Anxiety, in Aajonus's framework, is not a psychological disorder, a character flaw, a mental illness, or a spiritual deficiency. It is a purely physiological condition, a direct consequence of unused physical energy hormones accumulating in the body without being discharged through physical activity. Anxiety is the body's expression of hormones that were produced specifically for physical movement, but which were never burned off in the way they were intended to be used.

Aajonus was emphatic and repetitive on this point across every seminar and workshop: anxiety is always, without exception, a sign that the body has produced hormones for physical activity, specifically testosterone, estrogen, and adrenaline, and that those hormones have not been expressed through physical action. When that excess hormonal energy has nowhere to go, the body expends it emotionally, mentally, and neurologically, manifesting as what people call anxiety.

He stated this directly: "Anxiety is always a need to exercise. That is it." He also said: "All anxiety that comes from nervousness is you're not utilizing the hormones your body produces for physical energy." And again: "Remember that anxiety is always the nutrients in your body needing to be utilized as energy."

He was clear that anxiety and depression are entirely distinct conditions with entirely distinct causes, and that conventional psychiatry and psychology treat them as if they are the same thing and use the same drugs for both, which he considered a fundamental error. He said: "Psychiatrists and psychologists will always treat them the same with drugs. Anxiety is you need to exercise, period."

He also extended the definition to include anxiousness: anxiousness expressed as unsettled desire or fear is often caused by excess adrenaline or other hormones or toxins, not just from failure to exercise, but sometimes from the body detoxifying old stored hormonal byproducts.

He distinguished anxiousness accompanied by the shakes as a specific variant: when anxiety is accompanied with shaking, it is often caused by a low protein level, not just excess hormone, and requires a different dietary response.

---

Aajonus identified the root cause of anxiety as the body's production of activity hormones, primarily testosterone, estrogen, and adrenaline, which are made specifically to fuel physical movement, and the failure of the individual to burn those hormones through physical exertion. When these hormones accumulate without an outlet, the body must express them somehow, and it does so through anxiety.

He explained this with specificity: the human body produces hormones on a daily basis for physical activity. The amount of hormones produced corresponds directly to the number of what iridologists call "stress rings" in the iris of the eye, rings that Aajonus preferred to call "activity rings" or "worry circles," because he felt the word "stress" implied a lack of control, whereas the word "worry" reminded people that they did have a choice.

He stated: "The number of rings you have in your eyes tells me how many hours of hormones you produce for physical activity. You don't spend it in activity, you get to spend it in anxiety."

The quantitative correlation he gave was specific: - Each activity ring in the iris corresponds to approximately one hour of hormone production for physical activity per day - If a person has 2 stress/activity rings, they need approximately 45 minutes of exercise per day - If a person has 4 or 5 stress/activity rings, they need approximately 1 hour of exercise per day - If a person has 7 to 14 activity rings, they are athletes and must be active for 8 to 10, even 11 to 12 hours a day through their work or sport or both - If a person has 3 or 4 activity rings, they need 3 to 4 or 5 hours of just activity, not necessarily regimented exercise, which for a mother can be easily achieved through daily tasks - If a person has 8 to 10 rings, they need an exercise program every day, not just general activity

He noted: "Athletes have seven to fourteen. People who are physically active, construction workers, ditch diggers, farmers, all have many, many activity rings."

He told his audiences: "It's your choice what day you want this to be, in the room of anxiety or the room of exercise. Every day." He described two imaginary doors every person with activity rings faces upon waking each morning: one door says "Anxiety," the other says "Activity" or "Exercise." He repeated this image consistently across multiple seminars.

He stated that on a good diet, some people who produce those hormones may actually stop manufacturing them temporarily while recovering, because the body adjusts to what is needed. But on a bad diet, the body continues producing them regardless of the person's capacity to use them.

Aajonus drew on the scientific research of Elnora Van Winkle, a biochemist who spent approximately 40 to 47 years at New York City Medical Center and Columbia University's Milholland Laboratories, cataloging every chemical in the body, brain, and nervous system. He referenced her paper "The Biology of Emotions" repeatedly (available online in both a technical and a layman's version).

