- 12 plants to calm anxiety
- Passionflower
- Grass of San Juan
- Valerian
- Basil
- Lavender
- Chamomile
- Orange blossom
- Lemon verbena
- Ginseng
- Linden
- White hawthorn
- Balm
- What is anxiety?
- Signs and symptoms of anxiety
- Disorders that have associated anxiety
Taking herbs for anxiety is one of the best ways to treat anxiety without taking drugs that can cause side effects. Nature offers us many resources to improve our life and have a greater well-being. And it is wise to know how to take advantage of what Mother Earth offers us to heal ourselves.
In contrast to natural or alternative medicine, there is allopathic or allopathic medicine. Scientific and medical advances have made life expectancy increase even with the new assortment of pathologies, both physical and mental, that appear every time.
It is true that in allopathic medicine there are many drugs that help us at times when we need to alleviate a symptom or cure a disease. However, everything has its positive side and its negative side.
Although pharmacology fulfills its role in a high percentage of cases, it is often accompanied by undesirable side effects.
Sometimes it is good to consider other alternatives and have an open mind. These alternatives may or may not work for you, but you have nothing to lose.
Normally the natural does less damage than the synthetic or chemical, whether in the field of health, food or the products we use for example for our hygiene.
In addition, unfortunately, there are many people in the world who cannot take some medications for some specific reason, such as an intolerance, an allergy or even organic dysfunctions such as insufficiency.
12 plants to calm anxiety
Before starting with the list, it is important that you keep in mind that although natural remedies are good for your health, they can also have adverse effects such as an allergic reaction. Therefore, you must be careful when using these remedies (like any remedy, whether natural or conventional).
Passionflower acts directly on the CNS (central nervous system) and has the property of relaxing the muscles. In addition to relaxing centrally, it can have benefits in terms of contractures, muscle pain due to tension or poor posture, headaches and even menstrual pain.
It can be taken in drops of tincture dissolved in water or with juice.
The tincture drops are drops made with the pure extract of the plant preserved in alcohol and water. You can usually find them in a herbalist or parapharmacy.
St. John's wort, also known as St. John's wort, has a compound called hypericin, which acts as an inhibitory agent for dopamine, reducing its production. Therefore, it is indicated and works well for people suffering from intense and uncontrollable anxiety and nervous states.
This plant can be used in massages by mixing the essential oil with a massage cream.
Through aromatherapy it also has beneficial effects. It can also be ingested through an infusion.
Perhaps it is one of the best known plants to calm anxiety. It has relaxing and calming effects. Among its properties we find that valerian calms, relaxes, helps to fall asleep and reduces menstrual pain.
It can be taken as an infusion and even in tablets.
Basil is typically used in cooking, and not many people are aware of the calming and relaxing properties of this herb. It has relaxing properties, since it acts on the nervous system. In addition, it also helps to perform a correct digestion.
You can take it seasoning dishes, or as an infusion.
Lavender has been used since ancient times as a relaxing herb.
It can help you fall asleep, as it acts against insomnia, it also reduces anxiety and blood pressure.
It can be taken as an infusion or used by aromatherapy.
To use it with aromatherapy, you can get a bath gel that is composed of lavender and take a relaxing bath with hot water. Or you can even make a small sack containing lavender to smell whenever you need.
Chamomile is a well-known plant, it has relaxing properties at the muscular and nervous level. This happens because it manages to raise two substances in particular in the body: glycine and hippurate.
It has anti-inflammatory and sedative properties and is useful at the digestive level.
In addition, as it has relaxing properties at the muscle level, it can be used as a remedy for menstrual cramps.
To enjoy its properties, just take it as an infusion.
The orange blossom is obtained from the bitter orange blossom, its smell is very characteristic of good weather nights.
It has properties that help with anxiety and insomnia. In addition, from this plant an essence called "petit grain" is extracted, which also has sedative properties, as well as digestive and relief from nervous tension.
It can be taken as an infusion, or using an essential oil of orange blossom to be used in aromatherapy or massages.
