Common Anxiety Treatments

In the SHM Community Forums, Manuel shared his thoughts about anxiety and treatment. He wrote:

A friend of mine sent me an email question about anxiolitics, also known as anti-anxiety medication. I wrote her the answer below, then thought I might drop it into the SHM Anxiety Forum, in case some of you might be interested in some of this information. Feel free to ask me any questions.

I know a little (not a LOT) about anxiety, so I'll give you my thoughts.

The problem with anxiety medication is that it often involves withdrawal (intense anxiety) when you decide to stop it. But if you absolutely need it, then you need it and can deal with consequences later.

The other option is to get an anti-depressant (if you can tolerate one) that has sedative side effects. They help you sleep better (if you need better sleep). They reduce anxiety and are not addictive.

Then of course, there's the anti-histamine option. I've known lots of people who will take something stronger than benadryl, like vistaryl (sp?) and get a highly sedating antihistamine to take the edge off. These stronger anti-histamines require a prescription.

And fourth but not least is the old-fashioned breathing exerises. Abdominal breathing for 10-15 minutes at a clip, 3 times day. That forces your body to produce its own anti-anxiety chemicals, has no negative side effects and actually has many benficial side effects for healing, especially if you combine it with imagery related to your surgery. Like little white blood cells eating bad vermin cells, health blood flow, rejuvenating cel growth, etc. etc.

Some people make a little movie in their heads and run through it during their breathing exercise periods. Some other people, the ones with good drawing skills, actually draw the scenes from their mental imagery, like a storyboard. The more we develop the scenes, even if they include pictures pulled from a magazine, the more we can make our bodies do what we want them to do. Lots of research has supported this breathing/imagery approach and found it to have permanent benefits as opposed to medication.

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