Van Winkle found that when people undergo emotional trauma, fear, rage, anxiety, grief, the body produces hormones and those hormones have byproducts. Those byproducts, unlike the byproducts of positive emotional hormones (such as the chemicals of being in love), actually store in the body like any other toxin.

When the body later begins to detoxify and clean out those stored byproduct compounds, the person experiences the same emotional state as when the original trauma occurred, not because something is happening in their present life, but because the chemical residue of the original experience is being cleared from their tissues and passing through the bloodstream as waste products.

Van Winkle confirmed this to Aajonus: "Every time my friends have gotten whacked out, and she used the word whacked out, this is a scientist, when there was nothing directly that happened in her life, she would get like that. She found these psychotropic hormones in her blood as waste products, cleaning out from a previous time."

Aajonus gave a specific case: a woman whose father had betrayed her when she was a child, promised her something, gave it to her sister instead, experienced two years of resentment and anxiety from that event. As an adult, when those stored hormonal compounds from that original experience began detoxifying, she would become enraged at her husband for no apparent reason. It took eight weeks of detoxification to clear all of that stored compound before she could interact with her husband normally. She took a nap during the session with Aajonus, woke up a few hours later, and spontaneously recalled the original incident with her father. The detox of the compound had triggered the original memory.

He described this mechanism: "When they get removed, the body goes back into the same kind of behavior as when it was produced." This was scientifically proven, in his account, by Van Winkle's work, she tested these compounds and found that when people were not in anxiety, the compounds were absent; when they were in emotional turmoil, the compounds were present and rising; and when they were in apparent turmoil with no current-life cause, the compounds were present as waste products of detoxification.

He also identified a specific variant of anxiousness, waking up in the morning already disturbed and anxious, which he attributed to either old toxic adrenaline in the system, or caustic toxins irritating the nerve cells during nighttime detoxification (which the body pursues intensively between 12 midnight and 5 AM).

He referenced the myelin sheath in this context: adrenaline that cannot find adequate fat in the blood to work with will begin feeding on the myelin, which is approximately 90% fat and protects the entire nervous system. As the myelin gets thinner from adrenaline eroding it, more electromagnetic energy passes through, the person becomes hypersensitive, irritable, anxious, and unable to function normally. He described: "If it can't find the fat in your blood, it's going to eat on the myelin... you get irritable, anxious, can't do anything. You've got hypersensitivity going."

He noted that hyperactive, type-A persons who eat red meat without balancing it can become anxious and irritable because red meat is acidic and stimulating. He said that if a person is very thin, pallid, anxious, and irritable, he would start them on fish until the system becomes properly alkaline, then gradually introduce red meat.

He also mentioned that hyperactive people who eat red meat without pairing it with an egg are more likely to become more hyperactive and anxious, because the egg brings the red meat to more of a balance, making it less acidic overall.

He acknowledged that many psychotropic drugs themselves cause high anxiety and hostility as side effects. He did not exclude pharmacological causes from his framework but instead said that even these anxiety states could be addressed through the nut formula and especially through exercise.

He recounted: "Even if a medication is causing you to have high anxiety and be hostile. A lot of psychotropic drugs do that. Even the nut formula and exercise, especially exercise, can get rid of it."

He described a woman who had taken psychotropic drugs for 27 years (starting at approximately age 10, she was about 37 when she came to him). This case illustrated the deep entrenchment that pharmaceutical intervention could create and why the nut formula was particularly necessary for people with long drug histories.

---

Anxiety and anxiousness sit primarily within the Root Cause / Terrain Theory framework in Aajonus's system, with strong connections to How to Live and Sovereignty.

• Root Cause / Terrain Theory: The foundational claim is that anxiety is always physiological, specifically hormonal overproduction relative to physical expenditure. This is a terrain-level reality: the body has a specific hormonal economy that must be balanced through physical expression. When the terrain (the body's hormonal milieu) is unbalanced, the symptom (anxiety) appears.

• Detoxification: The secondary cause, stored byproducts of past trauma detoxifying, places anxiety squarely in the detoxification framework. Anxiety that arises without present-life cause is a detox symptom, not a psychological one. The body is clearing old hormonal waste, and the emotional experience is the symptom of that clearing.

