My ND put together an herbal tincture for me with valarian, hops, passion flower, and I dunno what else. Helped.

Breathing exercises and visualization helped, especially with the major attacks. But the low-lying anxiety -- the kind when you're at work and you just can't get organized or deal with people--was a continuing problem for me.

Just knowing what was going on helped stave off the worst of the attacks. At first I had a cascade reaction going -- I was having a lot of tachycardia anyway; the anxiety would hit; my heart rate would go up very fast and scare me; the adrenals would respond; and I'd be off on a nightmare ride. A couple of times I really thought I was dying. Once I learned not to panic at the beginning, the attacks became more manageable.

Fluorescent lights seemed to make the anxiety worse. Don't know if that's related to flicker rate.

I did take lorezepam for a short while, (2 months) when I was really wigged out. Also valium for a week, when I was really REALLY wigged out. Be careful of the SSRIs, there's lots of medication they don't mix with.

Alprazolam (Xanax) can help alleviate severe symptoms of anxiety quickly.

It can be conquered without meds but it's not easy.

For long term, I suggest reading Marnie's posts on magnesium supplementation. Magnesium supplementation really does help: http://www.coldcure.com/html/dep.html

Klonopin helps me quite a bit with the anxiety (just get a bit sleepy) I have to have it to go to work.

Makes sense that flashing lights could create more anxiety because I used to work with folks with epilepsy and it was a seizure trigger in some cases.

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Originally posted by ibrakeforticks:
Can increased anxiety be a sign of Herx? I just started taking abx 5 days ago and anxiety has just increased a lot.

What natural treatments for anxiety have people found helpful? I'd rather not add another drug right now, but may need to.

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Calcium and magnesium may help. You need to space them apart by a good 2 hours or more from antibiotics.

Drinking lots of water and breaking meals up into several small snacks is somewhat helpful.

Anxiety can mean different things. One antibiotic consistently brought on bad vertigo for me, within an hour of taking it. That carries its own charge of anxiety, and nothing 'natural' that I tried was any help against it.

All antibiotics except Bicillin have caused me to have what minoucat refers to, that combination of anxiety or raw nerves and heavy fatigue. The anxiety in my case tends to register physically, an internal shakiness that can easily break out into tremors.

Interestingly, Bicillin improves my mental clarity and overall energy, though it brings on the joint and muscle herxes just fine.

There's a type of anxiety that is the result of being presented with more stimulus than your mind can process. The seeming paradox of being anxious and fatigued really isn't so paradoxical - when my mind can't keep up, anxiety rushes in to fill the gap.

The most helpful thing to me, when I can manage it, is taking frequent breaks where I close my eyes and try to clear my mind of everything. Little rests interspersed throughout the day.

You weren't shopping for a drug, but I'm going to mention one anyway - Gabitril. It has done a lot to improve my anxiety and is non-sedating. When you look at how it works, to me it seems like an obvious candidate for neurolyme patients.