Mental struggles, ADHD, anxiety & "monkey mind" - Ayurvedically
- Martyna Bajer
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
Anxiety doesn’t always look like panic.
Sometimes it’s quieter than that: a constant background hum, your mind jumping to the next thing before you’ve even finished the current one, replaying conversations, overthinking decisions, feeling “on” even when you’re desperate to switch off...
What I love about Ayurveda is that it has words for these states. Not to put you in a box, but to help you finally see what’s going on and why.
The mind is not separate from the body
Ayurvedically, mental health is not treated like something floating above the body. Your mind is nourished, regulated, and stabilized through the same foundations that support your digestion, hormones, immunity, and nervous system.
That’s why you can often feel it immediately when your system is off. Maybe you skip meals and suddenly you’re irritable or anxious.
Maybe you sleep lightly for a few nights and your thoughts start spiralling.
Maybe your digestion feels heavy and your mind feels heavy too.
EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED.
Anxiety often carries a Vata flavour
Most modern anxiety has a strong Vata signature. Vata is movement, speed, change, subtlety. When it rises in the nervous system, the mind becomes quick, jumpy, sensitive, and harder to anchor. You might feel hyper-alert, easily overwhelmed by noise or people, unable to fully relax even when you technically have time.
This doesn’t mean you are “a Vata person.” You can be Pitta or Kapha by nature and still have a very Vata-driven mind when your life is irregular, overstimulating, stressful, or when you’ve been running on empty for too long.
But not all anxiety is the same!
Even though Vata is often involved, different doshas shape the flavour of mental struggle.
When Pitta is driving the mind, anxiety can feel like intensity. Perfectionism. Control. Irritability. A mind that won’t let things go, because it’s trying to solve everything.
When Kapha is involved, it can feel more like heaviness, withdrawal, emotional eating, attachment, or feeling stuck. Some people swing between patterns, feeling restless and anxious, then heavy and unmotivated afterwards.
This is why generic advice often fails. It’s not that it’s wrong. It’s that it’s not personalised.
Manasika Ama
One of the most beautiful concepts Ayurveda offers is Manasika Ama = Mental Ama = mental toxins.
Ama in the body is the sticky residue of what wasn’t properly digested. In the mind, it’s similar. It’s what accumulates when life is coming in faster than you can process it. Too many inputs, too little integration.
Manasika Ama can look like brain fog, looping thoughts, emotional heaviness, anxiety that doesn’t match the situation, or a mind that feels cluttered and tired even when you’re doing “all the right things.” From this perspective, the goal isn’t to silence the mind. It’s to restore its ability to process, integrate, and release.
Ojas and the heart
Ojas is the refined essence of nourishment and healing. It’s your deep reserve of vitality. It gives you emotional stability, resilience, and that inner feeling of being held by something stronger than your mood.
Ayurveda links the main seat of Ojas to the heart. When ojas is clean and strong, the heart has a steady, grounded quality and the mind is naturally soothed by it. You feel clearer. Less reactive. More stable, even when life is intense.
But when the system is overloaded, Ojas can become mixed with Ama. Some texts and traditions describe this as “polluted Ojas.” Instead of clean vitality, you might feel tired but wired, emotionally reactive, sensitive to people and stimuli, and like true calm is just out of reach. It’s not weakness. It’s a sign the subtle nourishment that should stabilise the mind is not flowing in a clean way.
This is one reason Ayurveda doesn’t treat anxiety as purely psychological. It asks whether your inner reserves are strong, whether your digestion is supporting you, and whether your system is actually able to settle.
If you would like to uncover how physical and mental toxins form, what their impact, how to detox from them in a simple way and how to strengthen your physical and mental immunity holistically, check out my webinar on Ayurveda & Mental Health.
What an Ayurvedic treatment plan for anxiety, ADHD and an overactive mind can include
Ayurveda doesn’t treat anxiety, ADHD-like restlessness, or monkey mind with one hack. It builds stability from multiple directions, because the mind calms down when the whole system feels resourced and regulated.
In practice, a personalised plan may include nutrition, lifestyle rhythm, nervous system regulation, and herbal support, depending on your constitution and what’s driving the pattern.
Nutrition matters because the mind is fed by what you’re able to digest and absorb. When we bring more steadiness to nourishment and digestion, the mind often becomes easier to hold.
Lifestyle is just as important. Not in the “perfect routine” sense, but in the sense of creating cues of safety for the nervous system. Simple routines can reduce that constant internal adrenaline loop. This is especially relevant for ADHD-like patterns, where the system often oscillates between hyperfocus and burnout, stimulation seeking and shutdown.
Herbs can be incredibly supportive too. Many Ayurvedic herbs have a unique intelligence: they help redirect energy from the mind back into the body, often supporting digestion at the same time. When the gut is steadier, the nervous system steadies. When the nervous system steadies, sleep deepens. When sleep improves, the mind becomes clearer. It’s a loop that finally starts moving in the healing direction.
And then there are the sensory therapies Ayurveda is famous for, including Ayurvedic oils, which can be powerful for grounding Vata and helping the body feel held, especially when the mind has been running for years.
The key is that none of this is one-size-fits-all!
Anxiety can be Vata-driven, Pitta-driven, Kapha-influenced, or mixed.
ADHD-like symptoms can come from different underlying patterns too.
That’s why assessment comes first: we’re not trying to “shut down” your mind, we’re trying to restore the conditions in which your mind naturally becomes stable!