• How to Live: The remedy for anxiety is fundamentally a lifestyle instruction, exercise, find what you enjoy, do it daily, understand your iris rings, make the choice every morning. This is pure "how to live" guidance.

• Sovereignty: Aajonus repeatedly framed anxiety as something people have power over, they choose which door they walk through each morning. This is a sovereignty teaching: understanding your body's needs and meeting them without dependence on drugs or professional intervention.

• Cooked Food: The nut formula and minimal cooked starch with raw fat are used as tools to bind excess hormonal byproducts, cooked starch appears as a supportive (not primary) remedy within his cooked food framework.

---

What conventional medicine calls "anxiety disorder," "generalized anxiety disorder," "panic disorder," "hyperactivity," "type-A personality disorder," "nervous energy," and similar labels, Aajonus reframed as follows:

Nervousness and agitation: Not a mental or psychological problem. The hormones testosterone, estrogen, and adrenaline that were produced for physical activity are circulating in the body with nowhere to go. The body is essentially trying to tell you to move.

Irritability: A direct consequence of excess activity hormones, especially when combined with overconsumption of acidic foods (particularly red meat without balancing fats or eggs) or when adrenaline begins eroding the myelin sheath from lack of available dietary fat. He specifically equated irritability in type-A, high-energy, short-fuse people with excess hormonal energy that has not been discharged.

Inability to relax or be still: The body is literally flooded with performance hormones that demand physical expression.

Emotional reactivity and hostility: In relationships, anxiety from unexpended hormonal energy gets projected outward onto others. He stated: "In anxiety you have a tendency to project it on the whole world around you. So relationships are not good, even with yourself."

Emotional outbursts with no apparent present-life cause: Reframed as detoxification of stored hormonal byproducts from past trauma. The emotional state is identical to what was experienced during the original traumatic event because the same chemical compounds are present in the bloodstream, now as waste products being cleared, not as freshly produced hormones.

ADD/ADHD and childhood hyperactivity: He distinguished two types, children who have many activity rings in their eyes genuinely need physical output, while many other hyperactive children are hyperactive because of sugars and chemicals, not because they are inherently high-hormone producers. But the mechanism of symptom production is similar: the body burns excess hormonal energy just as it would burn activity hormones.

Waking up anxious or disturbed: Reframed as the body in its 12 midnight to 5 AM detoxification cycle releasing stored toxic adrenaline or caustic toxins that irritate nerve cells. He explicitly told people not to go into anxiety over not being able to sleep during these hours, instead, get up, do something, go back to sleep at 5:30 AM, wake at 7, go on with the day.

Anxiousness with shaking: Reframed as a low protein level state, not just excess hormones, requiring raw meats (especially white meats) and raw cheese and raw fat rather than just exercise.

Feeling disturbed when awakening: Attributed to old toxic adrenaline in the system, or caustic toxins irritating nerve cells during nighttime detoxification.

The "type A" personality pattern: Reframed entirely as a physiological reality visible in the iris, not a personality type but a hormonal production level that the person must accommodate through lifestyle choices, not therapy.

---

Before any food protocol, Aajonus's first and most insistent recommendation was exercise. He was explicit: "The best way to get rid of them [anxiety hormones] is just exercise." Every food recommendation he gave for anxiety came with the caveat that exercise is the proper solution, and food is supportive, either for when the person cannot exercise or to bind residual excess hormones.

He designated singing as the most strenuous exercise in the human body, more demanding per unit of time than any other physical activity. He ranked it: 1. Singing (most strenuous) 2. Sex (second most strenuous)

His rationale for singing's strenuous nature: "You have to control the muscles to the lung, how much air goes out, how fast, how it goes through the vocal cords, how broad or small your mouth opening is to get the right pitch. All of that goes into a note."

Quantitative equivalence: "20 minutes of singing is an hour on a treadmill."

He noted that opera singers are never thin because singing demands such enormous amounts of nutrients and energy that heavy singers cannot maintain low body weight. He also pointed to rock singers like Mick Jagger who eat enormous quantities (he said eight times a day) and still cannot gain weight because singing and dancing simultaneously is so metabolically demanding.

He acknowledged having a bad voice himself: "I'm a terrible singer. I even hurt my own ears, so I don't do that." His personal alternative was to turn on music and dance to it for 20 minutes, after which he was fine and could return to work.

