Thursday, November 7, 2013

How Acupuncture Can Help Overcome Depression

Woman with Depression
Of all the Eastern disciplines, the ancient art of acupuncture carries the greatest reputation for easing physical discomfort.

There's a bulk of undeniable proof showing just how effective acupuncture can be at providing pain relief. Research and studies have shown how this complementary practice benefits many of the physical issues that plague our overworked bodies. Trained practitioners use carefully placed needles to relieve tension in sore muscles and ease pain from injuries.

Acupuncture is a traditional Chinese medicine that has been used for over two millennia. It has become a highly respected form of therapy here in the West, accepted by the World Health Organization (WHO), and taken seriously enough to become part of the wellness regime for professional athletes. 


Ignore for a moment the reasons why acupuncture is such a potent tool for restoring health and energy, and focus instead on how it brings balance to every system of the body, including those that affect the mind and spirit.

Depression remedies come in many forms, but drugs are a constant companion to those remedies, chemical prescriptions that treat the worst of the symptoms. The problem with drugs is the dullness they bring to the mind, as well as some potentially serious side effects. Sometimes they don't even work, the dosage has to be adjusted, and there's always the fact that many of us simply aren't comfortable popping pills that are capable of altering the way our brains work.

How much better it would be to to treat the sadness and despair of depression using a complementary method such as acupuncture! Practitioners of this time-proven art have already demonstrated acupuncture's place in working alongside counseling to treat the bleakness and despondency of this condition.
 

Again, the medical mechanism in action isn't as important as the effectiveness of the treatment. Some schools believe that the placement of needles on certain points around the body stimulate a releasing effect of chemically active substances from the brain. Endorphins are activated in the center of the brain. Serotonin and dopamine, other key substances responsible for reducing depression, are produced and taken up by the brain, creating a feeling of well-being.

Stress relief treatments use these feelings of well-being as an anchor for patients, as a foundation to build a new life free of anxiety. Counseling techniques may use cognitive treatments and visualization exercises to slow the effects of tension, but it's the administration of acupuncture, a non-drug treatment, that brings new levels of balance, harmony and relief. As depression remedies go, the practice of acupuncture is a hard to deny aid in chasing away the dullness of a depressive state.

One of the problems of chronic stress is the many ways it can manifest. We seek to control it, but we are only limited in our success. Stress finds its way to the surface as anxiety and muscular tension. When it becomes unbearable, we begin to collapse internally, using obsessive rituals to maintain a semblance of control.

Stress relief treatments employ counseling and drugs to control these feelings, not so different from depression, and an acupuncture practitioner uses the same careful manipulations of needles, precise placement on known points of the body, to trigger biological mechanisms that stimulate the parts of the brain responsible for relaxation.

East meets West with the application of counseling and acupuncture. Studies will continue to show exactly how and why this ancient technique is so effective, and acupuncture practitioners will continue to explain how blockages of energy can be released, allowing harmonious chi to flow again. But, whether or not you believe in bio-activated brain chemicals or energy centers of the body, the results are what count, and acupuncture excels as one of the best stress relief treatments and non-drug solution depression remedies.



Robert Vena L.Ac.
NJ Acupuncturist
Acupuncture-in-NJ.com

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