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Anxiety is an unpleasant future-oriented feeling of fear and apprehension that may be accompanied by physical signs of tension. Although anxiety is a normal feeling that everyone experiences, for people with anxiety disorders, anxiety can be persistent, overwhelming, excessive, and/or hard to control.
Anxiety is an unpleasant feeling of future-oriented fear and apprehension. The feeling may be accompanied by physical signs of tension, including the following:
Feeling anxiety is a normal response to facing a stressful situation, but excessive, hard-to-control, and long-lasting anxiety may be a symptom of anxiety disorders, such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, and panic disorder, or of other disorders, including medical conditions.[10]
Anxiety can be a normal response to facing a stressful situation. Anxiety symptoms can also be caused by medications or supplements, drugs of abuse, trauma, childhood experiences, and anxiety disorders or by another medical condition, such as hyperthyroidism, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), and heart arrhythmias, among others.[9][11]
Antianxiety medications, including beta-blockers, antidepressants, benzodiazepines and buspirone, can help reduce anxiety symptoms, and are commonly used either alone or in conjunction with therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) works well for many anxiety disorders, especially in combination with medication.[8][12]
While they are not a cure-all, supplements such as lavender, kava, saffron, ashwagandha, and inositol have good evidence for dampening the severity of anxiety symptoms to a moderate extent. However, note that a supplement that helps a situationally stressed person with transient anxiety won’t necessarily be effective for a person with an anxiety disorder. For example, in a 2022 review of studies, kava was not as effective in people with generalized anxiety disorder.[13] Magnesium also has some promising evidence for lowering symptoms of anxiety in people without diagnosed anxiety disorders.[14] Finally, cannabidiol provides some reduction of delta-9-THC-induced and experimentally induced anxiety in people with no known health conditions.[15][16]
Compared to typically less-healthy diets such as the Western diet, Mediterranean-style and vegan diets have some evidence for their ability to improve mood, although more research is necessary to confirm this.[3] Drinking plenty of water, limiting alcohol and caffeine, avoiding any trigger foods, eating balanced meals, eating complex carbs, and having protein at breakfast may also assist with anxiety symptoms by improving mood and increasing the sense of well-being.[17]
Some evidence shows that meditation can reduce anxiety symptoms,[4] performing better than no intervention or sham interventions in people without diagnosed anxiety disorders, and comparably to other active therapies among people with diagnosed anxiety disorders.[5]
Exercise, particularly high-intensity aerobic exercise and resistance training, may be effective for improving anxiety symptoms.[6][7] In one 2008 meta-analysis that compared exercise’s effectiveness at reducing symptoms of anxiety to that of other interventions, exercise was as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy; better than mindfulness interventions, stretching, and other therapy; and slightly less effective than pharmacotherapy.[18]
Music may help reduce medical anxiety; hypnosis has also been studied for medical and dental anxiety, but more research is needed.[19]
Additionally, binaural beats have been studied for anxiety symptoms and seem to provide modest benefits.[20][21]
In this meta-analysis of 21 randomized controlled trials in 2,020 participants, physical activity at low or moderate intensity reduced depression symptoms during and after menopause.
Anxiety is an unpleasant feeling of future-oriented fear and apprehension. The feeling may be accompanied by physical signs of tension, including the following:
Feeling anxiety is a normal response to facing a stressful situation, but excessive, hard-to-control, and long-lasting anxiety may be a symptom of anxiety disorders, such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, specific phobias, and panic disorder, or of other disorders, including medical conditions.[10]
Anxiety, as defined by the APA, combines uneasiness or dread about future events, physical symptoms of tension, and the anticipation of impending danger.[1] In contrast, fear is an emotional and physiological response to an immediate threat.[26] Anxiety and fear are both normal emotions that everyone experiences from time to time. In anxiety disorders, however, anxiety and fear are persistent — present for longer than 6 months — and either are excessive or are present long after they’re developmentally appropriate. Anxiety disorders can often interfere with daily activities, either directly (as with selective mutism, in which people cannot talk in some situations) or because people with anxiety disorders may rearrange their lives to avoid situations that trigger their symptoms (as with agoraphobia, in which certain spaces or situations trigger anxiety).
