Dear Zmerrill4361,

I am hopeful that you will get past this withdraw phase soon and that you will find what natural remedies will be most helpful for you!

I have used rhodiola before and did find it helpful. I only took one in the morning and sometimes one (capsule) in the afternoon. (You aren't supposed to take it before bed.) After many months, though it did seem to no longer be helping me. Because my anxiety symptoms seem to be menopause related, I switched to Motherwort (tincture) which has worked very well.

If you have adrenal fatigue, I think I have read the rhodiola would NOT be a good option for you.

To help with your sleep and detox, try 1 cup epsom salt in a warm bath (20 minutes) before you go to bed.

If you haven't already, add some extra virgin coconut oil to your diet. It is good food for the adrenals and nourishing. Some find it helps with weight loss.

Oatmeal, interestingly, is soothing to the nervous system. (You can add coconut oil to this and get the benefit of both things in one meal! )

Let me know what you try and how you are doing! I hope you feel much better soon.

~Mama to Many~

I don't know what to tell you brother. I have been suffering social anxiety forever. I just learned that no matter what pill you take, the body will build tolerance. I just take more probiotics drinking kefir everyday, and eat a healthy diet. It helped to reduce my social anxiety, but it didn't cure it. Learn how to deal with it.

Hello Zmerrill,

Magnesium is very helpful for anxiety as its both a muscle relaxant and helps the body with over 300 important processes including uptake of seratonin etc. Both the US and UK soil are deficient in magnesium as a result of intensive farming, ( thus overuse of nitrates and phosphates ) which leach it out of the soil so even if you try and eat healthy, if the soil is magnesium depleted, the plants/ animals we eat can't get any of this essential mineral, so neither will we. If you go to Dr Carolyn Dean's website you can download for free a reduced version of her book on Magnesium. In China they did a survey a few years ago and discovered that the areas most depleted in magnesium had the highest levels of suicide Because it's SO important for mental health. So it might be worth doing some research on that. Also, you can learn to manage social anxiety using Cognitive Behavioural therapy and learning to do slow deep breathing which gives your brain the ' all clear ' signal which means that the very unpleasant "flight and fight" reactions will reduce. also things like progressive muscle relaxation done daily can help manage all anxiety. I'm guessing it is probably your peers, as in your own work colleagues and age group, that give you the worst symptoms? I don't know if yoI've ever had any therapy to help with it or what your circumstances are, but most anxieties are helped by exposure to the feared situation - starting with the least threatening and repeating daily till you're bored with it( anxiety and boredom don't marry well! ). Then up the stakes just a little and repeat And so on. Anxiety tends to peak between 40 and 80 minutes from onset, but the symptoms are often so unpleasant that we abandon the situation after 10/20 minutes and never manage to get over the worst And thus believe we won't survive it! The more you practice, the sooner the anxiety peak is over and the quicker you start to feel calmer again. There is quite a bit on the web, but if you start with the physical symptom reduction by the muscle release and deep breathing into the abdomen through the nose, I hope you would notice an improvement. and also the Magnesium. Good luck!