I write multiple blogs each week and the website is a wealth of information (be sure to check the comments too – I love the community feedback and questions and learn so much from you!) BUT the foundation of all that I teach and how I work with my anxious clients is outlined in great detail in my book The Antianxiety Food Solution, so I recommend this essential reading to make the basic food changes (for some people that’s all they need to do), and before using any of the nutrients, and especially before using targeted individual amino acids.
Valerie Gangason posted this wonderful review on Amazon recently: This Book Is a Total Game Changer!!
If you have anxiety, panic attacks or phobias, read this book. It’s an eye opener and a complete game changer. It pushed me to re-evaluate the way I eat and to make some serious shifts in my life. FYI-sugar is the devil
I love the comment about sugar being the devil and commend her for re-evaluating how she eats and for making those serious shifts. It’s how you get results and I ever get tired of feedback like this.
Grab your copy from Amazon here if you don’t yet have it. If you already have a copy I’d love a review on Amazon please! And if you have an older copy with no index you can grab a copy of the index here
Feel free to share your great results or ask questions in the comments.
Hello Trudy,
I just read your book about anxiety and diet, and I’d really love to chat. My daughter’s clinician (LCSW-C) suggested it, and honestly I also wrote to her about why I feel you need a second book, why my daughter doesn’t fit the mold described, (label) and what is really happening in her body that only the Dr. of Integrative Medicine she sees could clarify. My current mission is really to spread awareness. I feel that the most updated information about “anxiety” out there, could be added to a sequel book. If you are interested, I’d surely tell our story in more detail than below, to contribute to a chapter or two…I’m not sure if you plan on it or not. I just had strong emotions after reading your book because I feel the illness and the symptoms are VERY misunderstood and the label is over used. It honestly frustrates me that day in and day out, kids, teens and adults with such symptoms are lumped into a category, and possibly, like my daughter misunderstood. You could have readers who have more layers of illness than they even think they have, (as did she) and they could even be seeing the wrong doctors. Such unfortunate paths people can take but people like us can make a difference! People with knowledge and experience can break the mold. I am one of those people and I have helped several make discoveries, heal their bodies in many ways, learn about food intolerances and get themselves the right supplements and assessments. I’m here to tell our story, to help others learn the checklist the doctors have is far limited than the checklist I now suggest (unless your Dr. is integrative), and to shout from the rooftops that if society keeps labeling people with “anxiety” many will be stuck on meds who don’t need them, and many won’t have the CHANCE to heal like my daughter did.
As a former clinician, (several years ago now as I am a stay at home mom) I worked as an Art Therapist in schools, hospitals and domestic violence shelters with numerous teens and adults with “symptoms” of anxiety. I watched as the boys on an in patient Psychiatric unit were medicated with Ritalin in a line. Not treated like individuals either! All had “ADHD” so they said. The boys each told me their “story, but the one thing that stuck in my head and I can’t forget is that is how they introduced themselves…”I’m so and so and I have ADHD.” Labels can be damaging. Looking back, there were other issues, like the toothpaste having the red dye, one boy was very pale and had dizzy spells and seemed to east every 5 minutes during groups, and another was a hoarder because he jumped from foster home to foster home and he didn’t like eating. All likely misunderstood. In today’s world, that is less likely to happen now, but sadly it still does. Many don’t consider diet to play a role in brain functioning, and often nutrition is left of that “checklist.”
There is a true difference to consider in a person with Generalized Anxiety Disorder or any DSM V anxiety disorder, and illness that gives the patient “symptoms” that mimic a condition. If you consider tachycardia “anxiety” then you need to mention illness like POTS. (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome.) Symptoms include tachycardia, weak and or heavy legs, feeling near faint, surroundings may not look “correct” and the patient may not have full awareness (can feel floaty). For some, this includes sensory issues too. Blood pools in the legs and does not circulate up to the brain. Sometimes it pools in the stomach instead. I’m a mom of two teens and I had POTS as an adolescent, (actually did faint once) both my kids did too, but they never fainted. My daughter was actually on home teaching for a year when this first struck her.She could barely get out of bed and had no idea why she felt so “strange.”