Lemongrass helps calm nerves, anxiety, and stress. In addition, it can be used as a natural remedy for insomnia. Other therapeutic qualities of lemon verbena are those related to the digestive system, since it eliminates gas and relieves colic.
You can season your dishes with this plant, and even take it as an infusion.
According to Chinese medicine, ginseng helps us balance ying and yang in the body. It has calming effects on those who suffer from stress or anxiety.
You can dilute a few drops of ginseng tincture in a glass of water, juice or tea.
Linden is perhaps the best-known herb for its relaxing properties. It can help us to be more calm and can even act in favor of sleep, since it prevents insomnia.
It can be taken as an infusion.
Hawthorn has many beneficial properties for anxiety. It improves and prevents cardiovascular diseases, improves circulation, reduces blood pressure and has relaxing effects on the sympathetic nervous system.
Melissa is very rich in pollen, and has relaxing properties that can help people with anxiety, stress or insomnia.
Other properties that it presents are related to the body at the muscular level, since it has antispasmodic effects.
It can be taken as an infusion.
What is anxiety?
Maybe you don't know how to describe in a concrete way what anxiety is and what it implies, although surely most of the people who are reading these lines know what feeling it causes in the body and that it is not at all pleasant.
Anxiety goes beyond feeling worried for some reason, since the intensity of both sensations are different, being in the first place a more intense sensation.
Normally when we experience a stressful situation that exhausts our personal coping resources, we feel anxiety. It is something natural and biological since it makes us be alert, but when the situation ends, so does stress.
Anxiety, if it appears at a specific time, there is nothing wrong with it. What is worrisome or annoying is when the feeling of anxiety does not disappear even if the stimulus that causes it or the situation that causes it disappears.
That is, anxiety should be treated when it is suffered for no reason.
The person who suffers from maladaptive anxiety has difficulties to lead his life normally, since the sensation it causes is so unpleasant that it can paralyze any activity that is being carried out.
Signs and symptoms of anxiety
Symptoms associated with anxiety are not as obvious or easy to detect, as they often develop over time.
There are also signs and symptoms of anxiety that are shared with other types of pathologies, making their detection difficult.
For example, a person suffering from anxiety may feel a strong tightness in the chest, just like when suffering a heart attack.
The anxiety that we sometimes feel under extreme conditions tends to be of a specific and limited duration, and is connected to the stressful situation itself. But the type of anxiety experienced by those who suffer from this disorder, in addition to the fact that it may not be accompanied by the stressful situation, is more recurrent and persistent.
It is important that you know that each person, having their own history and personality, may present associated symptoms that are different from that of another person with the same disorder. However, the most common symptoms associated with anxiety are the following:
- Physical level: panic attacks, skin erythema, flushing, feeling cold, palpitations, increased heart rate, chest tightness, rapid breathing, hyperventilation, muscle tension, sweating.
- Psychic level: exaggerated or excessive fear, catastrophic, negative, obsessive and / or circular thoughts.
- Behavioral level: avoidance of situations that can cause anxiety.
To make a correct diagnosis it is necessary to go to a specialist who is trained for this purpose, so if you feel identified it would be helpful if you made an appointment with your family doctor or go to a psychologist.
Disorders that have associated anxiety
- Generalized anxiety disorder: this type of disorder is characterized by the fact that the person is in a state of alert most of the time, since they feel anxiety and worry in very frequent and everyday situations.
- Phobias: the person suffers from stress and anxiety when faced with the phobic or feared stimulus, which is why they will present the symptoms associated with anxiety.
- Panic disorder: it is a disorder in which the affected subject repeatedly suffers sudden and intense attacks of terror without the presence of external stimuli that can trigger them.
- Post-traumatic stress disorder: This disorder appears when the person has experienced an event that has caused trauma. Anxiety is also subject to this type of disorder.
- Obsessive compulsive disorder: it is characterized by intrusive, recurrent and persistent thoughts that produce unpleasant sensations, such as anxiety, for which the person performs rituals or behaviors aimed at reducing these sensations.