Acupuncture for Stress Relief
“It’s just so relaxing during the treatment, that I can't feel my arms or legs! I relax completely, and still feel very relaxed afterwards.” “My life was in turmoil, close to a mental breakdown, stressed, panic attacks, high blood pressure, sweating fever, irrational decisions in business and in my life, gradually getting into a deeper darker hole. It’s all gone now, I have a presence of deep calm without any drugs, just a few tiny needles.” |
“The acupuncture makes me feel relieved of stress - my stomach is not knotted anymore. I would recommend this to anyone.”At a basic level, we are all stressed – and in the right context this is fine. Stress is a demand we place upon on nervous systems in order to meet an obligation, perform a task or meet an expectation. We need ‘positive stress’ in order to live our lives, meet our goals and achieve our aims, whether that be looking after ourselves and our family, at work or at play. Positive stress makes us feel good, happy and fulfilled. What I term negative stress, is when we perceive an aspect our lives has become ‘out of kilter,’ and instead of enjoyment, we feel uneasy, frustrated and concerned.
The simplest form of stress, is when we are able to recognise which aspect of our lives is out of kilter. Generally, we get stressed by either problems at work, relationship or family issues or money worries. Also life events, such as moving house, taking exams, recovering from illness, or a death in the family can environmentally stress people.
The stress can feed through into our bodies, causing physical illnesses, or tiredness, lethargy, or muscle tension especially in the shoulders, and erratic sleep patterns. Commonly, stressed people are liable to wake up in the small hours feeling wide awake, and then mull over a problem/s seemingly unable to get off to sleep again.
When our sleep is restless and insufficient it can affect our mood and well-being during the day, making it more difficult to cope with our stresses and life in general. This only serves to compound the problem (see the insomnia page for a greater explanation) – leading to mental and emotional symptoms.
These symptoms merge to form a syndrome of general stress, which include quickness to temper and irritability, poor concentration levels and decision making, increased breathing and heart rate, hollow sensation in the stomach – leading to waves of nausea or reduced appetite. Unwelcome changes in bowel habit can be experienced. Bad moods and unhappiness, and poor morale can also follow. Many of these symptoms arise from the release of stress hormones into the blood stream by the body.
This general stress can then have an helpful effect of chronic health conditions such as, back, neck and shoulder pain, chronic pain in general, all mental illnesses, headache, insomnia, irritable bowel syndrome, menopausal symptoms, migraines and headaches, and PMT.
I enjoy great success in treating the symptoms of stress and have lots of positive experience in this area.
Acupuncture is very good at relaxing the nervous system, and encouraging it to release positive hormones into the system – that promote feelings of well-being. It has also been shown to have a beneficial effect in regulating the hormonal system in general, and therefore having a positive effect on brain chemistry. It can help to break patterns of restless sleep, and so give rise to feeling better during the day and more able to cope. In doing so, it is able to quickly provide people with perspective again, that help them to cope more easily with their stress, and also provide them with the energy to hopefully resolve their problems.
I normally suggest that people should allow for 4-6 visits for simple cases of stress, where a specific problem or issue is identifiable.
More difficult cases can take 6-12 visits, especially if the cause of the stress (problems with a work colleague for example) is ongoing with little hope of a resolution in sight.
Where people feel ‘stressed’ for no good reason, or after they think they have resolved their problems, then acupuncture can still be effective. It can do this because by resetting the nervous system, it will bypass the issue anyway. But, it maybe they are suffering from another underlying condition, such as anxiety, or depression, and more advice on these subjects can be found by clicking through. Either way, such cases in my experience require a longer course of treatment, usually of between 6-12 visits.