Understanding Anxiety: Causes, Treatments, and CBD’s Potential Role in Management

Anxiety is a common mental health disorder that affects millions of people worldwide. While everyone experiences some level of anxiety, it can become overwhelming and debilitating for some individuals. Understanding the causes, symptoms, and available treatments for anxiety is crucial in managing and overcoming this condition.

In recent years, CBD has gained popularity as a potential alternative treatment for anxiety. In this article, we will explore what anxiety is, its causes, available treatment options, and tips for managing the condition. Additionally, we will closely examine what science says about CBD and its potential role in anxiety management.

What Is Anxiety?

As mentioned earlier, anxiety is a perfectly normal emotion, and everyone experiences some form of anxiety at some stage in life. However, when anxiety symptoms persist for longer than normal or increase in severity to the point where it interferes with normal functioning, it becomes a disorder. Therefore, anxiety disorders are a set of mental illness conditions characterized by excessive fear, apprehension, and worry¹.

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Prevalence of Anxiety Disorders

According to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, over 6 million adults currently living in the United States suffer from an anxiety disorder. For context’s sake, this means about 3.1% of theU.S. population. This just goes to show how much of a global burden anxiety disorders are².

Types of Anxiety Disorders

There are several types of anxiety disorders, each of which has its own characteristic features. Some types of anxiety disorders include the following:

Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a non-specific type of anxiety disorder that is characterized by nonspecific, prolonged worrying. People with GAD generally cannot pinpoint the exact cause of their fear or worry¹.
Panic Disorder: Panic disorders are a type of anxiety disorder characterized by the sudden, intense onset of fear and terror. Panic attacks are usually linked to a particular trigger; however, you should know that they can also occur without any external trigger¹.
Specific Phobias: Just as the name implies, this is simply intense, sometimes irrational fear of a particular object, location, or even circumstance. A perfect example is Agoraphobia –a fear of being in situations where affected individuals will feel trapped and unable to “escape.” Someone with agoraphobia could choose to walk down a flight of stairs rather than take an elevator¹.
Social Anxiety Disorder: Social anxiety disorder is a mental health condition characterized by the fear of being negatively judged or evaluated by others in social situations. This fear can manifest in various forms, including stage fright and fear of intimacy. Social anxiety disorder symptoms can get so overwhelming that they significantly impact an individual’s quality of life¹.

Symptoms of Anxiety Disorders

Anxiety disorders have a wide range of symptoms, and ultimately, the symptoms felt or experienced depend on the type of anxiety disorder. Here are some common symptoms of anxiety:

Feeling restless
Increased heart rate
Rapid breathing or shortness of breath
Muscle tension
Sweating
Excessive worry or fear
Fatigue and weakness
Body aches and pains
Fatigue or feeling easily tired
Difficulty concentrating
Irritability
Sleep disturbances^1,3

Causes Of Anxiety

So far, experts haven’t been able to pinpoint what exactly causes anxiety disorders. That said, there are several risk factors that are known to potentiate anxiety. These anxiety causes include the following:

Genetics
Prolonged stress
Medical conditions. E.g., diabetes and depression
Environmental/Social factors
Abuse³

What Does Anxiety Treatment Look Like?

Anxiety disorders can be very debilitating, especially because they often have a significant adverse impact on a person’s ability to work or function properly. The good news, however, is that with appropriate treatment and care, recovery is possible⁴.

Anxiety disorders treatment usually involves a combination of medication, psychotherapy to provide patients with effective, lasting relief⁵. Pharmacotherapy (medications) and psychotherapy can be used independently, but results have shown that better treatment outcomes are gotten when these approaches are combined.

Medications: There are quite a number of medications used in treating anxiety disorders. Examples include benzodiazepines, anticonvulsants, beta blockers and so on. Ultimately you’ll need to discuss with your doctor to decide which one is best for you.
Psychotherapy: Psychotherapy helps patients identify and understand the underlying causes of their anxiety disorders. Patients also learn effective coping skills for dealing with anxiety disorders. There are many types of psychotherapy approaches and some examples include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and even Art Therapy⁵.

CBD and Anxiety

As mentioned earlier, in recent times, the focus has been shifting towards the use of CBDs in treating and managing mental illness conditions like anxiety and depression.

What is CBD?

CBD, a non-psychoactive compound, is among the many cannabinoids found in the Cannabis sativa plant. Although another cannabinoid, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is the most well-known, CBD has gained attention for its potential therapeutic effects, particularly in treating anxiety and other conditions⁶.

THC is more popular thanks to its role in potentiating the “high” felt or experienced when marijuana is used. However, CBD works by a totally different mechanism and it elicits a lot of beneficial health effects. Read on to discover how CBD works and its amazing health effects!

How does CBD work?

The human body contains an array of receptors, which are protein-based structures attached to cells that receive signals from various stimuli. Among these receptors are CB1 and CB2, primarily located in the central and peripheral nervous systems. CBD is believed to elicit its effects by binding to these receptors.

Although the exact mechanism by which CBD affects CB1 receptors in the brain is not yet fully understood, it is believed to modify serotonin signals. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that plays a crucial role in mental health. Mental illness conditions like depression and anxiety have been linked with low or inadequate serotonin levels in the body⁷.

Evidence for using CBD for anxiety

So far, there are quite a number of studies that point to and validate the use of CBD in anxiety treatment. Let’s take a look at a few of these cases.

Generalized Anxiety

According to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), the results of a test carried out using CBD showed that it reduced stress levels in some animals (e.g., rats). In addition to this, observable physiological symptoms like heart rate improved significantly⁷.

Social Anxiety Disorder

A 2011 study carried out to evaluate CBD’s effects on SAD yielded positive results. The participants who received a dose of CBD experienced a reduction in SAD symptom levels when compared to the placebo group⁷.

Other Studies

In some other studies, results showed up to 70% of participants experienced symptom relief after the administration of CBDs. Interestingly in all of these cases, only about 9-15% of participants experienced any adverse effect or worsening of condition⁶.

A team from Harvard Medical School conducted a study to investigate the safety and effectiveness of CBD in treating anxiety patients. The study was conducted over a four-week period, during which participants were required to take CBD extracts three times daily. It is worth noting that the participants had not used cannabis in at least a year.

The study found that most participants experienced significant improvements in their anxiety symptoms after just one week, with significant improvements recorded by the end of the four-week period. Additionally, the CBD doses were found to be well-tolerated, with no adverse events reported during or after the treatment period.

The study’s main finding was that using full-spectrum CBD products for anxiety management is more effective than using single-extracted CBD isolates. The researchers also noted that full-spectrum CBD use was associated with fewer side effects.

Risks and potential side effects

Based on current research data available, CBD is well tolerated by most people. In fact, there have been reports of relative safety even after doses as high as 1,500mg were administered in one day! That said, there are still some side effects linked with CBD use. Some of these include the following:

Dizziness or drowsiness
Appetite changes
Weight changes
Diarrhea
Dry mouth

Some Things To Note

While CBD is relatively safe and effective, it’s recommended you explore CBD use only after consulting with your doctor. This is because there’s still a lot of things unknown about potential long-term effects of CBD use. In addition to this, special population (like pregnant or breastfeeding people), should NOT use CBD. If you’re currently on a medication or series of medications, you should consult with your doctor before using CBD. This is to prevent any adverse drug interaction from occurring due to concomitant CBD use.

Conclusion

While there may still be some things we don’t know about CBD, there’s no questioning the fact that its efficacious and this earmarks an exciting future ahead for medical science. Who knows, CBD could even become a mainstream treatment option for anxiety and other mental health conditions in a couple of years and with more research.

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