As I prepare for “The Anxiety Summit 5: Gut-Brain Axis” (airing in November 2019) I have been going through interviews from the first Anxiety Summit in 2014 and would like to share something that I addressed in my opening interview as a good recap for you as you are on your healing journey with anxiety (or in case this comes up again in the future) – you truly can eliminate anxiety entirely!
This is a question I am often asked: “Can I really eliminate anxiety using food, nutrients (and a functional medicine approach) if I have very severe anxiety and/or panic attacks and I’m using medications?”
Way too many folks don’t believe it’s possible but yes, you can! You can completely eliminate full blown anxiety, panic attacks, social anxiety (where you cannot go out to social event or go and feel so anxious), phobias like fear of spiders or agoraphobia (where you cannot get out of the house), and even obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Many folks believe their anxiety is much too severe and that food and nutrients couldn’t possibly help. I’m here to tell you this is just not true.
It’s not uncommon for well-known thought leaders to perpetuate this myth, implying anxiety and fears never go away.
Ali Brown, entrepreneurial guru for women, and one of my amazing business mentors, created a program to help businesswomen overcome their fears. She shared this in the program information: “Let’s not forget women’s darkest best friends: anxiety and worry” and admitted “I still have to fight it. I come from a long line of worriers.”
I say no, you don’t have to fight it. Just because you come from a long line of worriers doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to put up with it and live with it. There is something you can do to eliminate the anxiety, worries and fears.
Seth Godin, author and thought leader, says this: “When fear shows up, understand that it never goes away. Dance with it instead.”
While I really enjoy the dance suggestion – it’s fun and the joy of dancing and the exercise may help – however I really do disagree with the fact that he says fear never goes away.
In season 1 interviewed Julia Ross, MA, my mentor and author of The Mood Cure (my Amazon link), on using amino acids for anxiety and she summed it up perfectly:
On a scale from zero to 10, zero is not an unrealistic goal when it comes to anxiety. It’s really the human potential and GABA and tryptophan give us access to it.
I’m going to repeat this because I think it’s really worth repeating. Zero is not an unrealistic goal when it comes to anxiety. Bravo Julia – I totally agree with this and I want you to know this!
It starts with doing trials of GABA and tryptophan, and using food and nutrients, and finding all the root causes and addressing them.
I really want you to know this, remember this, and don’t stop looking for the answer and the root causes. It may be food changes that you need to make. It may be breakfast that you need to eat. It may be low serotonin or low GABA. It may be foods that are problems for you like gluten or dairy. It may be additives in the foods that you’re eating. It may be toxins in your environment. There are many possible root causes, and you may have one or many root causes that are causing your anxiety.
Addressing these root causes with food and nutrients (and a functional medicine approach you can completely eliminate your anxiety even if you have very severe anxiety and/or panic attacks and you’re using medications.
Resources for you
- My book The Antianxiety Food Solution (my Amazon affiliate link) covers the 9 steps I use with clients. Read it and become a savvy health-advocate for yourself. Share a copy with your doctor and point out the references.
- Here is a blog on: How to do an amino acid trial for anxiety
- You can find GABA and tryptophan and other nutrients in my supplement store here
- Here is a blog on: 60+ Nutritional & Biochemical Causes of Anxiety
Do you believe your anxiety is much too severe for food and nutrients to be of help?
Or did you believe this and started looking at nutritional and biochemical root causes anyway and found solutions and anxiety resolution?
My granddaughters both have to cope with ocd. One has celiac, the other is hospitalized with anorexia as I write this. I hope you will cover this topic in your anxiety summit this fall.
Orla
I’m sorry to hear about your grand-daughters. We’ll be covering many approaches to help with OCD. In the meantime, a 100% gluten-free diet is key and this means looking at creams/cosmetics/make-up/spices too. For OCD we always look at low serotonin and start with the low serotonin questionnaire and a trial of tryptophan or 5-HTP. If that’s not enough inositol can help a great deal too. We also address diet, gut health, blood sugar and all the rest too as many factors can lead to low serotonin and OCD.
With anorexia, we’d follow a similar approach and address low zinc too (key for improving appetite and mood)
Trudy,
Thank you for this blog! I am learning so much here.
