Herbs for Anxiety

A detailed protocol for creating prescriptions

“There’s nothing in the world that a cup of tea can’t solve.” John Murphy (My grandad.) There’s no situation that can’t be made better by a proper cup of tea. It truly is a universal remedy. A solver of problems. A trusty little helper in times of need. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen a steaming mug served as an emergency remedy – and it isn’t always down to the ingredients. Given the situation, a cup of Earl Grey can be just as effective as a mug of chamomile. We all instinctively know that a cup of tea made with love is one of the most powerful medicines on Earth.

I’ve always been an anxious person, so much so, that I generally accept it as more a part of my personality than an ailment. Sometimes my predisposition towards hyper-vigilance serves a useful purpose. Saving you from danger is one thing anxiety can be really good for, but like anything that isn’t managed well, it can quickly drift into the arena of illness if allowed to ensnare you in its grip.

It’s not my intention to turn this Substack into an archive of those “pill for an ill” articles which offer patronisingly simple solutions to the complex mechanism that is our human body. There’s enough of those “How to’s” for A.N. Other Malady” on the internet already.

However, three things recently happened that prompted me to write this post - and when things come in threes its time to sit up and take notice.

1. I was approached by the Herbal Alliance to present a webinar on the subject of “Herbs For Anxiety.” Apparently this is one of the most common health issues people contact them about. You can watch that webinar here for free.

   

2. I was unexpectedly offered some funding to run a course at a local community project. Again, the subject was herbs for anxiety. A number of volunteers had specifically requested information about it.

3. The third reason was precipitated by a rather dark Netflix drama (I’m a sucker for horror films,) which brought back some very unpleasant memories of a time when I myself was caught in the nightmarish grip of generalised anxiety syndrome. Inspired by the storyline, I felt motivated to share the protocol I personally used to get out of the clutches of this horrible condition.

The following long form post is my attempt to distil the above three into one (hopefully) helpful and more importantly PRACTICAL resource for anyone (and by that I mean everyone) who has ever experienced anxiety. It’s the outline of a plan that anyone can work to should they find themselves stuck in a similar predicament and not know what to do about it. From the get-go, I have to say that this is much more of a practitioner tutorial than the home apothecary posts I usually write about. I hope you’ll indulge me on this one occasion, and forgive the length and detail the article contains.

Here we go.