Acupuncture and Anxiety
Acupuncture and anxiety are two words that go hand and hand. Acupuncture is the stimulation of specific points on the body by inserting needles to cause a change in the physical functions of the body. Anxiety is a disorder that causes fear, apprehension and worrying. Acupuncture is one that relieves stress and anxiety is a form of stress. When these two are put together, it calls for total body healing and restoration.
Acupuncture is the insertion of very fine needles into the skin at specific points, in order to influence the functioning of the body. The person requiring the treatment must have a careful observation of the body, which consist of looking, touching, smelling and listening. Acupuncture came from China and is their ancient form of healing. It was invented by William Ten Rhyne, a Dutch physician. This form of healing consists of three hundred and sixty five acupuncture points. These acupuncture points are grouped into a system of channels that runs all over the body and in return produces a flow of energy throughout the body. Chinese medicine believes that the body has a natural flow called Qi. Qi travels along the body in channels called meridians. The flow of Qi is constant, and when the flow is interrupted due to an ailment, sickness or disease, it causes an imbalance. The way that acupuncture works with diseases, is that, the acupuncture points vary from person to person and treatment to treatment, therefore the energy that flows through the channels influences the diseases.
The historical events of acupuncture can be dated back to 100 BCE, during the Huang Di period; the first literature about acupuncture was printed. Huang Di wrote two texts on acupuncture, which consisted of one part being simple questions on acupuncture and the second part being hard questions on acupuncture. These texts, opened up the eyes of many whom were skeptic about the treatment, and it established acupuncture into Chinese medicine. In 1929, acupuncture had taken a drastic decline in the Chinese society. It was being talked about with superstitions and it was being called irrational at times. Times had gotten so tough concerning acupuncture that it was outlawed in China. In 1949, the communist party took power and gained control during the guerilla war. No medical service was available troops, ad communist encouraged Chinese remedies because they were cheap, acceptable and available. This was the turnaround for acupuncture, and it was then introduced into hospitals and clinic began to study the practice, allowing for new developments of acupuncture to be discovered. In 1971, a member of the US Press Corps was treated with acupuncture after an emergency appendectomy while in China. When he returned to the states, he published a piece in the New York Times describing his ordeal and treatment, this article sparked an interest in acupuncture within the states. At a NIH consensus conference, there was a report of a positive outcome of the practice of acupuncture. This report in return, caused acupuncture to be accepted in the USA.
The chronic disease that is well treated with acupuncture is anxiety. Anxiety is characterized as a psychiatric disorder caused by multiple or nonspecific factors. These factors can cause worrying, anger, panic, obsessions and a host of other emotions that may interfere with a person’s ability to function. There are different types of anxieties that must be diagnosed, such as panic disorder, social anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress just to name a few.
Even though acupuncture is accepted in the United States, there are many cultural challenges faced by the afflicted anxiety population. For example; Hispanic patients are private and deem that mental health problems should be kept within the family. This challenge makes it hard on the patient because often there condition goes left untreated, because of this way of living. Secondly, African Americans with anxiety believe that one condition is the result of another condition, and they also do not trust the practitioner diagnosing them mentally. With this being the case, it makes it hard for African Americans to get treatment, accept the diagnosis, and trust the medical care that is needed. The third cultural group is Asian Americans; they face cultural challenges with anxiety, because their anxiety is brought on socially. Therefore, it makes it very difficult to treat, because after treatment they will reside with the factors that caused the treatment; themselves. The practitioner, the one whom has to deal with all of these cultural issues while diagnosing and treating, faces the stigma of what comes along with each. Simply because, with these challenges comes new challenges that plague the patient daily. This makes the treatment process lengthier and tedious. For example, if an African American comes to a CAM practitioner for anxiety, because all conventional medicines do not seem to help, once there in the office, they are faced with all the fears of the practitioner’s diagnosis. The practitioner can, not only see the added anxiety, but know he/she has to diagnose the added anxiety, while will prolong the time, treatment and recovery.
CAM practitioner diagnose anxiety by asking the patient specific questions in order to get the right symptoms. Questions such as; where do you feel anxious the most?, or does this anxiety happen all the time?, are there any other symptoms that happen physically? These questions are asked, so that the CAM practitioner can pinpoint the exact anxiety disorder. Next, the CAM practitioner will do a physical exam of the body, and take info on the family history. CAM practitioners will also ask questions about your lifestyle, habits, diet. These questions are vital towards treatment. Questionaires are a real big intricate part of the diagnosis, simply because they allow for the CAM practitioner to know exactly the cause and symptoms, therefor leading to an accurate detection of acupoints during the acupuncture treatment.
After the CAM practitioner has addressed, and diagnosed the appropriate anxiety disorder and cause, then proper treatment can began, when it comes to the complementary and alternative medicine treat of anxiety. Chinese tradition believes that anxiety is caused when the heart has to much heat within it, therefore it causes an imbalance in the kidney. Based on this tradition, the heart is where the acupuncturist will start treatment. The acupoints for anxiety is the heart, kidneys, spleen and ears. These are used because of the imbalance to the heart and kidney, that is believed to be unstable according to Chinese medicine. After the office treatment of anxiety through acupuncture the CAM practitioner will suggest lifestyle changes as well. These lifestyle changes are to help balance and regulate the mind by causing its own energy to circulate. While doing these things, the person can hope for a medication free and positive change life.
Culture problems include finding a practitioner whom would give the treatment and finding insurance to pay for the treatment. The practitioner would face criticism and skepticism for this not being traditional medicine.
CAM practitioners would diagnose this chronic disease by having long thorough sessions where there were a lot of questions asked to get to the bottom of the disease. Depending on the diagnoses, treatment would involve talk therapy, treatment, support groups and self-help.
Questions that other healthcare providers might have is what else might be another course of treatment. Also, they might ask what particular studies have been done to out prove traditional medicine.
Two other CAM practices interventions would be homeopathy and naturaopathy.
References
Byrne, P. P. Cultural Issues in treatment of Anxiety. American Journal of Psychiatry. 1999; 156; 1658 – 1658
Birch, S. J., Felt, R. L. (1999). Understanding Acupuncture. Brookline, Massachusettes; Paradigm Publications.
Spector, R. E. (2009). Cultural diversity in health and illness (7th Ed). Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River: Pearson.
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