According to the ADAA (Anxiety and Depression Association of America), anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the United States, affecting 18% of the population aged 18 and over. Anxiety levels can range from very mild to very severe, but they are all normal bodily responses to something that actually threatens your well-being or is perceived to threaten your well-being. Either way, real or seeming real, any specific fear or worry situation can cause an anxiety symptom that usually lasts for the brief time that a threat is imminent, and a more serious life or death threat lasts much longer. Those are normal anxious feelings that anyone can experience and will eventually pass. But when you feel anxious for no clear reason, or the reasons that make you feel that way just don’t make sense, then this can be unpleasantly overwhelming and needs to be dealt with as soon as possible.
Your body has many different ways of sending you recognizable messages when you’re feeling anxious, such as a trembling, shuddering, or twitching reaction. You may have trouble sleeping or concentrating, you may experience a feeling of dizziness, lightheadedness, or heavy breathing with your heart “racing.” Add to these symptoms a change in your general behavior that can have you hyperactive and nervous, or just feeling upset and worried that something bad is about to happen. Whatever you are experiencing at the moment could have prepared you to do anything to make it all go away. But believe it or not, these are all common reactions to a situation that may last for a short time; but when the situation no longer exists, but the symptoms continue to interrupt your daily life, it is time to take care of yourself and treat this as a serious problem. Initially, seeking a counselor or therapist to help you cope may help on some level, but you need to realize that therapy deals with your cognitive behaviors, such as problem solving and things related to thoughts, behaviors, and relationships. Although necessary to help you deal with your perceptions, a visit to your acupuncturist will focus on the nervous system to relieve symptoms on a physical level. And if your problem is serious, it might be wise to use both methods simultaneously.
Acupuncture works to help calm your two-part nervous system, both sympathetic and parasympathetic. The sympathetic part of the nervous system is concerned with your physical and mental reactions to danger, whether real or imagined, and is sometimes called the “fight or flight” nervous system. The parasympathetic part of your nervous system is loosely known as the “rest and digest” system, responsible for stimulating activities that occur when the body is at rest, such as after eating, sexual arousal, salivation, defecation, and other normal activities. . Bodily reactions associated with daily life. The acupuncturist knows the specific points on the body, including the ear, that will help calm the sympathetic nervous system and switch it to parasympathetic, allowing you to return to your normal activities feeling calm and relaxed. Due to the effect that an acupuncture treatment has on the entire nervous system, it not only helps you with the specific feeling of anxiety that brought you to the acupuncturist’s office in the first place, but with everything else that is normally inhibited during that time. It improves sleep, digestion, blood pressure, concentration, and much more of that nature.
If anxiety is something you have been struggling with on a daily basis, you may need to start acupuncture treatments once or twice a week for a period of about six weeks. You can opt for private sessions with treatments tailored to your specific needs or participate in more affordable group listening sessions, where treatments focus on symptoms of anxiety and stress common to most people. Or, as a third option, you can create a treatment program that combines both. Whichever way you and your acupuncturist agree, breaking free from the debilitating limits of anxiety can be an exhilarating experience.