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My Anxiety Is Out Of Control

There is nothing worse than having that feeling of anxiety and slowly thinking that you’re about to spin out of control. I have had countless people come into the office that tell me that their anxiety is out of control. That no matter what they try it seems like it always comes back. Anxiety might be something that you think you always have to live with but I am going to tell you that is not the case. There are things we can do that can limit our anxiety, help get rid of it quicker when we do have it, and potentially get rid of it all together.

The biggest thing is that it takes multiple things in order to achieve this….there is not one thing that fixes it all.

Diet

Your diet plays a larger role in your anxiety than you might think! Heck I should say that it plays a larger role in your mental health as a whole than you probably think. If we are talking about serotonin production it’s worth knowing that the majority of the serotonin in your body is produced in the gut. It’s also worth mentioning this thing called leaky gut syndrome.

The gut is made up of millions and millions of bacteria. They are required for the proper function of our gut and digestion along with providing a protective lining. Sometimes this bacterial lining can get screwed up. When this happens we can start to have gaps in this protective lining. This will cause our bodies to start to absorb things that it wasn’t meant to absorb. What is the body’s response to foreign things it encounters?

It fights them off!!

This is a healthy response. At the same time if our bodies are experiencing this at every meal it becomes an issue. This will put the body into a chronic state of fight or flight/survival. When we are in this mode it’s really hard to make any sort of rational decision or feel at ease.

On the other hand if we are eating foods that are inflammatory to us in nature it is going to have the same effect as leaky gut syndrome does. We will constantly be putting our body into this fight or flight mode just from the things we eat! By doing this we don’t stand much of a chance to get better and will keep making the problem worse and worse.

By focusing on eating whole foods we are going to be able to start decreasing this chronic inflammatory reaction within our body. Start focusing on eating organic fruits and vegetables. If you are a big meat eater try and get organic and grass fed meat or wild caught fish. By doing this you are going to be able to start to decrease the inflammation within your body.

Your Nervous System

As we mentioned above the nervous system plays a pretty large role in anxiety. It can be one of the main things that can really send you into a massive fight or flight state, as that’s a part of the autonomic nervous system. Being able to have a nervous system that works properly can make a huge difference between having anxiety that is out of control and anxiety that isn’t even there anymore.

There are multiple ways to get your nervous system functioning properly. One of the easiest ways is through meditation and breathwork. Both of these are things that might not come easy to you but the more you do it and practice them the better you will come. There are a lot of great youtube tutorials for both of these. Doing a simple rhythmic 4 count breathing exercise is a great way to start. Simply inhale for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds, and hold exhaled out for 4 seconds. By doing this you are activating your parasympathetic nervous system or the part that is opposite from the fight or flight response.

Ice baths, cold showers, or cryotherapy are also great ways to help regulate your nervous system. The idea here is it pretty much shocks your body to a point where the only thing that can happen when you are done doing one of these things is the nervous system goes into a state of rest and relaxation since it can’t go back into fight or flight mode. It has been shown that doing this for at least 11 minutes total a week is where you see the most benefit.

At The Specific Chiropractic Center we hang our hat on nervous system regulation. Our goal is to get the nervous system back to working properly. We perform functional nervous system testing at every visit. This shows us if your body is stuck in a certain pattern or if we are actually healing. If your anxiety is getting out of control then your body has been stuck in the same pattern for years in my opinion.

If we see that your system is stuck in this recurring pattern we provide a very specific adjustment. What’s great is we don’t twist your head or neck so you don’t have to worry about that if that is something that you are nervous about regarding seeing a chiropractor. A lot of people mention that they really start to feel a shift in their anxiety and overall well being once starting care, one of the most popular things we hear from people is how well they are sleeping now as well which is something that everyone can get behind!

If you are someone who struggles with anxiety then try some of the things mentioned above, I promise that they will help you in some way! If you are interested in learning more about your nervous system health and how it may be impacting you and your anxiety then shoot us a message at mike@thespecific.com. Have a great day and I hope you enjoyed this article!