Anxiety comes in many forms. From phobias to PTSD, it can have a significant detrimental effect on your life, preventing you from taking part in activities you would otherwise enjoy. Anxiety acupuncture and stress acupuncture may alleviate the symptoms of anxiety, regardless of the cause, so you can live your life on your own terms.

Types of Anxiety

Broadly speaking, anxiety is the worry and inner turmoil we experience when life overwhelms us, or we are scared by certain events. Those events do not necessarily have to be objectively threatening. Sometimes anxiety is an instinctive reaction, if not overreaction. Everyone experiences anxiety sometimes, whether justified or not, but in its most severe form, it can become one of several diagnosable disorders.

Most anxiety disorders include physical symptoms, such as trembling, rapid heartrate, aches and pains, shortness of breath, insomnia, sweating and nausea as well as mental signs, such as irritability and lack of focus. They often cause general restlessness. Symptoms may be chronic, but can also be triggered by specific situations.

Examples of anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder and various types of phobia (irrational fear), including agoraphobia and claustrophobia. Anxiety can also be a symptom of conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

How anxiety acupuncture and stress acupuncture can help

If you go to the doctor and they diagnose you with an anxiety disorder, they may prescribe you medication or recommend various forms of therapy. If these methods do not work for you for any reason, or you are looking for an alternative approach to supplement your treatment, then acupuncture has long been used to manage the treatment of anxiety, whatever its cause.

Anxious people spend a lot of time in “fight or flight” mode, the body’s method of dealing with emergency situations. Chronic anxiety, however, can lead to what is supposed to be a short-term reaction stretching out indefinitely, wearing out the body as it does so. Whilst this is going on, stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol are high, triggering a range of physical reactions such as changes in your breathing. You could also see your blood pressure rise, which when sustained can have all sorts of negative implications for your heart health.

Acupuncture for stress and anxiety nudges your body from the fight or flight instincts of the sympathetic nervous system to the “rest and digest” approach of the parasympathetic nervous system, putting you into a more relaxed state. The slight intrusion of the needles is not enough to cause real harm, but it does encourage your body to enter healing mode, allowing a rebalancing of your body’s various systems and processes.

There may be many forms of anxiety but the symptoms remain similar, and all have the potential to be managed by acupuncture. You could see a reduction in physical symptoms, a clearing of your mind and a general sense of improved well-being, if you acknowledge and treat your anxiety properly.