There seems to be an assumption that being anxious is bad and that we should always reach out to stop it either by being prescribed medication or using some form of natural anxiety relief pills. In the 1960s a “mental breakdown” was socially unacceptable.This euphemism was a term to describe someone who was disabled by anxiety or depression. It was discussed quietly behind closed doors, or preferably people pretended it wasn’t happening.

Now we do something different. There is less stigma from a social perspective but the result is just the same. The overtly anxious or depressed person needs to be quietened or removed from sight. In many ways it is as if nothing has changed from those earlier days.

But should we always we reaching for medication or natural anxiety relief, or are there some occasions when it is OK to be anxious? I would suggest that there are times when it is both reasonable and rational to allow anxiety. There will always be times when we do not know if an outcome will be positive. Learning to cope with such uncertainty is an essential lifeskill for all. Medicating too soon after anxiety arises can reduce our capacity to learn from the situation and find better ways of coping.

Children need to learn how to deal with the anxiety of social interaction, of making and losing friends, of the anxiety of dealing with difficult adults, of the anxiety of dealing with learning and examinations. Adults have to deal with uncertainties relating to work, to money, to relationships, including family issues, saying goodbye to parents and friends who die. Life has always had its difficult times and occasions when we are uncertain about what will happen and how we might cope. Learning how to handle such anxiety is one of our life tasks. If we are too quick to reach for medication we lose the capacity to take charge of our lives and take the action needed to deal with the anxiety producing situations. Natural anxiety relief is more than taking pills. It includes a whole repertoire of personal actions that reduce the anxiety now and in the future. Anxiety can be very positive when you view it as a call to action within a range of ways of coping.

Another study has come out indicating that even short term mindfulness meditation can reduce negative moods and so should be considered for those with anxiety and depression. I am a great believer in a natural anxiety relief approach. However my own research has shown me we have to be cautious when going down this track. When it is brought to their attention doctors do realise that it is important to compare their patient with target group studied to check for generalisability of the study. The group in this study were of course biassed as they were undergraduate students and they had to be prepared to take part. This final qualification is important.

Most people who are anxious enough to go to their doctor or otherwise seek natural anxiety relief from an alternative health practitioner is likely to be very anxious and so is already likely to be more anxious than the researched group. I wish to make it quite clear that I find meditation to be an excellent component of good self care. I think it is wonderfully beneficial from a physical, emotional and spiritual perspective. However there are some other aspects which have to occur either first, or at least at the same time.

In my research, and speaking with other researchers who have endeavoured to use meditation in health interventions, the take-up by patients is very low. Some participants in the group just find it too hard to do and so choose not to. Those who do as recommended find themselves tailing off very quickly. We spent a lot of time exploring why this might be and realised that as meditation makes the person more self aware those who had a very low level of self acceptance found they could not cope with this insight. They didn’t like feeling bad and they didn’t want to be more aware of these bad feelings. Before we could expect them to become more mindful through meditation we discovered we had to do much work supporting them to increase their level of self acceptance. So if you are the person thinking about doing meditation as a form of natural anxiety relief you might find it easier to do regularly if you work on your self acceptance at the same time.

I read the words, “Have a healthy panic attack,” as I was going down my reading list for the day. What? In what way could a panic attack ever be healthy? They quite clearly had never been in a severe panic attack or they could not say that. No one, my mind went on, could think of actually having a panic attack as contributing to health.

When I went to the article to read it further and indulge my indignation even more I found that Google had truncated some of the words so it should have read something about natural anxiety relief for dealing with a panic attack. I was amazed at the level of my disappointment. I had hoped for something controversial.

Then I wondered, was there ever a time that having a panic attack could be considered healthy? I thought back to a time in my life when I was having them every day. The family was suffering from a lot of bad things that were happening. When it seemed that things couldn’t get any worse, they did, and then worse again. And the panic attacks didn’t improve the situation either. I just couldn’t function. However we were doing little to improve our situation. I believe the panic attacks came from my subconscious screaming at me to make make the changes which would help.

I was looking for anything – drugs or natural anxiety relief – to stop the bad feelings. But I wasn’t doing what was actually needed. I needed to take action to get out of the mess we were in, to move on with our lives and not just let the world roll over the top of us.

