Healing Depression the Healthy and Natural Way Using Acupuncture
People with anxiety and depression have certainly benefited from the many advantages of modern life but a lot of individuals still sadly suffer from emotional distress. Depression and anxiety are the two most common emotional-mental health issues affecting people today. Fortunately, there is acupuncture, an ancient Asian healing modality that offers people a natural and safe way of helping people return to a happier life and relieve them of these conditions.
How Can Acupuncture Help Depression and Anxiety
Traditional Chinese medicine (also called Oriental Medicine or TCM) and acupuncture have always considered the connection between the body and mind to be inseparable. Internal causes of health conditions along with the ancient descriptions of external environmental disease factors, such as Cold, Heat, and Wind were seen as the effects of emotions. Joy, worry, sadness, fear, and anger were associated with each of the body’s five Yin organs. From time to time, imbalances develop within these organs and those imbalances are where emotion has its origins from. Over the course of time, the emotion could injure the affected internal organ if it’s not addressed promptly and correctly.
People’s mental health surely has been severely affected by the Western motto of “more is better.” While some people tend to over exhaust themselves by playing or working hard, other people may think too much worrying about every aspect of life. They have no time at all to just unwind and take it easy without seeking some social event or powering on the TV. The body and mind becomes so tied-up inside because of this lifestyle eventually resulting in depression and anxiety. Acupuncture offers a treatment for people suffering from emotional- mental disorders by helping them to “un-do”. This treatment will provide patients with a deep state of relaxation enabling them to heal and rest both their body and mind.
Anxiety Acupuncture Treatment
Manifesting in a variety of ways, anxiety can be experienced from mild worrying about an upcoming speech or exam to a nervous stomach, PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), phobias, and even panic attacks. Anxiety is usually a healthy normal reaction of the mind and body to new situations and the daily stresses of life. But when anxiety arises in an excessive or random manner, this should be a sign for concern. The good news is that acupuncture can restore balance to both the physical and mental manifestations of anxiety helping you to get back to an easy-going life.
When you are over anxious, it makes you experience obsessive thoughts that transfix your mind to the fearful situation. It can lead to physical symptoms such as headache, nausea, stomach pain, shortness of breath, increased heart rate, and chest pain. The acupuncturist observes your tongue and pulse and evaluates the exact manifestations of your anxiety to determine what specific TCM anxiety pattern you are suffering from.
Kidney and Heart energy imbalances are the most common TCM diagnoses for anxiety. Seen as a Water (Yin) organ, the Kidney’s function is to balance the Fire of the Heart helping to contain an excess of Fire. An energy deficient Kidney causes the Heart Fire to rise up and disturb the mind. Considered a Yang organ, the heart organ system constantly pumps blood throughout the body. When the Heart becomes over-excited due to an imbalance of Fire or to excessive joy, it can generate Heat resulting in insomnia and anxiety.
Anxiety treatments using acupuncture in Overland Park can utilize both ear acupuncture (auricular acupuncture) and body acupuncture. The Spirit Gate or Shenmen ear acupoints and other ear acupoints can help relieve anxiety effectively; oftentimes small magnetic balls or ear tacks are retained on these ear acupoints to prolong the benefits of the treatment until the next treatment session comes. Body acupoints including the Spleen 6, Kidney 6, and Heart 7 are needled to harmonize the Kidney and Heart and to nourish the Yin energy of these organs. The points Heart 8 and 9 are treated to sedate the Fire within the Heart if Heart Heat is excessive.
Acupuncture Depression Treatment
The United States has about 20% of its population suffering from depression at some point in their lives. Due to its rifeness, doctors labels depression as the “common cold” of psychology. One of Western Medicine’s treatments for this condition is pharmaceutical medications but the side effects of these drugs forces people to consider a safe and natural alternative treatment such as acupuncture.
More often than not depression may feel like a kind of extreme exhaustion. There is just not enough energy to make you feel better no matter how much you want to be. Each individual may manifest symptoms of depression in different ways; nevertheless, each of them shares a common poor state of mind that that a depressed person can’t seem to surmount. The key to overcoming this condition is to break out of this rut.
Depression, according to TCM, is a problem of constraint, called Yu. The Liver is the main Yin organ related to this issue with the Heart and Spleen playing complementary roles. As the organ responsible for the flow of vital energy (Qi) throughout the body, the Liver is very much affected by your mood. If you are depressed or if your mood is low, the flow of Qi slows down and stagnates causing Liver Qi Stagnation. When this happens, all other physiological activities are affected including energy level, sleep, and digestion. If left unresolved, this will lead to additional stagnations of Blood, Phlegm, and Heat possibly resulting in body pains, mental cloudiness, and mania respectively. Secondary stagnations over the course of time will eventually affect the Spleen and Heart causing additional symptoms, such as fatigue and poor memory.
Treating depression with acupuncture will aim at improving Qi flow as well as restoring balance to the circulation of Qi to alleviate symptoms. The Four Gates treatment is the most common acupuncture procedure to boost Qi circulation. It involves the treatment of the Liv 3 points on the foot bilaterally and the LI 4 points on the hand also bilaterally. These pairs of acupoints are located in similar anatomical positions on the body: Liv 3 between the 2nd toe and the big toe on top of the foot and the LI4 in the fleshy web between the index finger and thumb in. Extra points treated may include Spleen 6 and Stomach 36 as they can be used to boost production of Qi in the body and reinforce digestion. You can start to feel your strength coming back and your life in full swing once more once your energy levels are normalized and your Qi is flowing properly enabling you to say good bye to your depression.
Life Changes
Altering your lifestyle into a healthy one can help balance your mind regardless of whether you are experiencing depression, anxiety or some other emotional difficulty. The mind oftentimes tends to resist acceptance of new ideas and attaches itself to negative emotions. You need to think about embarking on an exercise program that will help circulate your own energy and study some form of meditation to learn how to relax and control your mind. Yoga, Qi gong, and Tai Chi are excellent mind-body exercises that can make you to better able to control both depression and anxiety. Regular acupuncture treatments in conjunction with these activities provide the groundwork for a healthy change in your life.