His recommendation for those who sing badly: "Pass out ear plugs. Get a closet to sing in. Go sing in the toilet. Do something to allow yourself the permission to be well and healthy and out of anxiety."

He also suggested building a soundproofed room, referencing the "primal therapy houses" that are entirely soundproofed.

Aajonus described the immediate effect of raw cream on anxiety: "The cream took my anxiety away. It just like went through my body. Whoa! This is living." He recommended: - Half a cup of raw cream drunk first, before the nut formula - This calms the system very rapidly - If cream appears "paralyzed" (has a coating, slightly shiny, not sparkling), the person is not digesting it properly, they may be eating at the wrong time, eating too much at once, or not having the right bile for it - When a person is nervous and out of sorts, drinking half a cup of raw cream is highly utilized by the body

This was his most-detailed food protocol for anxiety. He gave both the general description and a specific recipe:

Recipe / Preparation Method: 1. Take nuts, walnuts and/or pecans are best (soft nuts only; hard nuts are very difficult to digest) 2. Do not use macadamia nuts (very difficult to digest, hard to source unroasted under 96°F) 3. Do not use pine nuts if the person has low energy, because pine nuts lower certain hormone production 4. Filberts can be used occasionally 5. Amount: approximately a quarter of a cup / two ounces of nuts 6. Blend the nuts until they become a flour, completely dry, no liquid yet 7. Add one egg 8. Add butter (the best fat for most people; always use raw butter) 9. Add a little honey 10. Add coconut cream as an option or as a mix with the butter 11. Blend all together, "It's a delicious nut butter"

Alternatively, he referenced the "nut formula" from the recipe book, which involves: - A quarter cup of nuts blended to flour - Egg, butter, honey, blended together - Described in detail

How the Nut Formula Works:

The starch from the nuts binds with excess hormonal compounds, the psychotropic byproducts of anxiety and trauma that store in the body, and neutralizes them, pulling them out of circulation so they cannot continue causing emotional reactivity and nervous system irritation.

He explained: "The starch is very important for helping pull out excess hormones when you find yourself in high anxiety."

The Combined Sequence (Cream + Nut Formula): 1. Drink half a cup of raw cream first 2. Then have the nut formula 3. Within 30 to 40 minutes, the person will be calm and relaxed 4. This calm may last for the rest of the day and possibly the week

Duration of nut formula's effects: - For people who have not been on psychotropic drugs: the nut formula lasts 4 to 5 days if the person has a tendency toward high anxiety - For people who have been on psychotropic drugs: they may need the nut formula every day

Frequency: - At least once weekly, possibly twice weekly for morning anxiety/disturbance - Or half the formula one day and the remaining half the next day

Aajonus initially recommended small amounts of cooked starch in his first edition of We Want to Live specifically to bind psychotropic hormonal byproducts, the waste products of old emotional trauma being detoxified from the body.

His original recommendation was: equal amounts of raw fat with the starch. If eating a baked potato or half a baked potato, eat a whole stick of butter in it. The fat binds with the toxicity from the starch's binding action.

Why he later modified this: After seven years of observing patients, he found that people were eating cooked starch every day (mostly French bread and Italian bread with lots of fat) and accumulating acrylamides and advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in the intestinal tract. While the body was improving everywhere else, the intestinal tract was beginning to deteriorate. He therefore moved away from recommending cooked starch as a daily food and shifted to the nut formula as the primary binding agent.

He stated explicitly: the body cannot digest grains and beans well (we are not built to handle them). The starch must come from nuts prepared as described above.

When cooked starch is appropriate: - As a medicine specifically to lower excess hormonal anxiety, not as a regular food - When a person has a broken leg or injury and cannot exercise but their glands still produce activity hormones - When the person is eating a lot of red meat and creating hormonal irritability - He said: "On this diet, but as a medicine to lower hormones that cause anxiety"

Cooked starch options he mentioned: baked potato with whole stick of raw butter, French bread (not preferred long-term), Italian bread (not preferred long-term), pasta (not preferred long-term)

The better option he preferred was the nut formula because it provided the starch binding without the intestinal deterioration from acrylamides and AGEs.

