Overcoming Anxiety with Acupuncture by Delphine Baumer

Anxiety is a widely experienced feeling.

Most of us have felt anxiety at one point or another in our lives. There are healthy types of anxiety which act as “red flags” to tell us that we feel uncomfortable with a situation or circumstance. However, there are times when feelings of anxiety can overrule healthy thought patterns and can make life extremely unmanageable.

In TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine), we understand this process as blockages built up in the physical body which can increase with intensity when left untreated.

There are many strategies for self care which can help reduce the toll of emotional stress such as anxiety. However, often times when the ‘snowball of stress’ has started to roll, these strategies, such as drinking water, eating well, getting enough sleep, and physical activity, tend to fall to the back burner just when we need them most. Some human irony!

Acupuncture can be a relatively easy solution to stop the snowball effect and move towards positive healing.  A properly trained Acupuncturist, who has gone through 3+ years of training in Traditional Chinese Medicine, can help you to identify exactly where the root of your anxiety is; whether it be a Deficiency Fatigue Syndrome or an Excess Blocked Syndrome.

Once your individual case is diagnosed, appropriate acupuncture points are chosen to resolve the imbalance amplifying the anxiety. According to Chinese Medicine, there are several types of anxiety. Depending on what your condition is, there may be old stagnant blocks which need to be opened up and released. Or you may have a chronic condition with a taxation deficiency, lowering energy and blood levels, or diminishing adrenal or digestive functions, so your body may need to be nourished as well as unblocked. A combination between the points chosen, and the style of insertion, is employed to restore balance and reduce the anxiety response.

Physical symptoms, such as heart palpitations, irregular sweating, insomnia, nausea, recurrent bladder infections, and low back pain for example can accompany anxiety. By restoring the flow of your energy, your body will begin to stop wasting energy on the disruptive anxiety and return energy into efficient use and back into self healing mode. Acupuncture participants are often surprised by how many “satellite symptoms” are resolved along with their primary symptom. So, not only are you going to resolve anxiety, but you will gain overall health as well.

What to expect: With the right treatment, you will leave your treatment feeling lighter and more relaxed. The goal of treatment is to retrain your body and spirit back to healthy life response mode.

Expected Treatment Plan
It is generally recommended to have treatment once, twice, or 3 times a week, depending on your own individual level of anxiety and needs, until things feel more level and we slowly reduce the frequency and your health is restored, while aiming for a “tune-up/maintenance” cycle of once a month or even once a season.

Using a careful TCM diagnosis and Acupuncture Treatment Plan, I have safely and successfully helped numerous patients reduce or eliminate medication. ONLY WITH THE ONGOING CARE AND COOPERATION OF MEDICAL DOCTOR WHO PRESCRIBED THE MEDICATION. There will never be any pressure to eliminate your medications.

Please contact me anytime to ask me any further questions. Wishing you peace and health.
Delphine Baumer ~ Registered Acupuncturist