I have begun to use 5 HTP for severe OCD and am finding that it does help a lot. Taking 400 mg now and thinking of increasing to 500mg. Also, taking Inositol, 1000mg, and feeling a difference in the amount of obsessive thoughts that occur. I have bought your book and am following the guidance for a whole food diet. Wondering, if I do not have a sensitivity to gluten, is it still important to go 100% gluten free. Seems like a tough thing to do.
So glad to hear that you will be covering more ways to deal with OCD. It is so debilitating.
Trudy, I have been following your blog since the first Anxiety Summit, which was wonderful. Thank you for your work.
I have a question: Does “Automatic Negative Thinking” fall into the same category as depression, or anxiety, or something else entirely. At the present time I feel like the most pervasive issue to my mood is that I am always seeing the worst scenarios in my head.
Thanks again for your generosity!
Jodie
Jodie
So pleased to hear you’re enjoying the anxiety summits and my blogs
When I hear negative thinking my first consideration is low serotonin and using a nutritional approach to get rid of the negative thoughts and seeing worst case scenarios. I start with the low serotonin questionnaire and a trial of tryptophan or 5-HTP. Of course we also address diet, gut health, blood sugar and all the rest too as many factors can lead to low serotonin. Low GABA can also play a role so we assess for that too.
I’d love to hear where you learned about Automatic Negative Thinking or Automatic Negative Thoughts – was it part of CBT therapy? And what have you been taught to help get rid of them? And does it help?
Hi Trudy,
When I took the quiz from your book I did score for very low serotonin. It was clearly the lowest neurotransmitter. And I resonated with the mood indications too.
When I was laid off about 5 years ago I saw a therapist for a while, because I was really spinning out with catastrophe thinking. She helped me to notice and identify the “ANTs” — automatic negative thoughts — but she didn’t really give me any strategies for working with them, other than identifying the patterns. That alone was some help. But now I want to start turning them around and having more uplifting thoughts as well.
I will reread the pertinent sections of your book, and try the 5-HTP (and GABA). Aminos must be taken when the stomach is empty, correct?
Thank you so much for the response! I feel encouraged.
Jodie
I could not agree more, Trudy. You do NOT have to accept anxiety as part of your life. I had low-level anxiety my whole life that started as being a really shy kid, then an introvert/shy person in school, having a short period of panic attacks when my parents divorced, then developing IBS for 17 years after a food poisoning incident and a breakup. I am now anxiety free and feel better than I ever have! To get here, I did a LOT of searching for answers and trying things, including working with a Julia Ross-trained nutritionist and taking your course on amino acids for anxiety. (Which is excellent by the way! I highly recommend it.)
My personal recipe for getting rid of my anxiety looked like this: magnesium + EFT (tapping) + Buteyko breathing + a little bit of DPA and GABA during a critical time + avoiding salicylate/histamine foods .
No, it wasn’t one big thing that “cured” my anxiety, it was several things and they all had nice side effects of eliminating other problems I had been living with my whole life. Removing emotional blocks is an underappreciated but powerful way to get rid of much of your anxiety. People think they can “think” their way to a more positive mind state, but by the time you feel anxious or have anxious thoughts, you’re nervous system has already gone too far. I believe you need to get to the root of the problem in your subconscious and neutralize past negative events, even if you were never abused or neglected. I believe so much in healing the problems locked in your subconscious that I became an EFT practitioner.
Then, you need nutrients (building blocks) for a well-functioning body. For me that was/is magnesium. It’s a powerful anti-anxiety mineral and most people are deficient. You also need to remove things that make your body feel weird, and salicylates/histamines do that for me so I limit them. Finally, you need to get your body out of it’s habitual patterns that end up causing anxiety, and Buteyko breathing re-set my breathing within 2 days.
There is hope! Medications are not the answer. Giving your body what it needs is the answer.
Hi Trudy, my recently turned 12 yr old son has severe depression, and anxiety, low self esteem and negative thoughts. Please advise on nutrition and amino acids dosage for his age. He is on low weight side. Of note, I recently begun 5htp and tryptophan for him but not noticing results. His nightly nightmares has not subsided.