Freedom from Anxiety.

While it is tempting to simply accept these symptoms as an inevitable part of life, it is clear that we have the potential to become relatively free from anxiety. By definition, anxiety is unrealistic fear. While fear is adaptive, and triggers a protective “fight-flight” coping response to real danger, anxiety is a maladaptive overreaction to exaggerated perceived risks and threats.

Worrying that you will never find a life partner, that you or a loved one will become ill and never recover, or that you will fail an upcoming test and, as a result, become a failure in life, are just a few of the countless ways we tend to create irrational catastrophic fears. These unrealistic beliefs can dramatically impact our mood, attitudes, and behaviors, leading us to become distressed and impaired in our ability to function and enjoy our life. Recurrent anxiety can have a devastating toll on all aspects of our life, including our physical, emotional, and spiritual health, personal and work relationships, as well as creativity, pleasure, and productivity. Moreover, we become unable to develop and maintain loving attitudes and behaviors since anxiety leads to self-preoccupation and survival-based needs.

When we can truly recognize the irrational nature of our fears, we are often able to calm down and rediscover a sense of peace and well-being. For instance, by logically assessing the real risk of failing the test, based on prior life experience and other irrefutable facts, we are generally able to stay calm as well as more effective and ultimately successful. Moreover, if we step back and look at the “big picture,” we can recognize that even one failure on a test does not imply a failure in our career path, or life more generally. This is the method used in cognitive-behavioral therapy and other forms of psychotherapy. Realistic thinking can function like a shock absorber in our automobile – it smoothes out the bumps in the roadway of life. The bottom line is that stress in our outer world does not need to inevitably lead to distress in our inner world.

While realistic perspectives about our life can often relieve irrational worries and fears, there is increasing evidence from neuroscience research that the stress and reward centers of the brain can be “locked” into a “fight-flight” response pattern. This can be caused by a variety of factors, from childhood and other traumatic stress, drugs and alcohol, unhealthy lifestyles, as well as genetic influences. As a result of these factors, biochemical imbalances in neurotransmitter systems involved in our stress and reward response, such as endorphins, dopamine, and serotonin, appear to play a significant role in producing and maintaining emotional and physical distress even when we try to consciously reduce our irrational worries and fears. Therefore, for many of us, just trying to relax and think more realistically is not sufficient to relieve anxiety and restore serenity.

The fact that biochemical imbalances in the brain play a significant role in anxiety has led the medical profession to all too often prescribe psychotropic medications to reduce symptoms – from Xanax to Prozac. Unfortunately, these drugs typically, at best, mask symptoms of anxiety and do not resolve the underlying biochemical imbalances. They also have numerous noxious side effects and can produce tolerance and dependence.

The good news, however, is that there are many, more natural and healthier methods to safely and effectively modify these stress and reward neurotransmitter systems in order to relieve anxiety. Healthy lifestyles, including consistent meditation, mindfulness, yoga, exercise, restful sleep, whole natural foods, as well as positive values and attitudes have all been found to modify our brain functioning, leading to calm, well-being, and pleasure. There is remarkable evidence that these health-promoting behaviors and attitudes can transform our lives.

In fact, recent neuroscience research has demonstrated the remarkable neuroplasticity of the human nervous system and our ability to literally rewire our brain as we actively engage in new beliefs, values, and activities, from psychotherapy and spiritual experiences to meditation and other healthy lifestyle choices. Nevertheless, there is clear evidence that even these healthy lifestyle choices are not always sufficient to restore natural balance to the stress and reward centers of the brain, which can be “locked” into dysfunctional “fight-flight” coping response patterns. Moreover, when our brain chemistry is sufficiently imbalanced, it is often an insurmountable struggle to engage in these healthier beliefs and activities, regardless of our good intentions and efforts.

Fortunately, rather than relying on conventional prescription medications, neuroscientists from Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Duke University, and Harvard have been developing a new generation of formulations based on ground-breaking scientific discoveries regarding stress and reward system imbalances. These novel formulations restore healthy balance in these brain centers by enhancing the release of neurotransmitters, such as endorphins and dopamine, while insuring that they trigger reward rather than distress signals.

Clinical studies, recently published in the Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science – referenced at the bottom of this article – shown that nutraceutical formulations, based on these scientific discoveries, relieve a wide variety of emotional and physical distress symptoms, including anxiety and depression, obsessions and compulsions, anger and irritability, cravings and addictions, aches and pains, as well as fatigue and distractibility. Individuals suffering from recurrent anxiety experienced remarkable benefits from daily use of these nutraceuticals, including enhanced calm, well-being, energy, mental clarity, and freedom from anxiety. What is remarkable is that these scientifically formulated nutraceuticals combined ancient healing herbs with amino acids and vitamins, all of which are natural health-promoting ingredients.

Therefore, when healthy life choices, such as meditation, mindfulness, and even psychotherapy are insufficient to resolve emotional and physical distress, this new generation of anxiety relief nutraceuticals might be considered to restore balanced brain functioning. Once the stress and reward brain centers are balanced, healthy living becomes much easier, further enhancing well-being, serenity, pleasure, and satisfaction in life.

Nutraceutical preparations, based on these scientific discoveries and clinical studies, such as Deepak Chopra Endorphinate®, are now available to provided managed anxiety relief.

S. Crain, M. A. Crain and S. M Crain, “Emotional and Physical Distress Relief Using a Novel Endorphinergic Formulation,” Journal of Behavioral and Brain Science, Vol. 3, No. 6, 2013, pp. 441-453. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jbbs.2013.36046