Anxiety & Panic Attacks
Does Acupuncture Help With Anxiety & Panic Attacks?
There are many types of alternative anxiety treatments. These treatments are used to help cure anxiety without the long term expenses of therapy or side effects of modern medicine. One of the most popular and well known alternative treatments is acupuncture. People use acupuncture for anxiety treatment and prevention, and many believe that it is one of the single most effective ways to cure your anxiety forever.
But does acupuncture work? The answer is a little unclear. This article will explore acupuncture as an anxiety treatment, and whether or not you should consider it as an alternative to therapy.
The Best Method for Permanent Anxiety Reduction
The realities of treating anxiety are that different people require different treatments, even when suffering from the same type of anxiety. That's because different people have different personalities, different needs, and of course, different symptoms.
Born from centuries of Chinese history, acupuncture is based on the principle of qi (also spelled "Chi" or "?"), Yin and Yang, elemental theory and more. These are corrected by placing sterilized needles at very specific points in the body. While the components are much more complex, acupuncturists believe that by balancing qi correctly throughout the body (including "circulating the blood," warming, etc.), and responding to diagnoses using these acupuncture points has the potential to provide a safe and effective cure.
The Value of Acupuncture for Anxiety
Treatment differs for each individual. Assuming that acupuncture is effective, however, it represents a very valuable anxiety treatment. That's because acupuncture provides three separate benefits that are important to those living with anxiety:
Acupuncture is immediate.
Acupuncture reduces reinforcement.
Acupuncture deals with other issues.
Acupuncture is designed to be an immediate treatment. While not every acupuncture session provides complete and full relief right away, as soon as you leave the acupuncturist (and in some cases the next morning), much of your anxiety should be diminished. Compare this to long term treatments that generally require you to work on your anxiety a little at a time over a long period of time. For those with severe anxiety, that can be advantageous.
Reinforcement is also a serious problem for those with anxiety, especially panic attacks. With panic attacks, a person's fear of getting a panic attack actually causes a panic attack, which of course confirms the fear and makes it more likely to happen again in the future. Acupuncture, if effective, will reduce these thought processes completely, which in turn should reduce the potential for your anxieties to reinforce themselves.
Finally, while anxiety is a standalone condition, it doesn't create itself. Often you have other issues in your life that can cause you some anxiety or contribute to the severity of your anxiety symptoms. Acupuncture should help with those as well. For example, you may find that you become more anxious or on edge after you feel like your heartbeat has increased. Acupuncture could then help.