If you are suffering from anxiety and are unsure about treatment with medications, alternative therapies are worth investigating. One such method is the ancient Oriental remedy of acupuncture.
Mind and Body
Acupuncture takes the connection between the body and mind into consideration. Oriental medicine is practiced with the belief that internal causes of disease are caused by emotions. Imbalances in the body can cause anger, fear, sadness, joy and worry, and these emotions could cause harm to the body over time. Acupuncture serves to balance the body and the mind through a deep state of relaxation.
Causes of Anxiety
Mental health is suffering in the Western world due to a "work hard, play hard" mentality. Those who live by this motto will keep going until the point of utter exhaustion, while others will think too much and worry that they are not working or playing hard enough. The result of both life practices is anxiety as the mind and body are constantly in overdrive. With acupuncture, treatment allows rest and healing by tuning into key points of the body that also affect the mind. Patients feel the burden of daily living lift as they relax away their anxiety.
Physical Symptoms
People experience anxiety in a variety of ways, from chest pain and shortness of breath to nausea and headaches. Acupuncture is able to pinpoint each of these symptoms in order to heal the body. Acupuncturists have learned that most of these anxiety conditions relate to imbalances in the heart and kidneys. Excessive excitement of the heart can create an imbalance of "fire" in the body, according to Oriental medicine, causing anxiety and insomnia. The kidney is known as the "water organ" in the East, balancing the heart's fire; if the kidney is deficient in some way, the mind can become disturbed. This being the case, practitioners will pinpoint the heart, kidney and spleen to harmonize the body and mind.
Auricular Acupuncture
Researchers in China and Europe, as well as a 2001 study by the Yale University School of Medicine, have determined that points in the ear equate with anxiety; by placing needles in specific points on the ear, anxiety can be effectively reduced. Most auricular acupuncture therapies have been practiced together with body therapies in the past; however, stimulation of just ear acupoints has been known to aid in the relaxation of anxiety patients.
Neurotransmitters
Studies on acupuncture have concluded that body acupuncture has the potential to affect in the brain serotonin , a chemical that affects a person's emotional state. Instead of taking anti-anxiety medications that artificially supply serotonin or boost its production, it is possible to boost positively this chemical through acupuncture therapy.
Professional Comments
According to professional psychotherapist and acupuncturist Carol Morton, L.Ac., L.C.S.W., acupuncture for anxiety patients can be "highly effective in treating emotional problems" because of the mind-body link of the treatment. When Morton has treated patients with emotional problems, she usually observes a "corresponding physical component," which has led her to find acupuncture as "an effective way to address the whole person." Each needle is placed strategically to "bring energy into areas of deficiency and unblock the flow where there has been stagnation," Morton said. The National Institute of Health has supported acupuncture treatment for anxiety since it issued a statement to this effect in 1997.
Tags: body mind, acupuncture treatment, anxiety patients, emotional problems, Oriental medicine