The numbers surrounding anxiety in the United States before the COVID-19 crisis were already alarming — 18% of the population report an anxiety disorder in any given year. Thanks to the current worldwide pandemic, however, the Census Bureau reports that up to one-third of our population is affected by depression and anxiety.
Whether your mental health has taken a hit because of COVID-19 or you’ve struggled with anxiety disorders for some time now, acupuncture may be the key to restoring your peace of mind.
At Family Wellness Acupuncture, our team of certified acupuncturists routinely helps our patients overcome a wide range of health concerns through acupuncture.
With that in mind, here’s a look at how we can put your mind at rest and relieve your anxiety issues by restoring your body’s balance and flow using this millennia-old technique.
Anxiety disorders manifest themselves in myriad ways, including:
This list is by no means comprehensive, but it gives you an idea of the many ways that anxiety can take hold and affect your mental health.
Anxiety itself comes from your fight-or-flight instinct, which is a sympathetic nervous system response that’s designed to help protect you. For example, when you’re confronted by danger, your body prepares itself for either fight or flight by releasing hormones that increase your heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing rate. As well, your muscles tense, and your body sends blood away from the surface of your skin and into your muscles, brain, legs, and arms.
With an anxiety disorder, your body remains in this fight-or-flight response for far too long, which can create serious health consequences, both physically and mentally.
The cornerstone of acupuncture is to restore your body’s flow of energy, or qi, which we do by accessing certain points along your body’s meridians, or life force pathways. In doing this, our goal is to:
Although the first two goals work well for many health issues, it’s this last point that can help break the vicious cycle of anxiety. Through acupuncture, we can better regulate your body’s flight-or-fight response, helping to release you from its grips.
To get started, we typically recommend one or two acupuncture sessions a week, which we can begin to taper down once your anxiety is under control. Once we’ve resolved your acute symptoms, we’ve found that ongoing maintenance sessions prove highly beneficial in keeping your anxiety levels from creeping back up again.
If you’d like to explore how acupuncture can help put your mind at rest in the face of anxiety, contact our office in Irvine, California, to set up your appointment.
