“Americans have grown increasingly anxious as they’ve seen this global pandemic upend their lives within a very short time, and that’s understandable,” says Glen Stettin, MD, Express Scripts senior vice president.
The fear of the unknown is often incapacitating and causing many people to feel helpless and overwhelmed with worry. Knowledge is power and there are powerful steps you can take personally to take charge of your health and naturally reduce the effects of stress on your body.
The psychological, physical and financial stress of the ongoing pandemic is impacting everyone and for many it is causing significant anxiety. Many Americans are anxious, depressed and sleep deprived from the stress and fears about their risk of severe illness or financial loss.
A new analytical report from the pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts shows that the number of weekly prescriptions for anti-anxiety, anti-depressant, and anti-insomnia medications jumped 21% between February 15 and March 15, 2020.
The biggest increase was for anti-anxiety medications. Prescriptions rose 34.1%.
The COVID-19 data in the report is part of a larger in-depth analysis of Americans’ use of mental health medications from 2015 through 2019. Among the statistics cited in the report:
- Anxiety is the most common mental health disorder in the United States, affecting 40 million adults every year.
- Nearly 17.3 million American adults experienced a major depressive disorder in 2017.
- Antidepressant use increased 15% from 2015 to 2019, with adolescents experiencing the greatest increase (38.3%).
- 50 to 70 million people in the United States suffer from a sleep disorder.
- Three quarters of Americans believe mental health is just as important as physical health.
- More than 42% of Americans cite cost and poor insurance coverage as the top barriers for accessing mental health care.
- Roughly 111 million Americans live in areas where there is a shortage of mental health professionals.
Source: Express Scripts. America’s State of Mind. Published April 16, 2020.
Here’s what I recommend: #1 avoid the drugs if at all possible; they never really fix the problem and they create dependency and side-effects.
The truth is life is stressful and it depletes your neurotransmitters. The better answer is: replenish your neurotransmitters and support your nervous system and your adrenal glands that make your stress hormones. This will rebuild your nervous system so that you can overcome the effects of the stress on your body and mind.
Stress is mental and physical. The solution also has to be both mental and physical. You can redirect your focus to a positive new pathway AND replenish your neurotransmitters by taking specific, targeted amino acids and neurotropic herbs until your nervous system is completely refueled and your neurohormones are fully replenished. The drugs can only help for a short time because they inhibit the natural re-cycling of your neurotransmitters, including, Serotonin, Dopamine and Norepinephrine. Drugs over-ride the system and stimulate the receptors rather replenishing the neurohormones. This causes a further depletion of the neurohormones and a dependency on the drugs. There is a better way.
Here are the supplements that I recommend to calm the senses and boost the body’s ability to deal with stress and anxiety.
- Tranquil Clarity is a proprietary formulation that I researched and developed specifically to reduce stress and anxiety, calm the senses, increase mental acuity, improve sleep quality and boost immune responsiveness by lowering adrenal cortisol and increasing immune function by increasing Natural Killer (NK) Cell production & activation.
- GABAflora is another proprietary formula that I researched and developed for my patients to reduce anxiousness and increase brain alpha waves to help turn off over active thoughts and worries and increase deep physically rejuvenating sleep. Reducing stress & anxiety and increasing sleep all help to increase immune function.