typology more prone to experience a depression promoted by a situation of continuous anxiety and one or more unresolved events. Maybe it’s you.

Chronic anxiety can lead to depression, without realizing it, and both coexist in a very difficult situation to bear.

The use of antidepressant and anxiolytic drugs is widespread in society and their abuse and misuse, along with other toxic habits, can lead to serious health problems. However, a healthy lifestyle, the balance between work and life, avoiding toxic habits, adaptogenic plants and maintaining contact with friends and nature, acupuncture, psychotherapy, are important natural aids against anxiety and depression.

In this article we are going to deal with it with ideas so you can understand each situation, where they may come from and how you can help yourself in the day to day and live a more exciting, rewarding and peaceful life.

Anxiety: symptoms and why it occurs

Anxiety is an experience of fear fear, unease or concern about real or unreal causes, of external or internal origin.

We can all experience an objective situation of fear when we feel threatened or something has happened to us that has endangered our physical integrity or some aspect of our lives, for example, in an assault, an accident, when we know there will be a layoff in the company, when they threaten us or we have had a strong discussion.

Faced with anxiety, nature prepares us with unconscious responses to flee, defend ourselves or stay put. Education, previous experiences and certain training help us avoid inappropriate responses caused by anxiety that can upset us and harm other people. However, This “one-time” experience in some people is not overcome and becomes chronic.

In this case, continual fear transforms into anxiety disorder. It is a continuous anxiety and it produces the manifestations that we have mentioned together with the feeling that something terrible is going to happen when it is possible that there is no longer any reason for it.

continued anxiety May cause:

intense nervousness, excessive worry, tremors, excessive perspiration, sweaty hands, labored breathing, clenching of teeth (bruxism) and fists, feeling pressure in the head, heart beating very fast, upset stomach, red and stinging eyes (conjunctivitis), loss of appetite, anorexia nervosa, mania, panic attacks, insomnia, migraines, contractures, headaches, joint pain, muscle pain, decreased physical and mental performance, memory failures, low self-esteem and self-confidence, affects social and family relationships, difficulties in intimate relationships.

Depression: symptoms and why it happens

Depression, for its part, It is an experience of sadness beyond logical sadness for a situation that has happened to us such as the loss of a loved one, a separation, the rejection of the project on which you have worked so hard, failing an opposition after years of study or that rainy day that affects you so much.

When sadness remains over time Without having overcome the situation that created it, sadness turns into depression and affects our lives in all spheres.

Depression turns off the illusion and the desire to do the things that were always done, vitality and drive are lost, they even become somatized, such as with:

pain, lack of appetite, frequent infections, weight gain, excessive desire to sleep, continuous fatigue, lack of concentration, neglect of self-care, lack of hygiene and care of the house, low self-esteem, social isolation, suicidal thoughts.

A loop of anxiety and depression

Possibly you feel identified or identified and / or see that various manifestations of anxiety and depression are common. That’s how it is. Anxiety and depression can be found at the same time.

Many of us are from a generation for which if you are not producing… you are useless… does it happen to you? How many problems this type of education brings! You also have to rest.

Today’s life with the hectic pace and the fictional lives on social networks, continually comparing ourselves to others, the dopamine that our brain releases during the time we are doing scroll in a feed from any network… it is a source of anxiety, depression and therefore serious health problems.

People who are very mentally active with concerns and interests that they pursue, ambition, desire to know and improve (people who are capable of taking risks at work or in their personal life, competitive, also physically as in sports activities, extreme perfectionists) they are used to living under pressure, with intense stress.

They carry out procedures and transactions that can go wrong and lose a lot of money, but they do it, without hesitation… They are the people who promote, encourage and move others.

One day, suddenly, they don’t feel like anything. They don’t know what to do in situations where they wouldn’t have hesitated before. They don’t come out. They do not present their ideas or creations. They fear that even the simplest and most formal will be confused.

