It's not uncommon to experience some degree of stress and anxiety on a regular basis. When it goes away fairly quickly or doesn't recur very often, this is mild anxiety, and many people can choose to ignore mild anxiety as something that doesn't necessarily affect their lives.
When that anxiety becomes more pronounced, or starts to greatly reduce how much you can enjoy life's activities, then it's likely you are suffering from moderate anxiety. Moderate anxiety can be managed, in the sense that you can live your life without treating the symptoms, but if you don't search for an effective anxiety treatment you are going to find your days to be less enjoyable.
The Pharmaceutical Treatment Options
Many pharmaceutical companies have developed treatments that they claim are useful for moderate anxiety. Yet these treatments are nowhere near the right option for moderate anxiety suffers. That's because these medicines:
• Were Developed for Severe Anxiety – The purpose of these medicines was to have a valid pharmaceutical option for debilitating, severe anxiety – the type of anxiety that prevents you from even engaging in any of life's activities, let alone enjoying them. You are still able to go to work, spend time with friends, etc., and while they may be impacted by your anxiety, you can still engage in these activities.
• May Cause Addiction/Withdrawal – When you treat anxiety, you need to ensure that you are not going to suffer from further issues. But these medicines are highly addictive, and if you stop taking the medicine you may suffer from withdrawal symptoms that cause your anxiety to feel even worse than before you ever took the medicine.
• Have Substantial Side Effects – These are mental health drugs, and as such they're designed to affect your cognition. These medicines have a tendency to change personalities and cause serious lethargy, in addition to a host of potential physical consequences that can occur as a result of using these medicines regularly.
Those are all considerable problems, especially for someone suffering from moderate anxiety. You want to manage your anxiety symptoms and experience anxiety relief, not become an addict to a pharmaceutical medicine you may not even need.
The Natural Options
Of course, if only pharmaceutical medicines were available, it may still make sense to use these medicines. But substantial research has been conducted into other herbal and natural options for anxiety and stress, and several valuable and effective herbs have been found.
T
he best example is kava. Kava has been proven in numerous clinical studies to have anxiety-reduction qualities. These studies have been conducted at major universities in published papers, proving the effectiveness of kava as an herbal relief option.
Kava also has none of the problems that other pharmaceutical medicines suffer from. Kava has been shown to be:
• Side Effect Free – As long as kava is not taken with alcohol or when you have liver damage (kava interacts with alcohol and is cleared out through the liver), kava is completely side effect free. Taking the correct dose of kava has no known issues and relieves your anxiety safely.
• Does Not Cause Withdrawal – For those with moderate anxiety, you want to avoid taking anything that you feel you need to continue to take the rest of your life. With kava, you can stop taking the herbal supplement without worrying about any withdrawal issues.
• No Personality Changes – Kava is only used to relieve the symptoms of anxiety. It does not change your personality and doesn't affect your energy level. It's use is to relieve anxiety and that is what it does without any other consequences.
Several other herbal supplements are also being looked at for their anxiety reduction properties. Passionflower has shown several benefits in some studies, and peppermint/chamomile are also believed to have calming properties. None of these have any side effects, cause dependency, or have any withdrawal symptoms if you want to stop taking the supplements later.
Choosing the Right Option for Your Needs
When you suffer from anxiety you are in need of something that can provide relief. It doesn't matter how well you have been able to manage your anxiety attacks in the past, you need to be able to find a remedy that will allow you to live a better quality of life.
Pharmaceutical medicines are not the answer. They were not designed for those that suffer from moderate anxiety and have far too many problems that will most assuredly affect your life. Luckily, there are plenty of herbal supplements available that you can take instead. Options like kava, passionflower, and herbal teas and more all provide better relief with none of the potential problems that affect those pharmaceutical medicines. They are clearly a better option, and should always be considered before you decide to take any lab created medicines for your regular anxiety needs.
Ryan Rivera is a proponent of natural cures for anxiety and panic, and supplies relaxation techniques and other options for reducing anxiety at www.calmclinic.com.