How many times does this happen? We get anxious, even to the point of being in a full blown panic and yet don’t take the action to address our problems. We can consider panic attacks as a mental disorder and enter the mental health system taking their drugs and putting up with their side effects. Alternatively we can understand them as encouraging us to take action and make changes to improve things. This way they can drive us towards health. This is equally relevant regardless of your understanding about the cause of your anxiety. One of the best forms of natural anxiety relief is to take charge of our lives. We will make mistakes along the way, especially as we are learning how to take charge, but we can learn from them. Get some support as you take charge, someone to bat ideas up against, someone who can help you ask useful questions about your life and what you want to change and this will reduce the number of mistakes you make.

When we have an anxiety attack it is natural to want the symptoms to end. Of course you want relief from your negative feelings. The first stop for many is to go to their doctor for a drug while others prefer to go for a more natural anxiety relief.

Much internet advice is good. Looking at how to relax, doing meditation, taking herbs to support you and reducing coffee consumption can all help. However an even better approach is to think about what is causing the bad feelings in the first place. Why do you feel anxious? You might be someone who has always worried and been anxious all your life. But you have to start somewhere, so why not here and now.

Anxiety is a call to action. Anxiety about exams in a teenager at school can be a call to be more diligent in preparing for the inevitable tests whereas the anxiety caused by bullying needs a quite different type of response. A different approach again is needed if your are anxious about meeting high standards at school, home or work.

One woman was looking for natural anxiety relief. She had worried all her life but it was much worse at this time. After much probing she realised that she was anxious because she didn’t know what her job description was and so never knew what it was she was supposed to be doing to keep her boss happy. She become happier once she got her boss to agree to a job description that satisfied them both.

Do use natural anxiety relief for continuing stress and while you are identifying the cause of your anxiety and how you attend to address it. However it is premature to seek anxiety relief when you have failed to do anything to deal with the causes in the first place. So take action first and then move on to relieve your negative feelings.

So you know you are anxious and you accept that you have a reason for being anxious but you really want some natural anxiety relief.

When you accept that, what do you do next?? Feelings can be difficult. They can be unreasonable or irrational. Knowing that the burglar isn’t going to enter your well fortified home or that your partner is unlikely to die in a car crash today doesn’t seem to stop the worry. Or the feelings might be totally rational as when a person is diagnosed with terminal disease. Either way you want to stop the terrible feelings.

Your body and mind will start to relax if you have a nice warm bath. Do this when you have time to have a nap afterwards in bed. If you are really worried then you are probably lacking in health-giving sleep as well. Many people find it helpful to surround their bath with candles or have some incense or aromatherpy oils scenting the room to help with that relaxation. Doing some meditation while you are bathing will give you additional benefits. You might like to add epsom salts to your bath. It is a very old method of natural anxiety relief.

Try using the EFT, the Emotional Freedom Technique. The scientist in me doesn’t like the method but as many find it helps their anxiety I accept that feedback. EFT was not known at the time I was acutely anxious but I would use it if I was ever in that situation again. I have tried it on occasion and it seemed to work but it irritated me when I did it. However if I had acute anxiety then my need for natural anxiety relief would be sufficient to overcome that irritation.

Both the hot baths and EFT approaches to natural anxiety relief cost little more than time. Severe anxiety is worth working to overcome and personal peace is not only possible but very enjoyable as well.

The headline stated that women who stay religious are less likely to have anxiety disorder. It went on to state that those who stayed within the church had fewer anxiety problems than those who left the religious tradition of their early lives. The conclusion being suggested by the writer was that in order to have good natural anxiety relief the anxious woman should go back to their churches and believe what they used to believe. The conclusion assumes that one factor has lead to the other. But the research was not saying this and that assumption cannot be made. To think that way is a common mistake both in researchers and those who read it. In the “research trade” a common refrain is “association is not causation”. An example quoted in some research training materials stated that exports from Cuba in the nineteenth century rose at the same pace as the rise in clergy stipends in the UK. To think that one caused the other is ridiculous. Both were probably due to a third factor such as the rise in general living standards in the UK. When looking for some form of natural anxiety relief it would be more helpful to think in terms of what those church attending women received from their religion plus the reasons why those who left their church attending behind. It is theoretically possible that the reason that those in the church are less anxious is because the anxious ones all left. They may well have discovered that they did not like what the church was teaching and once they started to think for themselves thy could no longer accept nor go back to old ways of understanding and thinking. Once they know something in a different way it is almost impossible to un-know it. In order to gain a natural anxiety relief for their feelings they may need to use or learn additional skills in personal self care. The development of confidence and the skills to cope with the difficulties in life might be more helpful for them so they know they will do as well as can be expected regardless of their circumstances.