Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses currently here in the United States. Anxiety disorders affect around 40 million adults ages 18 and older.
For many people, Xanax is their go-to when it comes to anxiety. This is especially bad because most people are unaware of the short and long term side effects of Xanax. Typical side effects include things like shortness of breath, nausea, dry mouth, irritability, excessive talking, hyper-salivation, anterograde amnesia, skin rashes, and dizziness. Sounds pretty lame, right? It gets worse. More serious side effects include things like memory issues, hallucinations, paranoia, and seizures.
There is a highly possible physical dependency and addiction when it comes to using Xanax. Tolerance develops quickly and leads patients to start taking higher doses. Luckily for us, there is a natural alternative for Xanax, it is known as L-theanine. This is a potent amino acid that is most commonly found in teas made from the Camellia sinensis plant. This acts as a relaxing agent without sedative effects. It has no negative side effects, unlike Xanax.
L-theanine works similar to Xanax because it interacts with the brain’s receptors and increases dopamine as well as glycine levels. In an Australian study back in 2004, sixteen volunteers were given Xanax and theanine depending on which group they were broken down into and the study concluded that theanine worked better than Xanax. When it comes to taking L-theanine you can take it in supplements or drink it in tea. Would you use L-theanine?