Anxiety can be a normal response to facing a stressful situation. Anxiety symptoms can also be caused by medications or supplements, drugs of abuse, trauma, childhood experiences, and anxiety disorders or by another medical condition, such as hyperthyroidism, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar), and heart arrhythmias, among others.[9][11]
Antianxiety medications, including beta-blockers, antidepressants, benzodiazepines and buspirone, can help reduce anxiety symptoms, and are commonly used either alone or in conjunction with therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) works well for many anxiety disorders, especially in combination with medication.[8][12]
While they are not a cure-all, supplements such as lavender, kava, saffron, ashwagandha, and inositol have good evidence for dampening the severity of anxiety symptoms to a moderate extent. However, note that a supplement that helps a situationally stressed person with transient anxiety won’t necessarily be effective for a person with an anxiety disorder. For example, in a 2022 review of studies, kava was not as effective in people with generalized anxiety disorder.[13] Magnesium also has some promising evidence for lowering symptoms of anxiety in people without diagnosed anxiety disorders.[14] Finally, cannabidiol provides some reduction of delta-9-THC-induced and experimentally induced anxiety in people with no known health conditions.[15][16]
Yes, but research is limited.[22] One gram of curcumin a day was shown to reduce anxiety when supplemented by people with obesity, compared to a placebo, in a crossover study. Depression was also measured, but there was no significant effect.
Though stimulants do not always cause anxiety symptoms, many create a stress response that could worsen existing symptoms. People with anxiety disorders might not need to stop using stimulants entirely, but they may want to avoid frequent use, especially if anxiety symptoms worsen.
Caffeine is the stimulant least likely to cause anxiety symptoms. Ideally, 100–200 mg of caffeine should be paired with an equal dose of theanine, an amino acid that can tame the anxiety caused by caffeine in some people without impairing caffeine’s stimulatory effect. In fact, the improvements in concentration (focus and attention span) induced by caffeine and theanine respectively have been shown to be synergistic.
Yohimbine and yohimbine-containing products — as well as supplements that have a similar mechanism, such as rauwolscine — should be avoided, as they can provoke anxiety, particularly in people with anxiety disorders.[23]
Compared to typically less-healthy diets such as the Western diet, Mediterranean-style and vegan diets have some evidence for their ability to improve mood, although more research is necessary to confirm this.[3] Drinking plenty of water, limiting alcohol and caffeine, avoiding any trigger foods, eating balanced meals, eating complex carbs, and having protein at breakfast may also assist with anxiety symptoms by improving mood and increasing the sense of well-being.[17]
Some evidence shows that meditation can reduce anxiety symptoms,[4] performing better than no intervention or sham interventions in people without diagnosed anxiety disorders, and comparably to other active therapies among people with diagnosed anxiety disorders.[5]
Exercise, particularly high-intensity aerobic exercise and resistance training, may be effective for improving anxiety symptoms.[6][7] In one 2008 meta-analysis that compared exercise’s effectiveness at reducing symptoms of anxiety to that of other interventions, exercise was as effective as cognitive behavioral therapy; better than mindfulness interventions, stretching, and other therapy; and slightly less effective than pharmacotherapy.[18]
Music may help reduce medical anxiety; hypnosis has also been studied for medical and dental anxiety, but more research is needed.[19]
Additionally, binaural beats have been studied for anxiety symptoms and seem to provide modest benefits.[20][21]
Yes, many symptoms of anxiety can be exacerbated during exercise and slightly afterward. However, the effects are temporary[24] and will usually subside. Moreover, awareness of the physical signs of anxiety may actually decrease[25] after settling into an exercise routine, which could mitigate distress in people with anxiety.
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