The connection between sour candy and anxiety
Everyone feels anxious at some point in their lives. In fact, an estimated 1 in 5 adults will be affected by an anxiety disorder in a given year. With so many people living with anxiety, some are questioning whether sour candy can reduce overwhelming feelings of panic.
Sour candy might calm your anxiety
Eating sour candy can help bring an individual into the present moment, like any sensory input.
Here’s how it works:
Anxiety is driven by our stress response (sympathetic nervous system) and can take us to a future-oriented place. When we engage our senses, the parasympathetic nervous system (which regulates heart rate) can reduce the cognitive load of anxious thoughts and relax our mind.
This trick for managing anxiety may have started as a TikTok trend, but many individuals would agree: Sour candy can be an effective distraction from feelings of anxiety, similar to how other dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) techniques work.
DBT helps explain why sour candy can relieve anxiety
When an individual is experiencing intense anxiety, the therapeutic goal is to alleviate it to a point where the emotion is more regulated. DBT provides people with techniques to manage intense emotions.
As one of DBT's goals is to be present in the moment, the use of sour candy can serve as a distraction technique, a grounding tool or a mindfulness exercise to help manage intense emotions.
DBT helps build skills in four main areas:
Mindfulness
Distress tolerance
Emotion regulation
Interpersonal effectiveness
Utilizing these skills helps redirect the brain’s attention to the present moment.
Here’s why eating something sour relieves anxiety
When you eat something sour, it activates different areas in the brain such as the gustatory cortex, which processes taste information. The shift in brain activity can cause a decrease in response in the area of the brain, resulting in distress. The amygdala is the area of the brain that processes threats and fears and can be overactive during times of anxiety.
Eating sour candy for anxiety triggers a physiological response, such as salivation, or a change in facial expression or heart rate. These sensations help draw attention away from mental distress, acting as a grounding technique to return to the present moment.
Oftentimes when a person is feeling anxious it can be helpful to home in on the senses. Paying close attention to sight, sound, touch, smell or taste can be grounding. When eating sour candy for anxiety, consider the following:
What’s the taste?
What’s the smell?
What does it feel like in my mouth?
Tapping into our senses and focusing on the physical sensations can help redirect the brain away from anxious thoughts.
When should you try sour candy for anxiety?
Eating sour candy during a panic attack, or when symptoms start to emerge, or even before a stressful event might help curb some of the intense anxiety.
Symptoms of anxiety include:
Feeling keyed up or on edge
Tiring easily
Having trouble concentrating or having one’s mind go blank
Having frequent muscle or body tension
Irritability
Problems with sleep
It’s important to remember that sour candy is only a short-term tool, not a replacement for therapy or other treatment.
Other grounding techniques bring anxiety relief
One way to cope with anxiety in the short term is to eat sour candy. Deep breathing, guided meditation and sensory journeys are additional proven techniques that can ground you in times of anxiety, worry and panic.
Other grounding techniques that can reduce stress and anxiety include, but are not limited to:
Splashing your face with cold water
Holding ice in your hands to shift your focus to sensation
Inhaling for four seconds, holding for seven seconds, exhaling for eight seconds
Playing a memory game
Reciting a song, poem or passage from a book
Doing gentle stretches or practicing yoga
Imagining a scene and talking through what you saw/experienced/sensed
Grounding techniques can be either physical or mental, or a combination of the two. Using grounding techniques when anxious can help interrupt the fight-or-flight response. Remember to shift your focus to the senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Get started by following along with the video below.
Simple tools can make hard feelings easier to cope with
If you feel anxious regularly, you’re not alone. Anxiety affects over 40 million adults in the U.S. Using small, simple tools like eating sour candy can help people cope with the intense feelings and emotions that come with anxiety. It may require some trial and error to develop a personalized toolkit of grounding techniques that work effectively for each individual.
The next time anxiety hits, try eating sour candy and pay attention to the feeling. Again, while eating sour candy can help curb anxiety, it is only a temporary regulation tool. Treating the root cause of your anxiety often requires more intensive treatment options.
Anxious often? We can help.
For persistent anxiety, evidence-based therapies like DBT can help you find lasting relief. Call us at (866) 622-5914 or fill out this form to see how you can get help from the DBT therapists here at Pathlight Mood & Anxiety Center.