Do any of these symptoms sound familiar to you?
- Routinely feeling tense, restless, or nervous
- Frequently sensing panic, doom, or impending danger
- Difficulty concentrating
- Constantly worrying
- Sweating and breathing rapidly
- Feeling weak or tired all the time
If so, then it’s a very real possibility that you are suffering from anxiety.
You’re in good company. The National Alliance on Mental Illness reports that 19.1 percent of the U.S. population, or more than 40 million people, suffer from anxiety disorders.
What have you tried to do to deal with your anxiety? Many people have tried meditation, exercise, prescription medication, and a boatload of other remedies. Some of them are pretty effective, but did you know that chiropractic care also might help to lessen your anxiety levels?
The Mind-Body Connection
People are learning more every day about just how close the mind’s connection to the body is. A healthy mind and a healthy body go together, and although there are no easy answers or quick fixes when it comes to dealing with anxiety, it is wonderful to have an additional tool that can be used to help deal with this chronic mental and physical health issue.
Chiropractic care helps many people to alleviate excessive thinking, chronic worry, and general anxiety. This is all accomplished through a gentle and holistic process that does not involve debilitating or troubling side effects. There is even a study that details how chiropractic treatments can provide relief from major depression and tension-type headaches over the long term.
With scientific evidence to back up its efficacy, it is definitely worth taking a closer look at utilizing chiropractic care to alleviate anxiety so that you don’t have to live with constant worry, panic, and anxiousness.
Anxiety and Chiropractic Care
People who live with anxiety have difficulty dealing with uncertainty. Between internal factors and external triggers, it may be that a panic attack is always just around the corner. If you routinely feel overwhelmed by anxiety, then you may experience:
- Constant worry
- Muscle tension
- Irritability
- Having a hard time focusing
- Insomnia
- Wanting to avoid people and places that you think might trigger anxiety
Notice that anxiety affects both the body and the mind. There are troubling thoughts and constant worry, but you probably also have muscle tension and difficulty sleeping. Anxiety is a condition that affects your total experience as a human being, and it may even put limits on how you live and what you do.
In fact, it is anxiety’s interconnectedness between the mind and body that makes it so difficult to successfully treat. One treatment may focus more on the patient’s mental health, but another treatment is needed for their physical well-being.
Many health care professionals focus their efforts on anxiety’s mental aspects. Patients enter into a series of talk therapy sessions in which they explore the root causes of their anxiety. Sometimes, these patients are exposed to the very things that they fear the most in an effort to help them confront and control their anxiety.
These treatments may be effective, but they do not address underlying physiological factors that may be contributing to an anxiety disorder.
Similarly, professionals may recommend treating physical issues that are related to anxiety. The focus here may be on prescription medications, which essentially are designed to manipulate the brain away from its habitually anxious state. The problem with medications that typically are used to treat anxiety is that they can have uncomfortable side effects. Many people just don’t like the feeling of being dissociated or zombie-like when they take these prescriptions. Others do not like that these medications can alter their personalities or feel that taking prescription medications can be a hassle as well as expensive.
Plus, there are long-term consequences to consider. What do some of the more heavy-duty anti-anxiety drugs do to the body over many years of use? It’s also worth considering that even finding a medication that is effective and doesn’t have terrible side effects can require months of trial and error.
Clearly, managing anxiety with chemicals can have its pitfalls. If you’ve tried therapy and pills and are still dealing with the symptoms of anxiety on a regular basis, then perhaps it is time to try something different. Chiropractic care may be the answer that you have been seeking.
The Spinal Misalignment and Anxiety Connection
When it comes to alleviating and treating an anxiety disorder, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. The reality also is that several approaches may be required to bring your anxiety levels down to a manageable level. For instance, you might take a mild anti-anxiety drug along with attending regular therapy sessions and undergoing chiropractic adjustments. Some people may find that just one of these approaches is sufficient for helping them cope, and it is possible that your treatment needs will evolve over time. The prescription medication that you’ve taken for years may seem to be less effective than it used to be. Accordingly, you might seek out an alternative treatment like chiropractic care.
Above all, it is wise to try to identify the root cause of your anxiety. It is possible that your anxiety is firmly rooted in your central nervous system.
It is the central nervous system that is responsible for controlling the hormones that help to regulate the performance and function of our organs. When the hormones are unbalanced, this can affect sleep patterns, sex drive, weight fluctuation, mood, and energy levels. When there is a blockage or misalignment in the central nervous system, hormonal signals can go wrong.
It is shockingly easy for a problem in the spine or neck to cause difficulties with the central nervous system. The misalignment or injury of the spine may create a subluxation that blocks the nervous system’s essential flow. Even having one vertebra slightly out of alignment can create symptoms that flare up in all portions of the body. It is possible that this misalignment is painful, but this is not always the case. Accordingly, a person with a subluxation in the neck or spine may not even realize that something is wrong.
Misalignment can mean a loss of mobility, depression, insomnia, mood disorders, anxiety, and pain. Sometimes, a person with a misalignment will attribute their worrisome symptoms to an entirely different and very serious medical problem. It is not unusual to hear about people who have gone from doctor to doctor over the course of years seeking some kind of relief, only to finally find the answers they want with a chiropractor.
The chiropractor employs strategic adjustments that ease the spine back into alignment. These treatments not only relieve any pain that the patient may be experiencing but also restore the central nervous system’s natural ability to communicate. Thanks to spinal adjustment, the blockage is cleared, and anxious feelings cannot interfere with the body’s necessary hormonal signals.
The Other Benefits of Chiropractic Care
You may begin chiropractic treatments with the goal of alleviating physical issues that may be causing the symptoms of anxiety. However, you will quickly discover that you are reaping several other benefits that go along with regular chiropractic care.
For instance, many chiropractic patients discover that their blood pressure numbers are significantly lowered. High blood pressure is closely linked to anxiety and stress, so dealing with these issues is bound to cause your blood pressure levels to improve.
Patients also appreciate the release of natural feel-good hormones like cortisol, oxytocin, and neurotensin. If you want to experience an immediate mood boost, chiropractic care may be the way to go.
Many people who receive chiropractic care say that they generally feel far more relaxed after an adjustment than they did before. This also helps to support healthier sleep patterns. If you feel like you wander through your days in a fog, then improved sleep can be life-changing.
Plenty of scientific evidence backs up these benefits of chiropractic care. Treatments help the patient to relax, and this has a direct impact on the body from both a hormonal and a physical standpoint. If you have been seeking a natural treatment that helps you unwind and find balance in a distraction-free environment, then chiropractic care may be for you.
Isn’t It Time that You Tried Chiropractic Care?
Get in touch with Integrative Physical Health today to learn more about how chiropractic care can alleviate your anxiety. We enjoy helping our patients find a natural and holistic approach to feeling less stress, depression, and anxiousness.
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