One of Nicole’s particular interests is with stress, anxiety and depression. Stress and anxiety can have a major impact on our lives, our relationships, jobs, families and general enjoyment of life. It affects all of us at some point in our life. Natural medicine offers ways to help you over come and cope better with stress in your life. Nicole will investigate the cause through thorough questioning and pathology testing where necessary. She will then help you to establish regular sleeping patterns, regular eating patterns, providing advice on diet and lifestyle changes, supporting you with herbs and nutrients and flower essences.
What is stress & anxiety?
Chronic stress is probably the primary cause of mental health in the modern world today. The human body is only equipped to deal with the sort of stress people faced in the pre-industrial world, such as crossing paths with a sabre-toothed tiger, tribal warfare, avalanches, floods and other situations that provoke the fight-or-flight response. Today, those same biochemical responses are triggered, hundred of times throughout the day and night by frustration in the office, marital strife, repressed rage, bad news on television, exposure to microwaves and abnormal electromagnetic fields, fear, alienation, peer pressures and other hazards of modern life. However, instead of making high-energy physical responses, people repress their rage, fear and other negative emotions provoked by stress, thereby failing to utilise the powerful hormones and neurochemicals released into the blood.
It is these chemicals that cause changes to our neuro chemistry that leads to mental health conditions like anxiety, depression and chronic stress and fatigue.
There are 3 stages of the stress response
- Alarm Phase – The fight or flight response. A natural response to stress should be short in duration. The body releases adrenalin.
- Resistance / Adaptation Phase – Increased levels of cortisol are produced to protect the body and produce enough energy to sustain life
- Exhaustion Phase – Cortisol levels run out and people become exhausted. Also known as adrenal burn out, adrenal fatigue or chronic fatigue.
Stress will mean your body is in one of these 3 categories, anxiety often occurs when the alarm phase becomes chronic. Other conditions such as chronic fatigue and exhaustion happen when the chronic stress doesn’t go away and eventually we end up in stage 3 also known as the exhaustion phase. In this phase we no longer have the energy to run, or think clearly, make good decisions, and participate in some of the most basic day to day activities.
Stress and anxiety can affect each of us at some time in our lives. Unfortunately stress and anxiety can have a major impact on our day-to-day lives, our relationships, jobs, families and our general enjoyment of life. Natural medicine offers real and proven ways to help you over come and better cope with stress in your life.
Contact Nicole today to make an appointment to feel more energised.