Tormenting anxiety - World Class Holistic Homeopathy
Treatment
PSYCHIATRIC COMPLAINTS – Tormenting anxiety
Due to anxiety, we are now overwhelmed by stress and strain. This stress
and strain moulds us by creating more anxiety to survive in this competitive
world. Anxiety refers to a state of being anxious with mild fear of one’s self
and alarming reaction. As anxiety is multi-dimensional,
it is also often synonymously referred to for nervousness, concern or
worry. Actually, in the medical world, anxiety is claimed to be normal as an
alarming reaction and as a requirement for everyone to face environment,
happenings and future. Without this emotion, man would be a biological computer
or a saint. As we do not remain a spiritual being in the human journey, we need
to face suspense or tension.
Following are few occasions/situations where one faces anxiety with
increased pulse rate, pounding heartbeats and sweating palms.
·
Watching a thrilling movie (expecting the result of
the climax)
·
Involved in a game and expecting a better result
·
Appearing for exam or interview or meeting higher
officials or while getting results
·
Getting repeated negative thoughts or fear of failure
·
About to express love
·
Waiting in an emergency situation
On all these occasions, one will feel time running out or feel as if time
passes very slowly (i.e. every second will be felt like an hour). For some, it
will be most horrible when they are kept in suspense than when they have to
face a disappointment. Usually silence or loneliness makes one more anxious
than work or keeping oneself busy. Likewise, more expectations cause more
anxiety.
Everyone is piled with anxiety naturally but the level of it varies in
intensity, character and its effects. One’s faith or confidence can control or
end anxiety. Everyone has their own tension and stressful occasions in life
from childhood. Anxiousness may come for anything i.e. for a simple exam,
meeting higher officials, public speaking, to life threatening situations. The
level of suffering usually depends on one’s need, expectations, satisfactions
and level of fear.
If anxiety is felt in excess, it should be considered as abnormal and
should be treated accordingly or otherwise it will create a lot of problems
with unwanted tension and undue fear all through life. Its effect can reflect
in appetite, attention, sleep, activities, work, etc. As it overtaxes
everybody, anxieties are said to be interest paid in advance for the suffering
or trouble which comes in future.
Anxiety is not a disease and it is only a symptom (as in schizophrenia and
depression). Anxiety is just like walking or balancing on a rope; if one’s mind
is not balanced properly, it may either fall on the side of depression with
panic or to the side of irritable mania with impatience. Usually, adaptation to
any anxiety situation develops over time with repeated incidences or occasions
or situation. Sometimes, without getting adapted, anxiety may boom to give
cyclonic effect in mind or brain to cause depression or mania.
Incidences
Anxiety arises most commonly in the adolescent age, where everyone often
faces turning points in their life. The risky age for development of anxiety is
16 to 27. Females seem to suffer more commonly than males. Common victims are
widows, divorcees, the poor, smokers, drunkards, drug addicts, job seekers, one
who lives aloof, one who loathes life, one who loves, one who has psychological
conflicts, etc. When circumstances are conflicting all the way, anyone can get
anxiety at any time, irrespective of sex.
Changes in the body due to anxiety
When one become anxious, the adrenal gland secretes more adrenaline.
As more adrenaline gets pumped into blood, pulse becomes rapid with pounding
heartbeat. People will breathe fast, have palpitations and their muscles will
get tightened to face the situation vigorously. Finally, the reaction ends with
a feeling of exhaustion. Occasionally, anxiety may cause headache due to
congestion of blood in the brain due to increased blood pumping with
adrenaline. Anxiety can be treated easily. If not get treated, it remains a
silent killer throughout life.
Causes
The most common cause or concern for development of anxiety is money, job,
love and health. There are various causes for the development of anxiety.
Sometimes, causes may remain unknown also. The common causes are:
Physiological/pathological – any life-threatening illness, especially heart
disorders, thyroid problems, hypertension, diabetes, impotency.
Habits – smoking, alcohol and drugs and their withdrawal effects
Psychological – emotional conflicts, worry, grief, financial loss, unable
to attain satisfaction in any activity, getting mismatches, suppression of love
or sexual desire, feeling of insecurity, fear of future / ageing or other
unwanted fears, etc.
