So many remedies to deal with anxiety and stress have ingredients in that are totally unsuitable for those who are suffering also from depression. Many herbal remedies for anxiety and for sleep problems contain both valerian and hops, which are superb remedies but are not helpful if you are also depressed. In fact they can both increase depression as they both act on the central nervous system to slow it down.
It’s partly down to the fact that there is a perception that people with stress need to CALM DOWN. Well, this is true but it doesn’t mean they need to be put to sleep or made dopey.
As a teenager suffering from both stress, anxiety and depression I was prescribed some pretty heavy duty medicines which did nothing for any of the conditions I was afflicted by but simply made me very, very sleepy indeed. After falling asleep in class I got sent home from school a few times. I then spent the next few days sleeping off the medication and was back at school, still stressed, still depressed and with no further help available.
I’ve had various anti-depressants since and have the same reaction with certain ones that are designed to calm you down- I sleep. For days, sometimes. It’s a long way from an ideal solution and I did find the SSRIs rather helpful.
Day-to-day stress is another issue. I’ve worked my way through a lot of remedies, but these days I tend to read labels carefull. If I spot certain items on a list then I don’t buy. I have found my own ways of dealing with the anxiety and stress I get overwhelmed by, and Badger Stress Soother is a part of my armoury.
In its base of beeswax and extra virgin olive oil, it also contains a veritable garden of essential oils that are well known to deal with stress, anxiety and depression all at the same time. Oils of tangerine, lavender, rosemary, cedarwood, spearmint, chamomile and even damask rose give this useful balm its de-stressing properties without knocking you out, over-exciting you or making you feel miserable(but calm). It has a pleasant fragrance, not either flowery or fruity but a mixture of the two and is as suitable for a man as it is for a woman. It can be used as a lipbalm too, which is why I carry it around in a little tin and is also useful smeared around the nostrils as a preventative for hayfever(you can buy a balm somewhere else that also does this. Apparently the pollen is attracted to the balm because it gives off ions of some sort that act like a magnet; this hayfever balm is a LOT more expensive than Badger and if you use a Badger, you kill two bird, so to speak with one stone!)
Badger Stress Soother won’t make your troubles go away; that’s far too much to ask. But it might help you cope a little better with them and the bonus is it’s good for the skin.
Check it out at www.badgerbalm.com . They have a lot of lovely, honest products and the art work on the tins is very cute too. They don’t cost the earth and they might help. They’ve helped me, certainly.