Treating Anxiety
Anxiety can be a debilitating condition and is becoming more prevalent, especially in the developed countries. A patient may choose medications or therapy or both. Psychiatry works mostly in the realm of medications. Unfortunately, few psychiatrists seek further continuing education on other modalities that can help their patients cope. Conventional psychiatry sees mental imbalance solely as a biochemical condition. Psychiatric drugs for anxiety such as Xanax are highly addictive and over prescribed. The medications that alter brain chemistry add another layer of imbalance to the already imbalanced brain.
Therapy is another common treatment that patients will use. This is a good approach as a patient moves through a temporary life stress. The therapist can help to de-emotionalize the event and assist with coping and healing. However, therapy is more effective when used temporarily and not as a permanent crutch. This leads to the patient being stuck and not moving forward.
As in any medical condition the cause of disease or dis-ease is physical or environmental, or a combination of the two. Both the environment and physical health of the patient need to be explored by the practitioner. Energy healers should address diet, etc and psychiatrists should address energetics. Naturopathic physicians can bridge the two. They are trained in brain chemistry, looking for environmental causes and even have some knowledge in the spiritual or energetic side of the human being. More research has recently come out that implicates the exposure to mold, microbes and bio-toxins in mental/emotional imbalances. Until a doctor does some testing, the patient will continually be drugged by medications while the cause still influences their health. A thorough medical history will help to know which test needs to be done to find the cause. In addition to treating the cause and correcting chemical imbalances, diet and lifestyle should always be addressed for every patient.
In addition to testing for possible environmental causes, there are specialty labs that looks at the different neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin and GABA. Glutamate is also included in some of these tests. Glutamate is an excitatory and inflammatory breakdown product of GABA. It is important to see if this chemical is elevated in not only treating anxiety but also in treating chronic inflammation.
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