How I (seemingly) cured myself of anxiety with one simple trick…
By: Devon Haworth
Tags: Anxiety Disorder, Anxiety, Anxiety Treatment, Stress Relief, Stress

How I (seemingly) cured myself of anxiety with one simple trick…

If you’re like me, you’re at home all day long trying to be productive, but find it really hard to get into that focused, motivated, and calm rhythm.

You stare at your computer screen all day, waiting for something to magically inspire a surge of motivation…

aaaaand it never comes.

What holds me back from productivity more than anything, is this constant uneasy feeling of stress/anxiety lurking deep in my chest. It’s usually always there, but especially prominent when I try to get to work.

Now, it’s okay to have good days and bad days; it gives us the perspective that we have to maintain integrity with our goals, and stay disciplined. But for me, this uneasy feeling of negativity from within has plagued my life for at least the past 3 years.

It has held me back from countless things in life; going out, talking to people, focusing on homework, studying, and even sleeping. I knew I had to do something about it. I’ve the course of a year, I’d seen numerous therapists, psychologists, and psychotherapists. I tried probiotic supplements, improving my micronutrient intake. I even tried distracting myself with meditation, video games, music, movies, and long walks. Nothing seemed to work.

While I spent so much time thinking about all of the dimensions and complexities of factors that could be affecting my anxiety disorder, I never once thought that it could be as simple as something like drinking more water.

Just last week I started drinking a ton of water every day. I’d heard about some of the benefits of it but never thought that it could amount to any sort of life changing effects. After drinking 1L of water at the beginning of the day, I begin to feel immediate relief of any inner tension.

This wonderful effect has persisted every day since.

My first assumption for probable cause was that there was a link between blood PH or blood pressure, with stress/anxiety. After doing some research, I discovered that there is very little research for me to even work with, surprisingly.

Some things I did find out is that there is a well documented negative correlation between brain PH and anxiety/stress disorders.

Another thing that most of you probably know, is that hypertension (high blood pressure) – a casual effect of dehydration – has a positive correlation with cortisol and feelings of anxiety.

I had another “gut feeling”, based off of an extensive amount of research I have done in microbiology, that drinking water, which raises PH in your intestines, must have an affect on gut microbiome composition. It does, indeed. Changing the PH of a microbial ecosystem is like flipping an on and off switch between extreme climates here on Earth, except this ecosystem in your gut has 100 trillion inhabitants.

Not-so-fun fact:

For people that naturally have stress, to which there is a very distinct causal link to poor diet and microbiome imbalance, not drinking enough water can mean that the bad bacteria contributing to your bad mood – trust me, they play an intrinsic role – are allowed to flourish at an even greater pace.

So, my only advice to you:

DRINK LOTS OF WATER!

Drink water to the point where you’ve got to pee every hour. Drink water to the point where you feel like you can’t take another drop. Drink water all day long, and turn it into a habit.

I really hope this helps other people as much as it helped me.

P.S. Below, is the link to an easy-to-understand version of a research paper I wrote for a private lab last year. In that article I discuss all of the mind-blowing effects bacteria have on both your physical, and mental health.

https://link.medium.com/2HDrGHqRncb