Symptoms
Getting anxious often leads to other
symptoms (either psychological orphysiological) like
·
Restlessness of mind and body with sleeplessness
·
Lack of concentration, confusion and forgetfulness
·
Irritability and impulsiveness
·
Tiredness or easy fatigability with body pain
·
Tremors with a feeling of electric current in the body
·
Feels constricted at the throat with difficulty to utter
word clearly – blabbering
·
Urge to urinate (with bedwetting) / pass stool (irritable
bowel syndrome)
·
Dry mouth and thirsty
·
Empty feeling in stomach / feeling discomfort in upper
abdomen
·
Aversion to foods or drinks
·
Chest pain and breathlessness
·
Palpitations with sweating
·
Development of depression / fear / mania after prolonged
time
·
Development of headache / hypertension (blood pressure)
·
Impotency or loss of sexual passion
Dimensions of anxiety and its disorders
Anxiety remains as the base for most of the psychological disorders. Any
other psychological disorder can build its symptoms over it to get its effects.
As every human being is individualistic and has unique characters, sufferings
also seem to differ from one person to another.
Haunted anxiety may mount up, to cause tension (with bouts of anger) or
become panic (with chest pain, breathlessness, palpitation, sweating, fainting,
fear of death, etc). Likewise, with recurrent failures or with fear of
failures, one can become a sufferer of obsessive compulsive disorder (endless
persistent thoughts of the need for cleanliness, perfection, etc.), Depression,
schizophrenia, mania, anxiety neurosis, phobias (fear with illusions, delusions
and hallucinations with respect to specific or non-specific things or persons
or circumstances or events), etc., also develops with the base of anxiety only.
Development of post-traumatic stress disorder after a disaster or mass loss
or after having cancer or AIDS with the loss, fear of life / future,
hopelessness, etc., also arises as an intensified anxiety only.
Prevention and self care
Be
·
Open minded and share your feelings and expectations with
well-wishers or those who are concerned
·
Busy with work or job to forget all sorts of thoughts
·
With facts and not on your opinions or notions
·
Active and do physical exercises regularly
Accept
·
Fate and try to overcome it – Life begins with
acceptance. Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising up every
time we fall.
·
Feasibility and limit your expectations
·
Support of well-wishers to overcome sinking feeling
·
Consequences and work on it or correct yourself with
creating will power to succeed
Avoid
·
Loneliness and thoughts
·
Racing against time
·
Circumstances which favour anxiety or depression
·
Letting problems rankle inside you
·
Negative thoughts (which may never happen)
·
Anticipation about troubles
·
Continuous mental work (have some relaxation with
entertainment)
Overloading brain
·
Addictives – coffee, smoking, drinking and drugs
Diagnosis
Before making a diagnosis and proceeding for treatment on
psychological background, one must think on all the differential diagnosis of
physical illnesses and have to rule out the same, with all sorts of
investigations (including EEG and CT or MRI brain) and clinical examinations.
Especially one needs to rule out thyroid problems, chronic illnesses like heart
disorders, asthma, hypertension, diabetes, epilepsy, etc., and also consider
habits of smoking, drinking, drugs and its withdrawal effects for the cause or
effects of anxiety.
Doctor needs good amount of time with patient’s cooperation to interrogate
all aspects (official or unofficial or personal) / possibilities to get the
cause and to counsel or advice accordingly.
Counselling for anxiety
Many a time, the sufferer will not recognise the problem and even if he does,
he neglects it or leaves it untreated. All complaints should be attended to and
nipped in the bud itself to have complete cure or health. Also avoidance of
circumstances or situations or objects which cause symptoms can temporarily
alleviate the suffering, but it limits one’s day-to-day activities and future
life establishment. The sooner one admits and proceeds to treatment the better.
Counselling is the first line of treatment in all psychological disorders.
Counselling differs in time and approach with each patient, according to
their presentation and intensity of the complaint. Patient cooperation is more
essential than any other. Counselling also needs to play the right tune at the
right time to comfort the sufferer. Or otherwise, negative impact will often
follow. Counselling will be in such a way as to build self-confidence,
self-esteem and self-support.
Success of treatment lies in patient’s cooperation and doctor’s analysis.