I’ve learned so much I wish I could turn back time and re evaluate things including former clients! When my daughter was in school and had POTS, nobody knew what was really happening. She was very articulate but would say I feel dizzy, I’m going to faint, I’m scared, etc. They said oh dear you will be ok, that is a panic attack! NOPE.she got the IDEA in her head from trusting adults, that she had a problem with anxiety and panic. She would get migraines and they would say she was stressed. She had blood sugar crashes and migraines with aura too. That turned out to be histamine related.
Like ADHD, and ADD, symptoms sometimes get labeled too soon. For example basic tachycardia, like from the illness POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome) is NOT anxiety. It may look like that to a Dr. who is not skilled in assessment. In fact, for us it was the Naturopath she first saw who gave her a monitor to record the episodes. Later that week the Cardiologist actually made the diagnosis. Traditional doctors did not have such information and were confused. they ran every test they thought they should, but did not know about POTS. Years ago, I was seen by a team of Endocrinologists who only honed in on Reactive Hypoglycemia after my GTT (unknown origin) when I was 16. I fainted going up and down while working with customers in a store (orthostatic intolerance that did not “fix” my body). I likely too had BP dropping episodes, as did my children. Nobody checked my Aldosterone back then. Aldosterone regulates blood pressure and salt/water balance in the body. Anyway, my oldest out grew most of this, but my daughter, the youngest has the worst of the “mutation” MTHFR and like myself is homozygous. the deck of cards she was drawn was worse, but something had to activate the symptoms and flip the switch.
Your book was a great resource for beginners learning the ropes about their feelings, moods and diet, and I see that it was copy written back in 2011. Now, in 2017, we have resources like 23 and Me and we can see integrative doctors, not just traditional in nature. What a blessing! We can learn cellular level information about our bodies, about methylation pathways, The Steroidogenic Pathways, etc.
To further clarify, my daughter and I are homozygous for MTHFR mutation variant A1298c. She is DAO deficient (histamine intolerant). She had a Flu Mist vaccine back when she was around 10 and it is believed to have flipped the switch in her body! She was NEVER sick and then got very bad pneumonia, had to take 2 courses of antibiotics, developed food intolerances other than gluten and had to have many blood tests. Her body turned on the Celiac, POTS then adrenal deficiency. Her “symptoms” were evaluated first as “she has anxiety/panic feelings”, but her “panic attacks” were not…they were histamine reactions, tachycardia episodes and POTS. A Dr. at our local hospital after a 4 night stay convinced me she needed Zoloft. (Treatment for anxiety). I cringed but caved in. I now know others who were prescribed the same. Much like those little boys on the Psychiatric unit, my child and others were misunderstood. It actually made her worse! The Psychiatrist she saw for management asked me why she needed it but he was not at our local hospital. Off she went after a month on it. What she really needed then was cortisol replacement. Fast forward a bit- Thank God for integrative docs, saliva testing and the NutrEval Test. We got 20 pages back and learned so much! 23 and Me helped us a lot as well, and I’m happy to say that after 4 years of “mess” she is 90% improved! The one Dr. called it the Perfect Storm. She was dealing with so much in her body and her body started to quit. She was a very sick little girl after being so outgoing and healthy.
Had I listened to the doc and had I just written her symptoms off as “Anxiety Disorder NOS” I don’t know where her adrenals would be. She was Adrenal Exhaustion Level 5 and partially from use of inhalers when she was 9 and 10 years old for allergies. After a year on probiotics, methylation support, GF and dairy free diet, we turned off the Celiac! She can now, a few years later, eat all the foods she wants and is happy! She is returning to the person we knew who used to get up on stage and sing, dance and perform. A girl who faced the world making lemonade from lemons. She will sometimes take a HistDAO if the meal is a big salad or has higher content of histamine. That gives there the enzyme she needs. The NutrEval (Test by Genova Diagnostics) gave us all the B vitamins deficiencies she needed to “fix” and she began taking IntraMAX (Drucker Labs) to ensure the liquid got into her cells.
When Vit B1, 2 and B3 are deficient and Alpha Lipoic Acid is deficient, your body can’t use carbs for energy. I always wonder if that was our “Hypoglycemia.” That was her case and carbs “crashed” her. She would sleep a lot in the afternoon after school. Carbs. also increased her sensory issues, which now only come when she is on her cycle, and they are far less than when she was younger.
