When you think about anxiety… what comes to your mind? Is it someone in the fetal position in the corner of a room hyperventilating into a paper bag? Is it someone who is incredibly detailed and cannot seem to handle when things don’t go the way they are supposed to?
All jokes aside, anxiety comes in all shapes and forms. And what’s more, is the definition of anxiety is WAY different today than what it was in the past. I want to really dig in and talk about the evolution of anxiety and why the medical model has failed us. In the past, there have been other names or feelings for it and there was no understanding of the connection between the brain chemistry and the feelings. Today, we know more.
Also, our food, water, air, beauty and cleaning products and clothing have changed, so the level of mental health problems we are seeing now have increased. Science has shown us that our bodies have the ability to heal themselves, to maintain proper balance and even be disease free, except we live in this toxic world and eat not nutritive food like substances and spread fragrance and other chemicals all over ourselves.
We have damaged the environment, the food and our brains because of it. Today’s anxiety is much different then in the past, and the modern medicine’s only solution it to create more drugs and hope they help. I know there is a better way and I want to show you and your loved ones how you can heal anxiety naturally.
Anxiety has been around since the dawn of time. I mean think about it…It’s been around since humans worried about being eaten by a dinosaur. Before getting into the history of anxiety, it’s important to note that at its core level, anxiety is a part of evolution. Have you ever heard of the fight or flight system we all have? Well at its core, that is where anxiety comes from. Anxiety, however, is when you get the nervousness of that fight or flight response when there is no fear present to provoke it.
Anxiety’s definition has taken many forms. Can you believe that the Greeks (Greek men specifically) hypothesized that an unstable uteri caused what they called hysteria? “Hysteria”, according to the Greeks, was a condition that only affected women because they had a uterus. Really?
Following the Greeks, came what I will call “witchy women.” During the early Renaissance, women in particular who were highly anxious and prone to “hysteria” were often accused of being witches. Outward symptoms that could not be explained by anything else, could lead to you being killed because you were a witchy.
Next, the Victorian era. Women who became “hysterical” were thought to be outright crazy. They believed it was a result of being cooped up in the house with nothing to do! Seriously???? Women who suffered from panic attacks were often shipped off to the “funny farm” to receive treatments such as electroshock therapy. Can we call say it together? What the crap????
During the Civil War era, soldiers suffered from PTSD, but that’s not what it was called. These occurrences were termed “irritable heart syndrome” because of the chest pains and shortness of breath when they had episodes. Sound familiar? This is a modern day panic attack.
As crazy as that sounds, this period actually did have some benefits for the understanding of anxiety. For the first time, men were being “diagnosed” with it. But it took war for that to be seen. Insert eyeroll here. But in terms of treatment of anxiety, there wasn’t much headway made in that area.
Moving forward to the early 20th century, we discover the practice of “sterilizing the psychos”. During this time, the Russians actually sent psychiatrists off to war with their soldiers to treat them when issues like anxiety arose. They mostly treated them with sedation by barbiturates. Unfortunately, during this time, we also saw the popular uprising of sterilizing anyone who suffered from mental illness. Yup we did there here in America????
Fast forward to the 1950s where most modern techniques for treating anxiety came into existence. The treatment “fear exposure” became popular to use until a patient was desensitized towards their trigger. About ten years after that it was discovered that antidepressants could work in treating anxiety as well.
Which brings us to 1980s, here we saw the creation of the term “anxiety disorder”. In 1990 it was discovered the reason antidepressants worked for anxiety had to do with decreased numbers of neurotransmitters that bring our “happy hormones” to the part of the brain affected by anxiety.
Okay, so now we’re all caught up on a rather disturbing history lesson. Can we all say we are happy we didn’t have to suffer through hysteria and the treatments? Insert sigh of relief here. Today, there are common treatment protocols in place for anxiety. But not all anxiety is the same.
While there are severe cases that might be the equivalent of being eaten by a dinosaur, there are some that aren’t as bad. For example, when I first started suffering from anxiety, I thought I just had an overly chaotic brain. These days we have more options for treating anxiety like cognitive behavioral therapy and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. We also know more about how our bodies are affected by a sedentary lifestyle, foreign chemicals like pesticides, food and product ingredients and sugar. We’ve come leaps and bounds on the understanding of healing naturally.
This type of “treatment” caught my eye almost seventeen years ago for the first time and has evolved in ways I couldn’t have imagined. I have become so passionate about natural healing, that I want to help other women heal their anxiety naturally the same way that I did and practice daily. My struggle with addiction and anxiety led me here, to you, to create a training to help other women heal naturally.
This FREE live training is called “5 Steps to Take Control of Your Anxiety in the Moment”. It is jam packed with life changing material for whatever level of anxiety you suffer from. Let’s change the conversation about anxiety and its treatment options together. Join me for this free training and take control of your anxiety today. You deserves a life free from anxiety.