In the context of anxiety (phobias, OCD, GAD), we will discuss today the hygienic-dietary rules. The purpose of these rules is to provide advice on lifestyle habits. These rules match very well with the therapeutic elements that you will teach him
The rules :
Sport
The first thing you will be able to discuss with your patient is resuming sports. As you know, sport has as strong an impact as antidepressants when practiced regularly. A first piece of advice would be to take up sport again. But not just any sport. Favour endurance sports, in other words “cardio” sports. Cycling, running, fast walking or swimming are some examples of endurance sports..
The idea is that this resumption of regular sport increases the level of serotonin and thus creates a calming effect in the patient as well as an impact on the mood. It is important to tell them that the important thing is regularity, not intensity. Dr. Malbos recommends 20 to 30 minutes of exercise, 2 to 3 times a week.
Excitants
Another dietary health tip is to stop taking stimulants. If your patient smokes, he or she will tend to think that smoking calms him or her down, although this idea is false. Nicotine is an excitant that will aggravate anxiety.
Excitants also include alcohol. You should therefore advise your patients to drink alcohol only occasionally. If this demand seems too complicated to achieve, then the C2Addict software and its ecological environments in which craving indices have been placed will be ideal therapeutic allies.
Caffeine is also an excitant and that is why it is important that your anxious patients do not drink it. Dr. Malbos recommends an alternative to coffee: green tea, which is much healthier. Alternatively, if your patient can’t do without coffee, you can suggest that they drink decaffeinated coffee.
The food
“Eat desserts !”. Here’s what you need to tell your patients. And yes, a dessert at every meal will increase serotonin levels. Be careful, a dessert a day is not a cake a day. The goal is not to make the patient obese.
Otherwise, there are no strict rules regarding diet. The only thing is that it should be varied and balanced as much as possible. Dr. Malbos advocates an application called “Yuka” so that the patient can understand which foods are good and bad for health.
La luminosité
It is important that your patients get exposure to sunlight. Once again this triggers the secretion of serotonins. Walking, sunbathing and trips to the beach are therefore advisable, but in a reasonable way. The idea is not to stay a whole day under the sun but rather to expose yourself regularly during the week.
The type of lighting is also critical. Your patients should prefer lamps with warm tones that recall the natural colors of the sun or sunset. It is therefore important to avoid exposure to cold light, in other words white light.
Important: the bedside lamp should not be neglected, on the contrary.
Sleep
To ensure that sleep patterns are respected, you can advise your patients to go to bed at a fixed time. It doesn’t matter what time they go to bed as long as it is regular.
If your patients have difficulty falling asleep, there are several solutions such as meditation, relaxation exercises or C2Hypno.
Sexual relations
Patients often don’t think about it, even though it’s very important to us: sex. It also has a role to play in reducing anxiety. Be sure to tell your patient to have regular sex.
With each orgasm, there is a secretion of oxytocin in the brain that offers a soothing effect. This calming effect does not only last for a moment, but for a whole week. Having sex at least once a week is therefore advice you can give to your patients.
Of course, if your patient does not have a lover, masturbation works just as well.
As you can see, all these dietary rules are not very complicated to apply and they all play a role in reducing anxiety in your anxious patients. The key is regularity.
You can also read our article on slogans, and Schultz relaxation.
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