Anxiety Treatment Without Medication: 15 Non-Drug Options

15 Ways to Treat Anxiety Without Medication

Treating your anxiety doesn’t have to involve medication. Practices like mindfulness and meditation can sharpen your mental focus and ease tension, while regular exercise acts like a natural mood booster by releasing endorphins.  Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) can help you challenge negative thoughts and develop tools to handle stressful situations.  Cutting back on caffeine and alcohol and focusing on your diet, hydration, and sleep can all make a difference.

Here are fifteen tips and some free worksheets that can help a person treat their anxiety without medication:

1. Begin Therapy

Therapy can be a powerful tool to combat anxiety without medication. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety can teach a person how to identify negative thought patterns that fuel anxiety and replace them with more balanced thinking.¹ Therapy for anxiety also equips a person with relaxation exercises for anxiety, like deep breathing and mindfulness, to reduce stress and promote emotional regulation. Aside from teaching skills, therapy can provide a safe space for individuals to explore the underlying causes of their anxiety. Many people also look forward to the extra support of meeting with a therapist on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.

2. Focus on Mindfulness

Mindfulness helps treat anxiety by training the mind to focus on the present moment and stop ruminating about the past or worrying about the future.³ By practicing mindfulness, you can learn to recognize the physical and mental cues that arise when anxiety takes hold. You might notice a tightening in your shoulders, sweaty palms, or your face tingling when you’re anxious. When faced with an anxiety trigger, you will be able to recognize the physical signs of anxiety. This allows you to pause and take a moment to regulate before your anxiety gets worse.

3. Exercise Daily

Engaging in any type of exercise can help people with mood state changes and reduce their anxiety.⁷ As exercise training has antidepressant and anxiolytic effects, the benefits of exercise for anxiety include a reduction in sensitivity to current stress and increased resilience in the face of future stress.⁸

4. Set Healthy Boundaries

When you struggle with saying no to excessive demands or feel pressured to please everyone constantly, anxiety can easily take hold. By setting boundaries, you take control of your time, energy, and emotional space. This reduces feelings of overwhelm and resentment, creating a more manageable and less anxiety-provoking environment.

How to Set Boundaries - Free Worksheet

Setting boundaries allows you to communicate more effectively, protect your well-being, and build stronger relationships.

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5. Get More Sleep

Sleep is essential for healthy cognitive functioning, and a lack of sleep significantly increases anxiety.⁵ Having the right amount of sleep and proper sleep hygiene is essential to feeling more like yourself, and incorporating a daily and nightly routine may help initiate healthier patterns. Some people create calming rituals before bed, such as turning off all electronics 30 minutes prior to sleep, taking a hot bath, or writing in a journal.

6. Avoid Caffeine & Alcohol

Avoiding caffeine and alcohol can significantly reduce anxiety symptoms without the need for medication. Caffeine is a stimulant that increases heart rate. At high doses, caffeine can trigger or exacerbate anxiety.⁶ Alcohol can increase anxiety because it affects the brain’s neurotransmitters and also disrupts sleep patterns.

7. Develop a Self-Care Routine

Developing a self-care routine acts as a powerful buffer against anxiety by nurturing your physical and mental well-being. Proper self-care includes getting enough sleep, exercising daily, tapping into your social support, improving emotional regulation strategies, and increasing mindfulness practices.¹⁰ A self-care routine serves as a daily investment in your emotional well-being, equipping you with the inner strength and resources to manage anxiety effectively without relying on medication.

8. Practice Deep Breathing

Engaging in regular deep breathing exercises for anxiety has shown to be an effective short- and long-term technique for reducing stress and anxiety. Deep breathing induces a relaxation response in your body by increasing oxygen levels, slowing down your heart rate, decompressing your muscles, and stabilizing your blood pressure. In turn, your mind clears up, allowing you to feel more balanced and in control of your emotions.¹²

When your anxiety starts to surge, pause and inhale slowly and deeply through your nose, letting the air go all the way down to your diaphragm and feel your belly expand. Then, exhale slowly through your mouth as if you’re expelling all your worries away. This technique can be used anywhere to calm anxiety immediately. However, making this a habit can have an even greater impact on your overall health.¹²