They stay lying on the sofa “watching”, not even playing. They do not do any activity. They are left. They don’t buy healthy food, they eat anything. They see everything black. They disconnect, they even disconnect the mobile. They feel like failures. They don’t try anything. They have defeatist even suicidal thinking.

10 natural tips for care in anxiety and depression

In this situation, there are natural aids for self-care that may be useful:

1. Strike work-life balance

Take care of the balance between your work and personal life. Anxiety is related to excessive stress and misaligned hormone levels of cortisol, insulin.

Elevated cortisol continually makes us believe that something terrible is going to happen and weakens our immune system, “depleting” the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine.

2. Eat a healthy diet

Take care of your diet, set a rhythm for mealtimes, choose clean and healthy foods, This way you will provide nutrients as important as group B vitamins, or minerals and trace elements such as magnesium, lithium, cobalt, manganese, iron, zinc, among others.

These nutrients that we have named are found in whole grains, legumes, you should not forget to eat a clean, healthy diet and drink water.

Avoid or minimize the consumption of red meat, as well as processed foods and foods with added sugar. Avoid caffeine, tea in general, and black tea to a greater extent, as it contains xanthan bases that can be stimulants and accentuate restlessness and associated symptoms.

3. Do a detox

A detox plan is interesting since the liver mainly has a lot to do with how we feel emotionally, in our balance, verve and drive in life. For this reason, including a detox plan that includes hepatobiliary function is interesting.

Bitter foods like artichokes can help you. Also red tea, bitter chamomile, burdock, milk thistle, dandelion (in infusion or in specific nutritional supplements).

4. Avoid toxic habits.

In the search for the desired tranquility and stimulation, people with continuous anxiety can fall into smoking, drug use, abuse of pain-relieving drugs such as those of the opioid type, which produce tolerance, addiction and dangerous side effects.

5. Help you with natural and adaptogenic plants

Adaptogenic plants help us better cope with physical and mental stress, such as rhodiola, astragalus; Mushrooms like reishi or maitake also help us. Beware of ginseng (panax ginseng), if you tend to be very active, ginseng may not be right for you.

In fact, you will notice that you are more excited and less depressed when you are calm, rested and feel safe. The energy will return to you.

6. Adopt new habits and enjoy

Do things you like… enjoy the simple things. Take care of your environment, your home and take care of yourself. Wear clothes you like, not the first thing you catch. Take care of hygiene and your appearance.

Make a list of everything you do well and everything you don’t do well or in which you are a disaster and take it with a sense of humor. Think that’s why teams are created: to join forces and talents. Our strengths and weaknesses connect us.

If you didn’t, exercise. If you did, don’t go too far… are you going to the Olympics? If the answer is no… avoid hitting yourself unnecessarily and enjoy. Review your reasons, achievements and performance.

7. Have contact with nature and friends

Get out into nature. See how it is repaired and renewed. Look for company. Do not isolate yourself. Tell what happens to you. You’ll be surprised. Your vulnerability makes you strong.

8. Breathe and meditate

Learn to meditate and breathe calmly and consciously, at least ten minutes a day, try to do it at the same time.

9. Sleep and rest well

Sleep, set a schedule. Sleeping little alters you and sleeping too much accommodates the body. Take a nap after eating.

10. Seek professional help

It is very important – if you find yourself in a situation of anxiety or continuous fear – to look for the sources that trigger it and assess if they are real or not, if you can do something about it or not. A professional help would be perfect to get out of the situation and learn to live in another way and perhaps guide your new habits.

Acupuncture against depression is a great help. In fact, the vision from Chinese medicine makes it easier to identify syndromes that can encompass the different manifestations that we have discussed.

If depression is what seems most conspicuous, When the underlying anxiety trigger is identified and resolved, the gray cloud of depression disappears.

To end:

Imagine yourself as the warrior or the warrior who has reached the end of his physical and mental strength, and needs to “simply” rest, order his scale of values, recognize himself in his power and assume that what happened in the past is in the past. .