The sufferer should expose himself/herself by expressing all their emotions and
feelings to the doctor without hiding to get diagnosed properly and treated
accordingly. They should not feel shy, shameful or reluctant to reveal all
their complaints. On probing the mind, grabbing the secrecy, soothing the
anxiety, quieting the mind, relaxing the tension, any doctor can cure anxiety
disorders even without any medicine. If it doesn’t get adapted even after
proper counselling, then one should go in for medication.
Every doctor needs to interrogate every patient separately and his
/parents/friends/partner separately to diagnose the complaint at its best with
respect to personality traits, coping skills, psychological conflicts,
vulnerability to stress, etc. The sufferer should admit this without any
suspicion (of losing confidentiality), so that the doctor can study all facets
of the sufferer and help him/her offer insights to root out the suffering.
General treatment
In case of physical diseases related psychological disorders, treatment of
the physical disease will be given importance since most of the time it will be
the root cause of psychological symptoms. Generally, in case of psychological
disorders, if medication is required after counselling, psychotherapy,
behaviour therapy, tranquillizer/anti-depressants with sedatives (sleeping
pills) will be prescribed to calm the sufferer’s mind. These tablets on
continuous use will often have side-effects like dry mouth, blurred vision,
sleepiness, restlessness, headache, hypotension, giddiness, nausea, vomiting,
constipation, diarrheoa, tremors, lack of concentration, impotency, etc. With
prolonged use, they also cause dependency (need to continue for lifetime to
suppress the symptom).
Homeopathic approach
One will be anxious and worried when one has any sufferings or
diseases either physical or psychological. They continue to have them
until they meet the doctor to get a consoling word i.e. “Nothing to worry and
you will be alright soon”. “Cure rarely, comfort mostly, but console always” as
Hippocrates quotes, every doctor, irrespective of the system, needs to calm the
sufferer’s mind with his reassuring words, and cure their diseases with their
knowledge and medicines. Reassurance is the first line of treatment in all
psychological patients irrespective of any system of medicine.
Anxiety generally interferes with vital things like appetite, sleep,
concentration, feelings, etc. So it affects the person as a whole. Usually,
Homeopathy gives paramount importance to these general symptoms in addition to
patient’s feelings, precipitating factors, aggravating factors and ameliorating
factors for the selection of right medicines. The well-selected medicine
prescribed to the core of the disease will certainly calm down the sufferer’s
brain and help to remain in endurance. Homoeopathy can ensure cure / better
relief from anxiety disorders without any side-effects.
Homeopathy vehemently condemns temporary suppressing mode of treatment.
Homeopathy can clear harboured diseases/conditions by reviving and strengthening
mental power and by keeping them energetic with a sense of well-being.
Homeopathy can treat the sufferer exemplarily to face boldly the unexpected and
to have and enjoy all the fantasies of the world.
Homeopathic medicines commonly used in anxiety disorders are Aconite, Arg
nit, Arnica, Ars alb, Aurum met, Borax, Bryonia, Caladium, Cal carb, Cannabis
indica, Causticum, Clematis, Cuprum met, Gelsemium, Hyoscyamus, Ignatia,
Lachesis, Lycopodium, Nat mur, Nux vom, Opium, Pulsatilla, Phosphorus, Sepia, Silicea,
Staphysagria, Stramonium, Tarantula, etc. Bach’s flower remedies like Aspen,
Mimulus, Red chestnut, Vervain, etc., can also provide amazing results for
persistent thoughts or anxieties. These medicines can facilitate one’s mind in
a better way to cope with the situation. It is better to have these medicines
under the advice and diagnosis of a Qualified Homeopath.
for
new hope
Dr. S.
Chidambaranathan, BHMS, MD (Homeo)
Laxmi
Homeo Clinic
24 E.
New Mahalipatti Road
Madurai,
TN 625 001
India
Tel: +91-452-233-8833 | +91-984-319-1011
(Mob)
Fax:
+91-452-233-0196
E-mail:
drcheena@yahoo.com
www.drcheena.com / www.drcheena.in
(Disclaimer
- The contents of this column are for informational purpose only. The content
is not intended to be a substitute for professional healthcare advice,
diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of healthcare professional for
any health problem or medical condition.)