Treatment of Stress, Anxiety and Panic Attacks with Acupuncture and Chinese Herbs

Chinese Medicine recognizes that a variety of causes and conditions continually arise in life which shift our energy. Because of these shifts we may not feel happy all the time, nor are we expected to, according to the Chinese medical perspective. In fact, the person in optimal health will experience the full range of emotions, but without getting stuck in any one emotional state.

In clinical practice, the patients I treat recover quickly from stress, anxiety and panic attacks. When I treat people with stress and emotional disorders using acupuncture and Chinese herbs, I tailor an individualized and focused treatment strategy to the specific imbalances of each person. I place acupuncture needles in the body to open up blockages in energy flow, and to support systems that are weak or out of balance with the rest of the body. My approach allows the body to heal itself naturally, and the tailored treatment provides individualized balancing techniques. Treatment also aims to resolve the problems from the root cause, for lasting relief. I also teach home care stress reduction techniques.

Everyone experiences daily stress, especially New Yorkers. The sources of stress are unlimited, and everyone handles it differently. People who have ways to rid themselves of stress have fewer symptoms. But most people are not aware that when stress builds up in their system they experience physical or emotional symptoms. Some symptoms of stress are heart palpations, muscle tension, headaches, fatigue, or problems with digestion, sleep, memory, or motivation. Sometimes stress or a traumatic event leads to general anxiety or panic attacks.

Stress, Anxiety & Emotions
Emotions only cause imbalance if they are extreme, or if the patient holds on to them for long periods of time. If a person’s body experiences symptoms of imbalance, it means the energy flow is either blocked, deficient, or out of balance. Both physical and emotional wellness depends on a smooth flow of energy throughout the body. Acupuncture and Chinese herbs balance energy by harmonizing the flow the energy, the result of which is smooth flow.

One way to achieve emotional balance is through treatment based on the Chinese Five Element system. Each of the five systems is interrelated, and the health of each one depends on balance between all of them. The five elements are fire, water, wood, metal and earth. Within the elemental relationships, each emotion relates to a specific organ. The five emotions are joy which affects the heart energy, fear/fright which affects the kidney energy, sadness/grief which affect the lung energy, anger/frustration which affects the liver energy, and worry/over-thinking which affects the spleen energy.

Stress, Anxiety & Pain
Physically, stress has several effects on the body. The main problem it causes is stuck or blocked energy, also known as stagnation. When symptoms appear, it signals that energy in one or more pathway is blocked. Some symptoms of qi stagnation are neck and back pain, fatigue, PMS, menstrual cramps or infertility. Over time symptoms become more severe and spread to other systems in the body. Treatment with acupuncture and Chinese Herbs will resolve the cause of energetic disharmony to heal the physical symptoms and prevent future disease.

At-Home Stress Relief
To “wash” your body and mind clean of stress and less than desirable experiences, emotions and events, try the following tips to help bring harmony back to your physical and emotional self, by smoothing out energy flow:

• Sitting in a comfortable position, close your eyes and visualize sitting by stream of water flowing gently by. When thoughts come into your head, they are part of the stream, just flowing by you. Allow yourself to consider the thought and then let it go on its way down the stream, not getting caught or lingering too long in your mind.
• Breath slowly and deeply. On the inhale, fill your lungs, chest, and belly completely with fresh clean air. On the exhale, release out all the air, along with the tension and built up thoughts and stresses from the day. Oxygen will circulate throughout the lungs and entire body, opening clogged areas and releasing tension from your mind and muscles. Many times during the day we don’t realize how shallowly we have been breathing.
• Firmly brush your limbs off, from the trunk of your body outwards. Start at the shoulders and brush out to fingertips, and past them, as if brushing a thick dust off each sleeve. Then, sitting with your legs straight out in front of you, start at the hips and brush all the way down to feet. Energetically, this releases negative or stagnated energy, and refreshes the natural balance of the body, enhancing circulation and washing impurities out of body and mind.