If you could drop a litmus strip into the stew of modern western culture, it would reveal that the tone of modern life is anxiety. Anxiety is the verb, the vibe, the texture, the pH of our age. How did this come to pass?

I think our phones have played a significant and multifaceted role. Inequality, systemic racism, and the poison and trauma beneath the surface of our country also plays an immeasurable role.

And an underappreciated factor is that large corporations figured out that fear sells. We are being constantly marketed to with a message of: you’re not enough, you need fixing (with the product I’m selling you), and, by the way, be afraid.

Whether someone is selling you a new car, a diet program, insurance, or a high tech baby monitor, or they’re simply trying to convince you to tune in to news at 9, they’re all selling you on their product with the same platform: there’s something to be afraid/uncertain/doubtful of, and you need what I’m selling to keep you safe and okay. The rest are trying to sell you a product to soothe your nerves after being so afraid. Corporations trying to make money have turned us into a generation afraid.

If you’re feeling anxious and you’re not sure why, take a minute to check in with yourself and see if any of these apply. It might help to pause what you’re doing for a minute, eat something warm and substantial, sip some room temp water with lemon and sea salt, put down the phone, and stare at something green and natural for a few minutes while you allow your body to take deep, slow breaths.⁠

Joint post with my friend Cory Rodriguez on the possible root causes of anxiety!⁠

What if there was more to anxiety than most people are told?⁠

We’re taught that anxiety is a genetic chemical imbalance, and if we have it, we’ll always have it. This may be true for some but is not always the case.⁠

In fact, so much anxiety is a direct result of how we live and the things we eat and drink. Some of these things are completely under our control.⁠

Anxiety can be reversible and can be managed!⁠

Even if your anxiety was said to be genetic, it still comes down to how you manage it on a daily basis.⁠

This obviously will be different for every person, but let’s dive into some of these potential reasons…⁠

1. Blood sugar – if you get hangry or anxious, you’re probably on a blood sugar roller coaster. Keep your blood sugar stable by eating plenty of protein and healthy fats, and avoiding sugar and refined carbs.⁠

2. Caffeine – caffeine is not an inherently bad substance, but some of us are sensitive to it, and it put our nervous system in a stress response.⁠

3. Sleep deprivation – there is no better medicine for anxiety than good sleep. Go to bed early and get the phone out of the bedroom.⁠

4. Chronic stress – set boundaries, say no, reframe, and generally opt out of the busy trap and trying to eek out as much productivity as possible. Do less and savor your time.⁠

5. Hormones & thyroid – irregular periods and thyroid dysfunction can both masquerade as anxiety disorders. Get checked and get things back in balance.⁠

6. Gut dysfunction – when your gut is inflamed, it sends a message straight to your brain that things are not okay.⁠

7. Chronic inflammation – an inflamed brain is an anxious brain. Eat an anti-inflammatory based diet.⁠
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8. Food sensitivities – a common cause of gut dysfunction and chronic inflammation.⁠

9. Micronutrient deficiencies – common issues, like B12 deficiency, can lead to anxiety.⁠

If you take a daily psychiatric medication, such as an antidepressant or antianxiety med, and you wake up in a panic, it might be med withdrawal. If you take your psych meds in the morning, this means your body is at the nadir of medication blood levels upon waking. That nadir can feel like inter-dose withdrawal, which can feel like anxiety or low mood. If this sounds familiar, consider taking your meds as soon as you wake up, and remind yourself that the morning panic is withdrawal–this can help keep things in perspective. Of course we’re all anxious for various reasons these days, but I’m always on the lookout for preventable causes of anxiety so we can decrease the overall anxiety level.

When your blood sugar crashes, your body responds with a stress response. This is the system of checks and balances that allows us to manufacture blood sugar from our body’s storage of starch. It’s great that our body has a system for saving the day after a blood sugar crash, but the end result is a 5-alarm fire in the body, which can feel synonymous with anxiety and panic.

Why is your blood sugar crashing? Here are some reasons I see in my practice: 1) you haven’t eaten, 2) you ate refined carbohydrates or sugar that caused your blood sugar to spike and then crash after a compensatory wave of insulin, or 3) your appetite is falsely suppressed from things like stimulants.

If you want to decrease anxiety, keep your blood sugar stable throughout the day and night. The best way to do this is to rehabilitate your diet away from sugar, refined carbohydrates, low fat, and booze, and toward balanced meals of real food at regular intervals (which sounds simple enough, but is admittedly challenging in our modern world). Short of overhauling your diet, there’s also a hack: take a spoonful of almond butter (or coconut oil), or a handful of almonds, every few hours throughout the day. Come for the hack, stay for the diet overhaul. And check-in after a few days: are you having fewer panic attacks? Less anxiety at 5pm? At 7am? Sunday evening?

Originally published in goop

When it comes to anxiety, we all have a different baseline. Some of us naturally feel steady under stress, while others are prone to spiraling at the sight of an upsetting headline in the news. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle. And while we can all make certain lifestyle changes to keep anxiety in check, some of us may never be totally free from gut flutters and nagging worries. If you’re one of those, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, with the right mind-set, it could be a strength.

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