Severe anxiety

[Cured2020]

Can severe anxiety be treated successfully without antidepressants?

[sme_engle]

Well... Yes, you will always have the panic attacks and other symptoms weather you take medication or not. But i do believe you can calm or more control without reacting anxiety without medication. It will take longer and you really need to soul search yourself to find what is your anxiety acting up and what is your normal. What are your triggers and why they trigger you to learn how to expose yourself to them in a controlled way 'til they dont have such a strong effect on you. Its hard and a lot of work to do alone. Therapy is a non-medicated way to do all this, but if you live with people it can be hard to take the long non medicated way. Others dont always understand what you are doing. But it can be done and it is your choice

Best wishes for what every you choose and meditation where you go into your own space and just listen to all your thoughts. Just letting them rise up and mark them down on paper after words to review is a great place to start. It always helps me learn what is going on with me under the surface

[quitter333]

Yes.

It really depends on the source and reasons of your anxiety (e.g. some may be due to trauma, psychological problems, shizoid disorders, phobias, ADHD; others may be due to genetic problems with hormonal imbalance in brain). Depends on what your life experience is - e.g. it would be a very different approach to therapy for a iron wlled hardened soldier with PTSD and a teen who has had abusive childhood and is extremely reclusive.

Theoretically human brain has amazing plasticity. That means it can change, adapt.

Without prejudice to the above, I'd say that you should look into information how habits develop. Then seek out how you personally develop habits.

Then try to develop habits that help your anxiety. E.g. you have panic being around animals. You would read into dog discipline, and protection, to feel more confident. You would go to shelters to see animals. etc. In this particular case - to teach your own self to adapt that being around anxiety source is now a norm so brain would have to adapt (tone down anxiety by a lot).

So to repeat - it most probably is possible, and should be researched and planned out. Perhaps even your estimates of "severe" are not correct.

And drugs are usually for immediate relief.

Btw - do not disregard drugs completely. If you do not plan to use them lifelong, drugs may be a good catalisator for therapy - e.g. take drugs, then hang out anxiety source. Find out that actually source is not that bad at all. As you stop using drugs, you probably will be much less anxious.

In comparison - shy people tend to drink at teen age, as teens are anxious interacting socially, and alcohol works as simple depressant, helping relaxation. Party enough while drunk, and parties do not seem anything special sober. Bevereges are short-term drugs here.

[ciley]

if you had enough other help~

[KittenMittens22]

Yes I believe so. I too have tried without medications. There are times in my life I overcame it for the most part without meds, but it did take a long time. And like what someone else said here, it takes time to research and understand triggers. I would recommend doing so with a therapist and a medical doctor. Sometimes vitamin deficiency can cause anxiety and depression. I once found a book that had natural treatments, I can’t remember the name of it though. Many ways seem simple like getting at least 30 minutes of exercise, 15 minutes of sunlight, drinking plenty of water in the day, omega-3 for brain health. You just need to try to find out your cause first with the safety of a doctor.