For anxiousness generally, particularly the unsettled-desire-or-fear variant, he recommended no-salt-added raw cheese. This provides minerals that help the body relax by protecting cells and binding with toxins that irritate cells.

He specifically recommended naturally sparkling mineral waters to help calm the adrenals in cases of anxiousness, particularly where excess adrenaline is the identified cause.

For the general anxious, irritable, hyperactive type-A profile, particularly when the person is thin, pallid, and showing signs of systemic acidity, he recommended: - Starting with fish to bring the system back to alkaline - Then introducing red meat gradually - Always pairing red meat with egg to balance the acidity and reduce the hyperactive-stimulating effect - Plenty of raw fat with all meats to prevent adrenaline from eroding the myelin sheath

Specifically mentioned for maintaining enzymes and blood sugar levels during anxious times when the body burns through tremendous amounts of blood sugars and enzymes rapidly. Always eaten with raw fat.

He was adamant: high meat (predigested, fermented/rotten meat) and high eggs are for depression, not anxiety. He distinguished the two sharply. Depression = low bacteria, low E. coli feeding the brain. Anxiety = unexpressed activity hormones. These do not cross over, and the treatments are different.

He stated: "Depression and anxiety don't cross over. So you stick some good fat up your butt or eat some high meat or eggs, and that will resolve that [depression]."

For disturbed, anxious awakening from nighttime detox, he recommended: eating fish at least one hour before bedtime as optimal for relaxation during sleep.

Consuming the nut formula at least 3 hours prior to bedtime is optimal for relaxed sleep and waking. He warned that red meats eaten to help sleep may cause the opposite effect, more energy, not less.

For athletes who cannot train and go into anxiety from accumulated activity hormones, he referenced a sport formula containing raw eggs and electrolytes that keeps the body alert and focused, though this was more about sustaining the body through training rather than treating anxiety per se.

He mentioned that for people with overactive sex glands, whose hormones build up and create irritability and anxiousness, if they don't have a partner, he recommended self-pleasure: "Enjoy yourself, because those hormones that build up can create a hormone that makes you irritable and anxious. If you release them with orgasm, they turn into endorphins and help you relax and feel better." He cited the research of Dr. Ellis from the 1960s who discovered this in chemistry labs.

---

Within 20 minutes of singing, dancing, or other physical exercise, anxiety resolves. He described his own personal experience: "It's easy. 20 minutes later, I'm fine. I sit down and go back to work."

Taking half a cup of raw cream followed by the nut formula brings calm within 30 to 40 minutes.

• People not on psychotropic drugs: effects last 4 to 5 days per dose
• People who have been on psychotropic drugs: may need the formula every day

He stated that eating high meat or rotten eggs for depression changes the state in 10 to 20 minutes. He contrasted this with medication, which takes hours or days and must be taken indefinitely.

He gave the specific case of the woman detoxifying two years of childhood trauma-related hormonal compounds: it took eight weeks of detoxification to fully clear the stored material before she could interact normally with her husband without unprovoked rage.

A woman who had taken psychotropic drugs for 27 years required the nut formula every single day rather than the typical 4-to-5-day duration between doses. The depth of pharmaceutical entrenchment extended the recovery timeline significantly and required ongoing daily support.

He described athletes with 12 or more activity rings who take days off from training and immediately begin to display aggression, conflict, and anxiety. He used the example of professional athletes on sabbatical who "start throwing each other across the bar and getting in all these fights and beat up their wives and children" because their glands don't take days off even when the athlete does. This demonstrates how quickly the hormonal imbalance manifests, within days of reduced activity.

He indicated the body goes into intense neurological detoxification between 12 midnight and 5 AM. During heavy detox periods, a person may not be able to sleep during some or all of these hours. His recommended adjustment period: adapt your schedule, sleep at 9 PM, wake around midnight or 2 AM, find something to do until 5:30 AM, sleep again, wake at 7 AM. He said: "You adjust to it and you won't get into high anxiety."

He suggested reading Van Winkle's "Biology of Emotions" paper online (search: "Elnora Van Winkle" + "Biology of Emotions") as a way to understand the detox-driven emotional surges. He said that understanding the physiological basis of the surges allows people to observe them without being consumed by them, which itself helps break the cycle.

---