Understanding Anxiety

The Facts on Anxiety

Risk Factors & Strategies to Reduce Your Risk or Manage Your Symptoms

The following factors have been shown to increase your risk for anxiety and exacerbate your symptoms

Modifiable Factors: The following actions are controllable, and therefore should be avoided as consistently as possible. It is important to focus on these lifestyle choices in order to help offset the risk factors that are uncontrollable!

Non-Modifiable Factors: The following cannot be changed. However, these factors are important to know, so you can be cognizant of your lifestyle choices and understand the circumstances!

Reduce Your Risk and Manage Anxiety with these Choices

Symptoms

Symptoms

  • Feeling nervous, restless or tense
  • Having a sense of impending danger, panic or doom
  • Having an increased heart rate
  • Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation)
  • Sweating
  • Trembling
  • Trouble concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry
  • Having trouble sleeping
  • Experiencing gastrointestinal (GI) problems
  • Having difficulty controlling worry
  • Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety (15)

Are you Suffering from Anxiety?

Treatments for Anxiety

  • Therapy: Forms of therapy include cognitive behavioral therapy and psychotherapy.
  • Medications: Common medications include Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRI) and Benozodiazepines.
  • Meditation: Meditation practices have been shown to be effective in managing symptoms of anxiety.

Nutrition to Promote Mental Health

A major consensus is that diet plays a major impact on your mood and long term mental health. A diet full of fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, and whole grains are some of the key characteristics of an ideal diet.

Review what the we have compiled as essential components of a diet to promote optimal health, including mental health, below.

Your Guide to Optimal Nutrition


Additional Resources