How can acupuncture help my anxiety?
Do you feel gripped by anxiety?
It’s so common for us to feel like we’re on edge, ungrounded, spread too thin, often triggered, or on the verge of panic attacks throughout our day.
We see you. We hear you.
And, no, we don’t think it’s “all in your head.”
What does Traditional Chinese Medicine have to say about anxiety?
Well, just like every other condition, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) says that each person is unique, and there is no one diagnosis for anxiety.
But, we will give you a little taste of TCM theory by talking about the Heart. We capitalize Heart here to make clear that we are talking about the Heart as it exists in the theory of TCM as an energetic, dynamic reality as opposed to your anatomical heart.
Oftentimes, anxiety is a result of a Heart pattern.
For instance, a person may have what we call Heart Blood deficiency, Heart yin deficiency, Spleen and Heart blood deficiency, and more.
Without having to go to school for several years to really learn and understand what these patterns mean and look like, what these all lead back to is the necessity of:
Nourishing our blood and yin, while keeping qi and blood flowing and circulating harmoniously throughout the body and in our other organ systems, such as the Liver, Kidney, and Spleen.
When we are both nourished and have proper movement of qi and blood, we feel grounded and resilient in the face of daily stressors and potential triggers.
With acupuncture, we do exactly this— nourish and move, nourish and move.
What does the research have to say about acupuncture for anxiety?
Acupuncture can help:
Regulate the autonomic nervous system and reduce elevated heart rate [reference]
Lower cortisol levels [reference]
Increase endorphins and regulate serotonin [reference]
In other words, acupuncture is a fantastic way of treating anxiety!
Another way of putting this is that acupuncture helps us regulate our nervous systems and encourages healthy, dynamic responses to and recovery from stressors.
Several systematic reviews in the past decade demonstrate the use of acupuncture for reducing generalized anxiety and panic attacks:
A 2016 systematic review on acupuncture and anxiety “…showed positive and statistically significant effects from using acupuncture for treating subjects with anxiety” [reference]
Another systematic review from 2018 drew from an even larger pool of studies, including many which compared acupuncture to pharmaceutical treatment.
They concluded that, “Overall, there is good scientific evidence encouraging acupuncture therapy to treat anxiety disorders as it yields effective outcomes, with fewer side effects than conventional treatment” [reference]
If I have a hard time relaxing, is acupuncture a good fit for me?
Emphatically yes! We have patients tell us all the time when they first come in that they have a hard time sitting still and relaxing. We totally get it. Acupuncture has an incredible capacity to help us settle in mind and body.
Resting with needles in is actually very comfortable, and you shouldn’t feel them much for the duration of treatment. Believe it or not, many patients fall asleep during treatment!
If you’re struggling with anxiety, come in and give acupuncture a try. We would love to build a treatment plan with you to get you feeling grounded, resilient, and strong.
