Chronic stress and anxiety are some of the most common mental health issues we face today. With the rise in stress levels over the past five years, chronic stress has become a huge issue as it can lead to a range of health problems, including heart disease, obesity, and overactive thyroid issues. It’s important to manage chronic stress, and some of the best recommendations for treating chronic stress are through alternative medicines. As alternative medicine continues to gain mainstream acceptance, we’re here to help guide you on these treatments and their positive health benefits.
What Causes Chronic Stress?
Many mental health issues, including anxiety, bipolar disorder, and depression, are brain diseases where the neurotransmitters and brain function differently. In these cases, therapy, medication, and lifestyle changes are recommended to help manage these conditions. In cases of chronic stress, chronic stress often drains a person’s psychological resources and ultimately damages the person’s brain and body. In today’s hectic and uncontrollable society, stress can come from numerous factors. High amounts of poverty, dissatisfying jobs, a dysfunctional marriage, and broken families often cause chronic stress, and in these cases, these people often feel incapable of changing their situations.
Chronic stress usually comes from an environmental factor that cannot be changed or managed, so there are cognitive, emotional, behavioral, and physical signs that develop with the onset of this condition. When problems such as insomnia, changes in appetite, emotional withdrawal, and aches and pains occur, these symptoms often persist for long periods of about several weeks or more. They interfere with productivity, relationships, and health. When diagnosing and managing chronic stress, there are no specific families of medicines that can be used to treat stress, but rather medication can only be used to treat specific stress-related symptoms, such as anxiety and depression most often because chronic stress can often lead to the development of a mental health disorder, as there are specific changes in the brain structure that occur due to the introduction of cortisol in the neural networks.
The Five Alternative Medicines For Chronic Stress
Alternative medicine ultimately works as a preventative, acting as an active and empowering source of treatment that can be performed by the patient or by a healthcare provider to help reduce the physical and mental effects of chronic stress. When it comes to treatment, these five treatments have been reaching out as viable options:
- Meditation: Practicing mindfulness has been shown to be an excellent way to remove chronic stress, as it focuses on breathing and body awareness to remove the mind from negative thoughts.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: CBT helps people focus on pinpointing the negative thoughts causing chronic stress and help work through situations that feel powerless.
- Acupuncture: As a more physical approach, acupuncture helps stimulate the nervous system to help people with chronic pain, digestion problems, and sleep problems that can cause or come from chronic stress.
- Body Massages: Having massages sounds like a rare luxury but can, in fact, help treat a variety of stress disorders.
- Aromatherapy: Using scents to ease anxiety and stress can help reduce heart rate and help people clear their minds of negative thoughts associated with chronic stress.
While having small amounts of stress from time to time is considered healthy, stress that lasts for months at a time can have drastic consequences to your health. Visiting your primary doctor for treatment is the best resource for finding solutions to your chronic stress.
