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Using Heating Pads For Anxiety

by Bill Lantz

If you are like me, you deal with anxiety every once in awhile.

And it is always great to have some way to deal with anxiety.

Some people use meditation, other people us walks.

There are all types of methods that help with the anxiety.

A heating pad is another option for helping deal with your anxiety.

Read the rest of the article to learn more about how heating pads can help with anxiety.

What causes anxiety

Everyone deals with anxiety at sometime in their life.

Whether if it's because they are worried about a test they are going to take or they experience a death in the family, these are the types of things that change our outlook in life.

And in creeps the anxiety that we sometimes feel.

I know from my experience I had a job where my boss didn't treat me so well.

Every day was a struggle to see how he was going to treat me and what I would have to worry about that day.

All the time I worried about if he was going to be angry with me for some mundane reason.

And this made the day to day very hard for me.

I woke up every day with anxiety and not wanting to go to work.

It wasn't until I left that situation and got myself into a better situation that anxiety hasn't been such a big factor in my life.

According to Mind.org:

"Everyone's experience of anxiety is different, so it's hard to know exactly what causes anxiety problems. There are probably lots of factors involved.

This page covers some things which make anxiety problems more likely to happen:

https://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/anxiety-and-panic-attacks/causes/#:~:text=Difficult%20experiences%20in%20childhood%2C%20adolescence,physical%20or%20emotional%20abuse

We've already covered "your current life situation", but let's spend a few minutes covering the others.

For "past or childhood experiences", this could cover a wide range of things.

Let's say that you had a traumatic experience in your childhood.

For example, someone you knew fell out of a tree and hurt themselves pretty bad.

This could make it so that you have anxiety every time you see someone climbing up in a tree when you are older.

And it doesn't necessarily need to be in childhood.

As adults, we are usually a little better at releasing these experiences so that they don't affect us.

But that doesn't mean that we always release the anxiety associated with the experience.

So as adults we can experience the same thing.

Physical and mental health problems can happen in many different ways.

If, for instance, you get hurt and end up in a bed for a long period of time, this could cause you to experience anxiety more than you normally would.

Since you are stuck in bed all day and can't fend for yourself, this could cause anxiety if you needed to accomplish some task and no one was there to help you.

Also, if you have mental health problems like depression, this could lead you to having anxiety in situations where you wouldn't normally have a care in the world.

Some people might look at you like you were odd, but that doesn't take away from the fact that you have actual reasons to feel anxiety when you are feeling it.

Lastly, for drugs and medication, some drugs and medications have a side affect of causing more anxiety than you would normally have.

So be careful taking any drugs and medications.

Different types of anxiety

When most people think of anxiety, they think of the every day stresses that occur throughout someone's day to day life.

And every day situations can be stressful.

There is a reason for this.

According to Stress.org:

"U.S. workers are some of the most stressed employees in the world, according to Gallup’s latest State of the Global Workplace report, which captures how people are feeling about work and life in the past year.

U.S. and Canadian workers, whose survey data are combined in Gallup’s research, ranked highest for daily stress levels of all groups surveyed. Some 57% of U.S. and Canadian workers reported feeling stress on a daily basis, up by eight percentage points from the year prior and compared with 43% of people who feel that way globally, according to Gallup’s 2021 report."

https://www.stress.org/workplace-stress

Based on Gallup polling, some 57% of workers in the US and Canada feel stress at work.

So we can understand why anxiety and stress are such a big part of our lives.

Outside of regular anxiety, there are a few anxiety disorders that could make your anxiety seem even worse.

They are as follows, with signs that you have the disorder:

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Generalized Anxiety Disorder is a persistent feeling of anxiety or dread that can interfere with your daily life.

This isn't the same as anxiety, which can come and go as the situation arises, but GAD is always affecting your life.

Someone can experience GAD for months or even years before it goes away.

Symptoms of GAD include: easily fatigued, irritability, difficulty concentrating, difficulty controlling feelings of worry, having sleeping problems, feeling restless and on edge.

Panic Disorder

People with panic disorder usually have panic attacks when no real threat is present.

Panic attacks are typically when someone has a sense of losing control of their lives when nothing is really wrong.

Just because you have a panic attack or multiple panic attacks does not mean that you have panic disorder.

During a panic attack, the person will experience a pounding heart, chest pain, feelings of incoming doom, feelings of life being out of control, trembling of tingling, and sweating.

Someone that has panic disorder will try to keep from having another panic attack.

This means that they will avoid situations they think give them the attacks.

Whether that means staying home and avoiding talking to people.

