Help for Anxiety and Panic Attacks

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The causes of anxiety conditions are many, unique to each individual, and often a combination of physical, environmental, and emotional factors pinging off each other. There is an underlying, foundational cause, but it's not an easy solution. So, when in the throes of anxiety and you need emergency relief, there is a suitable, temporary solution.​

The remedy that works well, is kava root extract in tincture form. 

Only a small amount, much less than the recommended dosage, usually, of kava root tincture is needed to either stop a panic attack in its tracks or soothe uncontrolled anxiety. 

Please note that one should never take more than the recommended dose, and never take it unnecessarily.  Seek the smallest dosage that will ease your symptoms.

Abuse of kava root extract is known to damage the liver and has put some in hospital. Abusing medications, natural or otherwise, is damaging to the body, so please medicate responsibly should you choose to medicate.

Dietary Correlations
Consider checking your diet for nutrient or electrolyte imbalances, and triggering foods and drinks. Generally speaking, functional medicine trained doctors and clinicians are more suited to helping people find nutrition-related imbalances that could imbalance the brain, nervous system, or biochemistry.

An easier, first option is to remove the known substances that can exacerbate anxiety:

• Alcohol - Alcoholic beverages reduce anxiety at first, but then the anxiety comes roaring back, bigger, afterwards, leading to a downward spiral aka addiction.
• Caffeine - They don't call it the "nervous jitters" without reason. For some people, even the caffeine in chocolate could set them off. On the other hand, like-cures-like is real when it is done right, and a homeopathic called coffea cruda often does wonders for calming the racing mind that tends to go hand-in-hand with anxiety.
• Sugars - Like alcohol, sugars can calm at first, but over time lead to sometimes extraordinary hormonal/chemical imbalances afterward, albeit insidiously. Consequently, sugar and anxiety are yet another potential recipe for a downward spiral that includes addiction.

Dietary Update
It turns out that alcohol, caffeine, and sugar are all causes of magnesium deficiency, which is a likelier deeper cause of anxiety: Quality of Health Depends on Magnesium.


Social Correlations
Anxiety is likely on the rise because untrusting and untrustworthy people are on the rise. When we feel socially safe, deep down, anxiety has no foothold.

When emotions rise, reverse engineering back to the original cause, usually leads to the observation that a loss of trust was experienced. Betrayals, even micro-betrayals, contribute to loss of trust. We may have lost trust in someone else, ourself, or both. Where trust is lacking, the feeling of safety erodes, and anxieties are born. Like many of life's problems, we cannot find the true answer by addressing it at the superficial level - we must dig deep to where it all started. When we see where it started, we also see how to prevent it from happening in future: Be trusting and trustworthy, all of us.

In the meantime, observe without judgement. Judgment rises from fear and anxiety within the self, and can also cause fear and anxiety in others. Instead of judging, cultivate calm:

• Pace your breathing, and
  
• Identify what needs to be done, and do it the best you can.

Remember
Don't take these words for granted. Instead, check out the advice and decide for yourself. Every person is biochemically unique, and in the world of natural medicine remedies what suits one individual may not suit another, for unlike pharmaceuticals they do not force an action on the body but instead assist the body in rebalancing itself.

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Caveat: Advice is based on the author's extensive experiences, research, and conclusions, and is not intended to be followed; each person must do their own investigation.

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Originally written and posted: August 2014