In conclusion, this is a mission. One to spread the word and get rid of labels that may be preventing the “correct” diagnosis. At some point my HS age daughter decided she would study Biomedical Sciences in and become a Dr. I’m thrilled and her story will be told in full someday…I feel it would really help more people to have the better tools of assessment, the right questions to ask the doctors and of course the right doctors! We know her illness cluster hit her for a reason. It made her stronger and it made her want to help others.
I wish anyone with a cluster of symptoms to stop and really look at multiple reasons for having them. Look at any virus you may have had, look at all foods you are consuming and intolerances, your age and hormones at that point of life, consider things like stressors inside the body and outside the body, dental work too, meds, chemical exposure..and of course genetics. Don’t just dismiss and label. Lastly you are never your illness. You are a human being with much work to do and a purpose. Peel the onion as we have. It’s well worth it to get your life back!
Suzanne
Thanks for your very detailed and passionate comment. I’m sorry to hear what your daughter has been through but she’s fortunate to have had you looking out for her and finding her root causes.
Fortunately even though my book was written in 2011 it’s still all very applicable and helps thousands and thousands of people with the basics or diet and nutrients. But you’re right, we need a book called something like “Beyond the Antianxiety Food Solution” and I am slowly but surely addressing more advanced concepts via my blog posts and hope to be able do another book as you suggest. Right now I have 5 or 6 projects that have to be completed first but it’s on the list!
Thanks for your reply. I just fear the label sends people into the wrong place in their heads, hearts and treatment.
I would be happy to share parts of our story in your book!
Hello, an update for you. Glutamate! MSG is evil in the USA and glutamate in natural forms caused issues for my daughter leading to current new seizure development ( non convulsive). An EEG confirmed this and next will be the sleep deprived version. She is limiting glutamate ( which glutamate can decrease GABA) . This list of higher glutamate foods is part of a healthy diet for some, and can lead to serious illnesses like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.
Take care.
Suzanne
Sorry to hear and thanks for sharing. May I ask which high glutamate foods she is limiting and if she has one of the GAD polymorphisms?
I only know about MTHFR from 23 and Me and a couple other SNP’s.
Wheat and gluten seem to be triggers but in the past MSG made her react. We are trying a lower glutamate diet. She doesn’t have bad migraines since looking at histamine. She is low DAO however. We keep Hist DAO on hand. She had to take a steroid anti fungal nasal spray for Sinusitis that showed on brain MRI.
Thanks!
Suzanne
I’d also like to give an update on my daughter…
She was recently diagnosed with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, and we’ve had to back up quite a bit, looks at all the layers of supplements, meds, environmental (possible) triggers, etc. Also, she was tested via a 24 hour video EEG in a well-known hospital, where a team of doctors told us she does not have seizures occurring and cleared her for regular activity. She could have experienced “symptoms” related to mast cell degranulation. She will have “episodes” of tachycardia, her BP can drop and sometimes she will feel out of her body. the “Trifecta” of POTS, MCAS and EDS (she has connective tissue traits) is becoming more common. the best thing we did for her care was to rule out the epilepsy and back off all meds (except Florinef). We then looked at each supplement and she is only taking Vit D, B6 and on occasion her probiotic. She has the CBS polymorphism in heterozygous status, and was eating lots of high sulfur foods (so we’ve backed off some of those). Slow and steady wins the race! She was taking way too much at once to be able to determine which caused reactions. She is resuming eating more grains, slowly, and trying to eat gluten free as much as possible (including GF oats). She is only consuming whole milk organic dairy at a minimum. It’s taking baby steps but her mood is better, focus is better and the “episodes” are much more mild. She did not do “well” on Cromolyn Sodium, but I’m learning many don’t. If she has a major histamine reaction, she responds well taking children’s Benadryl (she is very sensitive to all meds). It does work quickly for her. I’ve learned the neurotransmitters can become more off balance when all of “this” is going on in the body. For a short time during her cycle, we have used 5-HTP to naturally boost Serotonin. It helped.