Before you go any further, I want to remind you, I am not a doctor and the information below is not medical advice. For diagnosis and treatment, please see a licensed doctor or therapist.

Books and Tapes

I highly recommend Healing Anxiety with Herbs by Dr. Harold Bloomfield, Hope And Help For Your Nerves and Peace From Nervous Suffering by Dr. Claire Weekes, and Taking Back The Power, an audio package by Bronwyn Fox.

Meditation and Relaxation Tapes

I try to meditate at least once a day. It helps control negative thoughts which provoke anxiety and is a very powerful and useful tool which you can incorporate in your every day routine to help eliminate negative thoughts. Meditation works on relaxing your mind. Once your mind relaxes, your body follows. Relaxation techniques work on relaxing the muscles in your body. Once you have learned these techniques you can apply them in any situation.

Emotional Freedom Technique

This technique is used by tapping on certain meridian points to help alleviate symptoms of anxiety. It works extremely well on phobias.

Breathing Techniques

Here's a whole page on breathing techniques.

Herbs and Vitamins

Passion flower: Passion flower is a very effective herb for many nerve conditions. It sedates, soothes and relaxes, helps relieve muscular spasms, and tends to relieve pain. Passion flower assists in insomnia, with no associated side effects such as stupor, depression, and confusion; as often occurs with various drugs used to treat insomnia.

Nervous tensions, nervous agitation, anxiety, hysterical behaviour, hyper-activity in children, poor mental concentration, Parkinson's disease, epilepsy, neuralgia, shingles, high blood pressure, spasmodic asthma and nervous conditions associated with menstrual periods, child birth and menopause may all be relieved by this wonderful, safe, gentle nervine herb.

Passion flower is often available combined with valerian in nerve relaxer formulas, or in herbal formulas for insomnia in combination with valerian and other herbs and minerals.

Chamomile: For centuries Chamomile has been a highly respected herb. In the garden, it's thought of as the doctor plant because it helps to strengthen and revive weak herbs nearby. Chamomile's action and influence is rapid upon the circulation, stomach and uterus, and also relaxes nerves. It promotes normal monthly periods and relieves muscular pain and spasms, including colic.

It's soothing to babies, but is also beneficial as a general tonic, assisting the appetite, digestion, and relieving some cases of lumbago, neuralgia, insomnia and rheumatic problems.

As a strong tea, this herb is anti-inflammatory, antibiotic and anti-spasmodic, being useful for menstrual cramps and mild internal infection. The Germans state that the curative powers of Chamomile are immense and call it alles zutraut, which means capable of anything.

Bach's Rescue Remedy: Consists of five remedies which are combined together. It consists of STAR OF BETHLEHEM for shock. ROCK ROSE for great fear and panic. IMPATIENTS for mental and physical tension, when the sufferer cannot relax and the mind is agitated and irritable. CHERRY PLUM for loss of emotional control, when the sufferer screams, shouts or becomes hysterical; and CLEMATIS, the remedy for the bemused, distant feeling, which often precedes a faint.

Kava Kava: The botanical has been used in parts of the Pacific at traditional social gatherings as a relaxant and in cultural and religious ceremonies to achieve a higher level of consciousness. The roots can be made into a mildly narcotic beverage that's comparable to popular cocktails in our culture. In Germany, Kava Kava is used as a nonprescription drug to reduce anxiety. Kava was first mentioned in scientific records in 1886, and it is gaining popularity in the U.S. for its relaxing effects.

More recently, Kava Kava has also gained popularity with the natives of Hawaii, Australia and New Guinea where it is used medicinally, as well as recreationally. Kava also is effective as a pain reliever and can be used instead of aspirin, acetaminophen and ibuprofen.

Recent clinical studies have shown that the herb kava is a safe, nonaddictive, anti-anxiety medicine, and is as effective as prescription anxiety agents containing benzodiazepines such as valium. While benzodiazepines tend to promote lethargy and mental impairment, kava has been shown to improve concentration, memory, and reaction time for people suffering from anxiety. Kava has been clinically demonstrated as a means of achieving a state of relaxation without the adverse side effects.