9. Eat Nourishing Foods

Understanding which foods and supplements help reduce anxiety can guide you in making smart dietary choices. Anxiety-friendly foods include vegetables, fruits, omega-3 and omega-9 fatty acids, nuts, and seeds. Additionally, green tea, herbal tea, soy, saffron, culinary herbs, anti-inflammatory foods, a vegan diet, and nutrients like zinc, magnesium, and vitamins C and E are all linked to reduced anxiety.⁹

10. Write In a Journal

Journaling about your anxiety can help you track your thoughts, record behaviors, and express yourself daily. It offers many benefits, such as personal growth, better self-expression, improved problem-solving, stress reduction, and enhanced reflection and critical thinking.¹¹ You can journal using a pen and paper or a journaling app.

11. Join an Anxiety Support Group

Studies have found that support groups can help ease symptoms of psychological conditions, including anxiety, minimize isolation, and manage stress.¹³ Consider joining an in-person online support group to enhance your recovery and help you feel less alone. During these meetings you get to talk about your struggles with other people who are having similar experiences. This can also be a safe and validating space to process difficult emotions, learn healthy ways to cope, and receive valuable feedback.¹³

12. Practice Positive Affirmations

Positive affirmations can self-motivate, encourage positive life changes, or boost self-esteem. If you find yourself using negative self-talk, positive affirmations can combat these often subconscious patterns and replace them with more adaptive narratives, like “I am enough,” “It is OK to make mistakes,” “I love myself,” and “I deserve happiness.”¹¹

Free Personal Strengths Inventory Worksheet

Creating a personal strengths inventory can be a powerful tool to combat self-criticism and negative self-talk.

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13. Start a Daily Meditation Practice

Meditation can be a natural remedy for anxiety by training a person’s mind to focus on the present moment. It helps a person to observe their thoughts without judgment, which can diminish the power of anxious thoughts and prevent anxiety spirals. Regular meditation helps activate the body’s relaxation response, lowering heart rate and blood pressure and reducing the production of stress hormones.^2,3

14. Try Yoga

Just like meditation, yoga can ease anxiety and help you find more peace in your day and be more mindful. It promotes healthy work-life balance and reduces worried thoughts and behaviors. Yoga also promotes deep breathing techniques to relax the mind and body and increase oxygenation.⁴ This can easily be done from home or with a yoga app.

15. Explore Complementary or Alternative Anxiety Treatments

If you are struggling with treatment-resistant anxiety and feel like all of the typical anxiety therapies have failed you, there are many alternative treatments you can explore.

Here are some complementary or alternative anxiety treatments to explore:

• Ketamine treatment: Administered under medical supervision, ketamine for anxiety can have rapid-acting anti-anxiety effects, making it a promising treatment for severe anxiety. It works by altering brain chemistry to provide relief from symptoms, often within hours.¹⁴
• Biofeedback: Biofeedback treatment involves using sensors to monitor physiological functions such as heart rate, muscle tension, and breathing. This feedback enables you to identify the physical signs and symptoms of stress and anxiety and you can learn how to self-regulate.^15,16
• Hypnotherapy: Hypnosis for anxiety can help a person learn how to engage their mind and thoughts to manage emotional distress and improve anxiety-related symptoms.¹⁷ It involves bringing someone to a deeply relaxed yet focused sleep-like state. Then, they can be receptive to the suggestive phase, which directs their attention to more adaptive thoughts and behaviors. Keep in mind that hypnotherapy should be performed by a trained professional and may not work for everyone.¹⁷
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS): TMS for anxiety is a non-invasive, clinically effective treatment for anxiety. During the procedure, a small coil is placed on a person’s scalp which then releases a brief magnetic pulse, altering nerve cells and alleviating symptoms of anxiety.^18,19

When to Seek Professional Help

If you’re experiencing heightened anxiety, racing thoughts, irritability, or excessive fear and worries that prevent you from participating in normal daily activities, it might be time to seek professional help. A local therapist directory is a great way to find a therapist who specializes in anxiety and takes your insurance. There are also many different online therapy services, such as Talkspace or BetterHelp, that can connect you with a therapist who specializes in anxiety.