DON’T BE A CRAB
Nobody likes a crab.
Oh sure, in the animal world, they’re cute. We love to watch them walk sideways, with their little claws up in the air - they’re good for a laugh, provided that we don’t get too close to those claws.
But in the people world, crabs are no fun to be around, period.
I’m sure this article won’t pertain to YOU, dear reader - but perhaps you know of someone else who seems to have a - shall we say - propensity for moodiness, who is perhaps a little tightly wound at times, someone who seems to easily be upset?
While it’s unpleasant to be around someone who frequently exhibits these kinds of behavior, take comfort in the fact that you’re not the cause of their sudden outbursts of anger or impatience, irritability or frustration; these are classic signs of anxiety.
DEFINITION AND SYMPTOMS OF ANXIETY
According to the Free Dictionary, ‘Anxiety is a multisystem response to a perceived threat or danger.’
http://medicaldictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Anxiety
A partial list of the emotional symptoms of anxiety are:
-
Always feeling angry and a lack of patience
-
Depression
-
Emotional flipping (dramatic mood swings)
-
Feeling down in the dumps
-
Frequently being on edge or ‘grouchy’
-
Mood swings
-
Underlying anxiety, apprehension or fear
-
You feel like you are under pressure all of the time
-
Frequent feeling of overwhelm, or that there is just too much to handle or do
-
Difficulty concentrating, short term memory loss
-
Spaced out
-
Fear of impending doom
-
Disorientation
-
Easily distracted
-
Memory loss
-
Easily startled
-
Cry easily
-
A vague, uneasy feeling of discomfort or dread
THE LIST OF PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS IS LONGER, BUT CAN INCLUDE:
-
Brain fog
-
dizziness or lightheadedness
-
Feeling of a tight band around your head or pressure
-
Strange noises in your ear
-
TMJ
-
Numbness or tingling in extremities
-
Chest pain or discomfort
-
Heart palpitations
-
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
-
Mouth or throat clicking or grating when talking
-
Nausea
-
Constipation or diarrhea
-
Frequent urination
-
Skin problems
-
Difficulty with sleep, or bad dreams
-
Feeling worse in the morning
-
Blurry vision
-
Wanting to run away
-
Tension, nervousness, ‘hyper’
-
Giddy
-
Overly sensitive to noise
And this is just the SHORT list, guys. To read more, click this link: http://www.anxietycentre.com/anxiety-symptoms.shtml
anxiety isn't normal
There’s a whole range of what is called ‘anxiety’, from phobias all the way up to panic attacks - and panic attacks that never seem to go away, to just feeling ‘stressed’.
The symptoms of anxiety are so varied - and sometimes, so seemingly disconnected - that it’s easy to misunderstand what’s going on with us or a loved one, and many times, are blamed on something else.
Some medications can cause anxiety. Even caffeine can cause feelings of anxiety. Many times, there’s nothing that we can directly point to as a cause, and oftentimes, we can just get so used to the symptoms that we can think it’s ‘normal’ or it’s ‘just one of my idiosyncrasies’.
But it’s not normal, it’s not healthy, and it’s not something that has to be endured or accepted.
Anyone is susceptible to it, whether you’re a natural optimist or pessimist or somewhere in between.
SO WHAT’S GOING ON IN OUR BODIES WHEN ANXIETY IS PRESENT?
There’s a bit of a domino effect going on in our brains during anxiety. Neurotransmitters (chemical messengers) such as norepinephrine and serotonin send signals to the amygdala and hypothalamus, which then activate the sympathetic nervous system, which then releases adrenaline and cortisol.
but in plain english
We’ve all heard of adrenaline and cortisol as being ‘the stress hormones’. They’re produced by the adrenal glands, two tiny little things that sit on our kidneys like cute little hats.
This is where it all starts.
In a healthy body, cortisol is a wonderful thing. It influences or regulates things such as blood sugar, blood pressure, central nervous system activation and immune responses, to name just a few.
It’s not the bad guy, and neither is adrenaline, which conveys the nerve impulses to various organs and is used by our bodies as a transmitter by some of our nerve cells to other cells. When it gets amped up, it gets more oxygen to our lungs and more blood to our muscles.
In the event of a dangerous situation or threat, these two pump us up and get us into the ‘fight or flight’ mode to help save our lives.
All of this is well and good, if we’re running from a bear or the guy in the ‘Halloween’ movies with the mask and knife. Our brain and our bodies work together to help us, pumping blood to our extremities to give us strength to run away - or to fight.
But when the danger - real or imagined - is gone, our bodies, brains, hormones and chemicals should return to ‘normal’, and to ‘health’.
What happens when these
levels stay elevated?
Well, one of the things that happens is a loss of magnesium.
Magnesium helps to regulate cortisol; when there’s too little magnesium in our bodies, there’s an uptick of cortisol. If we don’t have enough magnesium, our bodies have a harder time getting the cortisol levels back to health. And if our cortisol levels aren’t in a state of health, we’re always in a certain level of ‘stress’ or anxiety.
Stress depletes our bodies of magnesium. Large amounts of cortisol deplete our bodies of magnesium. And so we climb on the merry-go-round. Which came first?
And then there’s adrenaline. According to Dr. Carolyn Dean, author of the book ‘The Magnesium Miracle’: "the more magnesium deficient you are, the more exaggerated is the adrenaline release.
There are over a dozen major metabolic processes that are affected by adrenaline. Each of these functions requires magnesium and leads to wasting of this important mineral if the symptoms continue.
Magnesium calms the nervous system and relaxes muscle tension, helping reduce anxiety and panic attacks............Hands down, bar none and without a doubt, the top supplement
for anxiety is Magnesium and in my experience, if it doesn’t work that means you haven’t taken enough.”
http://drcarolyndean.com/2014/06/is-anxiety-a-magnesium-deficiency/
Guess what happens when we stay on the merry-go-round too long?
Our adrenals get fatigued.
Salt craving, weight gain, blood sugar problems and nervousness, headaches or memory problems and fatigue, coupled with irritation and anxiety are some of the fun earmarks of adrenal fatigue.
‘Loss of Mg causes an initial rise of Sodium, and then an eventual collapse of both Sodium and Mg — the classic case of “Adrenal burnout” that so many are subject to.’
http://gotmag.org/magnesium-supports-the-adrenals-thyroid/
And when cortisol levels go up, thyroid levels go down:
http://drcarolyndean.com/2013/12/balancing-adrenals-and-thyroid/
Here's an excellent discussion on magnesium, anxiety and depression (7 minute video)
Are you beginning to get the picture?
We live in a fast-paced world, and no one is completely immune to the daily stressors that play out.
The longer we’re alive, the more chances we have to get our hearts broken, experience traumatic events, live out experiences that we consider ‘good’ but can still be a stressor on our systems, eat the ‘wrong’ foods, play fast and hard, enjoy exhilarating moments and to feel fear and anxiety.
And each of these moments have the potential to keep our minds or our bodies stuck: whether it’s a traumatic moment long forgotten (we thought), or a daily stressor that we finally managed to be free from - if our bodies don’t have enough magnesium to get our adrenaline and cortisol levels back to normal, they’ll stay at a stressed level, which will then deplete our magnesium levels even more - which will then cause our adrenaline and cortisol levels to rise even more.
Our bodies are created to be able to heal themselves, given the right tools.
As the master mineral, magnesium should be the first tool that you reach for when you want to stop being a crab.
