Acupuncture and Anxiety

Anxiety

Anxiety is a natural stress response of the body when we are feeling fearful of the future, or apprehension. Anxiety can be felt when we have a meeting with the boss or we are about to be on stage to perform the performance of our lifetime! However, we may feel anxiety and not know why.

Anxiety can be acute (short amount of time), or chronic, (suffering for a long period). Anxiety can become a disorder when it starts to interfere with our life. For example, if you cannot go to a friend’s house because you feel anxious, or you won’t go to work because you feel anxious, or maybe you can no longer perform on stage because you feel anxious. This feeling of anxiety can be with you all the time and can be debilitating causing even more stress.

When you are feeling anxious, your sympathetic nervous system (the one that controls fight or flight) takes over. And your parasympathetic nervous system (the one that rests and digests) cannot function properly. This is why you may have heart palpitations, cannot eat, or digest food and have trouble with sleeping.

How can acupuncture help?

Human studies suggest that acupuncture has a beneficial impact on mental and emotional functioning as it effects different mechanisms in the body. These mechanisms are changes in neurotransmitters involved in emotional regulation such as serotonin (the feel-good hormone), changes in the immune system and the nervous system. In other words, acupuncture may help you to relax, allow you to sleep better, and feel less feeling of anxiety.

The acupuncturist will take a full medical history to determine any underlining conditions that maybe causing the anxiety. Each treatment is tailored to you the individual.

If you are suffering from anxiety call us now to make an appointment

References
Acupuncture and electroacupuncture for anxiety disorders: A systematic review of the clinical research, Amorim et al. Comp Therapies Clin Practice, 2018 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29705474