Social Anxiety Disorder

According to the Mayo Clinic:

"In contrast to everyday nervousness, social anxiety disorder includes fear, anxiety and avoidance that interfere with relationships, daily routines, work, school or other activities. Social anxiety disorder typically begins in the early to mid-teens, though it can sometimes start in younger children or in adults.

Emotional and behavioral symptoms

Signs and symptoms of social anxiety disorder can include constant:

  • Fear of situations in which you may be judged negatively
  • Worry about embarrassing or humiliating yourself
  • Intense fear of interacting or talking with strangers
  • Fear that others will notice that you look anxious
  • Fear of physical symptoms that may cause you embarrassment, such as blushing, sweating, trembling or having a shaky voice
  • Avoidance of doing things or speaking to people out of fear of embarrassment
  • Avoidance of situations where you might be the center of attention
  • Anxiety in anticipation of a feared activity or event
  • Intense fear or anxiety during social situations
  • Analysis of your performance and identification of flaws in your interactions after a social situation
  • Expectation of the worst possible consequences from a negative experience during a social situation

For children, anxiety about interacting with adults or peers may be shown by crying, having temper tantrums, clinging to parents or refusing to speak in social situations.

Performance type of social anxiety disorder is when you experience intense fear and anxiety during speaking or performing in public but not in other types of more general social situations."

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/social-anxiety-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20353561

Others

There is also an extensive list of phobia related disorders, which we will not cover here.

How to treat anxiety naturally

Once you know how have anxiety, the best thing you can do it try to treat it.

There are a few options for treating anxiety naturally.

First, you can practice relaxation techniques.

One of the best things we can do for ourselves when we are stressed is help ourselves to get calmed down.

Once we are calmed down, then maybe we can go about our day as we normally would.

Relaxation techniques are those things which help us in this respect.

The first relaxation technique we can have is to breath more slowly.

My son recently fell out of a tree about 15 to 20 feet.

Once he hit the ground, he was understandably upset.

The best thing he could do for himself was to breath more slowly, which would help him to calm down.

We taught him to breathe in deeply through his nose and out deeply out his mouth.

According to CT Insider:

"Nasal breathing stimulates the “rest and digest” system, known as the “parasympathetic” nervous system, rather than the “fight or flight” system, she says, so “it can induce a sense of calm, even in the midst of stressful, high-intensity activity. This has the potential to improve focus and even, potentially, performance.” "

https://www.ctinsider.com/connecticutmagazine/health/article/The-nose-knows-How-breathing-through-your-nose-17045509.php#:~:text=Nasal%20breathing%20stimulates%20the%20%E2%80%9Crest,stressful%2C%20high%2Dintensity%20activity.

So breathing through our nose tells our system to rest and relax, which makes it a great option for settling down.

Another great option to relief stress and anxiety is through heat therapy.

Often times when we have anxiety, we tense our muscles.

This makes it hard for us to return to our normal state of feeling.

Doing heat therapy is a good way to relax these muscles so you can go back to normal.

When we have anxiety, a lot of times the muscles in our shoulder and our backs tense up.

So heat up your heating pad and then place it on your shoulders.

Leave it there until the heat goes away then heat it up again.

This next time lay down on your stomach and place the heating pad on your lower back.

After doing this for awhile, it should help the anxiety to go away.

We, of course, suggest using a LavaBag heating pad.

It will give you a great amount of heat with just 4 minutes of time in the microwave.

The LavaBag will also adjust to your body wherever you place.

So that also is a great reason for using the LavaBag heating pad.

Lastly, meditation is another good option for helping with your anxiety.

Some people use prayer as a form of meditation, or you could meditate.

According to VeryWellMind:

"Meditation can be defined as a set of techniques that are intended to encourage a heightened state of awareness and focused attention. Meditation is also a consciousness-changing technique shown to have many benefits on psychological well-being."

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-meditation-2795927

When most people think of meditation, they think of sitting still with their eyes closed.

This is pretty close, but you also need to take into account the fact that during meditation also includes a "state of awareness and focused attention".

So not only are you sitting still, but you are also paying attention to who you are and how you are feeling.

As you are doing this, you can be more thoughtful of your anxiety and allow your brain to process why you are feeling that way.

Through meditation you can work through the emotions in the hopes that the anxiety will go away.

Summary

Anxiety is something we all deal with, whether it is every day or every once in awhile.

Some of us even have anxiety disorders that they can get confirmed if they get tested and meet with a medical professional.

But there are natural ways to deal with your anxiety, which include using heat treatment with a LavaBag, meditation, or practicing relaxation techniques.

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