How I healed my life long anxiety

For decades, anxiety was my constant companion, a shadow that stretched from a terrifying childhood experience with a math teacher. The humiliation and fear made my world a scary place, leaving me with a profound internal anxiety that spiraled even as I outwardly achieved success. Later, my father’s illness and passing plunged me into a full-blown crisis, culminating in a panic attack that led to a “broken brain” diagnosis and two years on medication.

But my healing began when I realized anxiety was not a disorder, but a symptom, a loud, painful call for rebalancing. This truth, initially learned outside conventional education, revolutionized my understanding.

Here’s what I discovered about anxiety’s true root causes and how I addressed them:

1. Blood Sugar Imbalance: The Hidden Trigger

My lifelong anxiety, often erratic and intense, frequently masked a deeper issue: unstable blood sugar. It’s a connection often overlooked, but the symptoms of high or low blood sugar mirror anxiety. Insulin resistance, where cells stop responding to insulin, directly impacts brain function and neurotransmitter production, confirming what I began to suspect was fueling my own anxious spirals.

2. Nutrient Deficiencies: Fuelling the Fire

Despite my efforts, my diet likely left me deficient in vital nutrients essential for a calm nervous system. My body desperately needed the right symphony of:

• Magnesium: Crucial for calming the nervous system and Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) production.
• Zinc: Low levels can trigger anxiety and impact neurotransmitters.
• Vitamin D: A hormone vital for mental health, often deficient. I realized my fear of the sun was depriving me.
• Iron: Key for serotonin synthesis; its deficiency can lead to tiredness and irritability feelings I knew well.
• Omega-3 Fatty Acids: Essential brain fats that my low-fat beliefs had sidelined, leading to impaired cognitive and nervous system function.

3. Microbiome Imbalance: The Gut-Brain Connection

This was the ultimate paradigm shift for me. I learned that 70% of our serotonin is made in the gut, and the balance of its trillions of microbes directly influences our mood and thoughts via the gut-brain axis. The decades of chronic stress from my childhood fear, compounded by the immense grief after my father’s passing, had undoubtedly thrown my gut microbiome out of balance, contributing significantly to my anxiety. This connection is now proven by groundbreaking research.

4. Chronic Stress: Rewiring for Worry

My ongoing internal anxiety since childhood and the later profound grief from my father’s passing didn’t just feel bad; they physically changed my brain. Chronic stress alters brain communication and neurotransmitter production, creating pathways that constantly prime us for anxiety. My personal history was a living example of this physiological shift.

5. Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity & Inflammation: A Leaky Link

My diet was also filled with gluten, which I learned can create leaky gut by allowing toxins into the bloodstream, triggering chronic inflammation. This constant internal inflammation, I discovered, is one of the  root cause for nearly every psychiatric disorder, including the anxiety I battled.

My Path to Peace: Rebalancing Body & Mind

Understanding these root causes was everything. I made a profound commitment to lifestyle changes, and within one year, my lifelong anxiety healed. I am now free of medication, living with an inner peace I never thought possible. Here’s how I did it:

• Complete Diet Overhaul: Transitioning to an ancoestral nutrition approach, reintroducing healthy fats and meats, and lowering carbs regulated my blood sugar, lifted brain fog, and brought incredible energy.
• Breathwork & Yoga: Activating my parasympathetic nervous system daily became a non-negotiable hack to calm my nervous system, lower cortisol, and literally rewire anxious brain pathways.
• Prioritizing Sleep: I radically shifted my sleep hygiene, consistently in bed by 9:30 pm. Recognizing sleep’s critical role in cellular repair and brain health was a game-changer.
• Strategic Intermittent Fasting: Gradually implementing fasting regulated my blood sugar, eliminated sugar cravings, and gave me true food freedom, freeing me from physical anxiety triggers.
• Embracing Sunlight: Overcoming my past fear, I now consciously seek sunlight, understanding its vital role in Vitamin D production and overall mental health, especially in contrast to excessive blue light exposure.
• Subconscious Programming: Recognizing that childhood experiences wired my brain for anxiety, I leveraged neuroplasticity. Daily intentional directives and visualizations became my powerful tools to literally re-program those anxious pathways, transforming thoughts, behaviours, and patterns.

My journey from lifelong anxiety to profound inner peace is living proof that suffering with anxiety does not have to be a lifetime battle. You are powerful, capable, and whole. What I have mentioned here represents a significant breakthrough in my personal understanding and healing, a profound drop in the ocean of discovery that transformed my approach to anxiety. While it was deeply impactful for me,  I acknowledge that well-being is a vast topic encompassing many interconnected elements, and this is one small powerful aspect worth exploring on your own path.

What breakthroughs have you discovered on your own wellness journey? Share your insights below.