Recent Study Reveals Mindfulness AS Effective as Lexapro

At Flourish! we often treat anxiety as our friend. Anxiety can be the body’s way of letting you know something threatening is afoot, externally or internally, and it’s trying to get your attention to ascertain if the threat is real.

Since all of our practitioners have had training in polyvagal theory, we see anxiety as a good thing; it means our innate danger detection system, the autonomic nervous system (ANS), is working right when a perceived threat engages the sympathetic nervous system, which then prompts us to worry, have catastrophic thoughts, elevates our heart rate, and can even prompt us to want to fight, scream, confront or run away. However, the downside to an anxious response to a perceived threat can be that the sympathetic nervous system state does not shut off right after we establish safety. Sometimes it can also be triggered by a sound, facial expression, or a smell that is not even close to a perceived threat.

When looking at both sides of anxiety, the part that can help you survive and the other part that is uncomfortable and disruptive to normal functioning, the discomfort can be so intense and frequent that people show up in doctor's or therapist offices looking for treatment to reduce or eliminate the really crappy parts of anxiety.

Since we opened our doors in 2018 we have asked our clients to try non-pharmaceutical treatments first for anxiety since there are many negative side effects of different types of medication that treat anxiety. Our reasoning is there can be side effects of treating anxiety through mindfulness and integrative protocols (like changing your diet, taking targeted supplements) but they tend to be the good kind such as a greater capacity to be present with grace even during a crisis, having more energy, or sleeping better.

A randomized-controlled test from November 2022 caught our eye as it found that participants who fully engaged with an 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) program experienced reduced anxiety levels at the same levels as those taking 10-20mg of escitalopram, commonly sold under the brand names Lexapro and Cipralex.

Dr. Elizabeth Hoge, Associate Professor and Director of the Anxiety Disorders Research Program at Georgetown University School of Medicine, has been treating people with anxiety disorders for 20 years. She’s prescribed many different types of medication, psychotherapy, and a combination of both for her patients. But when she learned about mindfulness early in her career she had a light bulb moment, stating:

“The idea that people could have a different relationship with their thoughts—it seemed like that would be potentially helpful for patients with anxiety,”

We work with our people using a mindfulness-based therapy model called ‘Acceptance and Commitment Therapy’ or ACT. This model is a bit different than CBT in that it helps our people have a different relationship with their thoughts, as Dr. Hoge learned. When our people receive mindfulness-based treatment in session and then cultivate mindfulness outside of therapy by doing some form of meditation, they build mindful awareness of what they are thinking and feeling and can soften symptoms of anxiety by using techniques they have learned in session.

The key here is mindful awareness - MBSR is a great way to cultivate mindful awareness in only 8 weeks. Or you can take longer to cultivate it by doing shorter meditations over a longer length of time than 8 weeks. But the reason why mindfulness is key to reducing symptoms of anxiety is awareness. Most folks aren’t completely aware that they are in an anxious state so can’t apply learned techniques when they need them most. Additionally participating in MBSR or longer-term meditations on your own can help build vagal tone which in turn helps you to bounce back quickly into a calm state (parasympathetic nervous system) once you’ve become aware you are in an anxious state (sympathetic nervous system).

While there are downsides to this study such as it was only 8 weeks and required 45-minutes of meditation at least 6 times per week, it still can help us see the benefits of mindfulness and meditation. At Flourish! we understand that very few of our people have the time and capacity for a 45-minute daily meditation practice but we suggest meditations that are 7-11 minutes long. It may take a little longer to cultivate the level of mindfulness needed to calm an anxious response but it is definitely achievable.

If you also work with us on food and nutrition changes that could help lessen your daily level of anxiety, along with meditation these two ‘treatments’ can give you sustainable relief from anxiety without the side effects of escitalopram or benzodiazepines (i.e. Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin).