Mental illness has become more and more common in today’s society. One of the most common mental illnesses is anxiety. This is why there is a large number of people that are prescribed medicine to treat anxiety. However, for many people, this medicine doesn’t quite work, or they simply would rather try something different than just taking pills every day.
This is why many people turn to alternative methods such as Chinese medicine and the treatments that they use to treat people with anxiety. For those of you that don’t know, Chinese medicine is a traditional form of medicine that has been used in China and parts of Asia for centuries.
There are many people that don’t believe in Chinese medicine or alternative methods of treatment other than those of Western medicine which uses drugs and surgery to treat people with illnesses. If you are curious about what the 3 best Chinese medicine treatments for anxiety are, you should keep reading the sections below to find more detailed information.
Article Topics
What does Chinese Medicine say about Anxiety?
Considering that Chinese medicine dates back about 3,000 years, it is normal to wonder what Chinese medicine has to say about anxiety. At the end of the day, mental illnesses have not been recognized like they are today since the beginning of time.
There are many mental health disorders that are just now beginning to be recognized and treated in Western medicine. With that being said, Chinese medicine does recognize anxiety as an illness and provides its own explanation for why this illness happens.
According to Chinese medicine, anxiety is caused by a disturbance in the Shen, which is a person’s spirit.
In Chinese medicine, a disturbance in the Shen can result in many symptoms including:
- lack of meaning in one’s life
- feelings of self-hatred
- feeling worthless
- lack of energy
These symptoms are also commonly associated with depression which is also explained in
Chinese medicine as a disturbance in the Shen.
Traditional Chinese medicine has recognized the importance of the connection between the emotional, physical, and mental experiences of individuals for centuries unlike Western medicine which recently started treating mental health disorders within the past century.
Chinese medicine has recognized that mental illnesses can cause physical effects such as affecting sleep, eating, or other behaviors. It also has been recognized that physical experiences such as accidents can result in mental problems like PTSD.
Although Chinese medicine doesn’t use terminology such as PTSD, the understanding that the people who practice this type of medicine have about the importance of the connection between physical, emotional, and mental experiences has helped them treat and prevent mental illnesses such as anxiety for centuries.
What Types of Treatments are Typical in Chinese Medicine?
As it was mentioned earlier, Chinese medicine offers alternative methods for curing illnesses that are quite different than those used in Western medicine. As a result of this, there is a very wide variety of treatments that can be used to treat different illnesses according to Chinese medicine.
Some of the most typical treatments in Chinese medicine include the use of herbs, acupuncture, and even Tai Chi in order to treat illnesses. Within each of these traditional treatments, there are very wide applications depending on the illness.
For example, there are hundreds of different herbs that are used in Chinese medicine to treat diseases which is why it is just generalized as using herbs rather than listing out the most popular herbs used.
The 3 Best Chinese Medicine Treatments for Anxiety
Now that you know a little bit more about Chinese medicine and what its theory on anxiety is, you are probably ready to hear about the 3 best treatments that are used in Chinese Medicine to treat anxiety.
The 3 best treatments for anxiety according to Chinese medicine are: acupuncture, herb medicine, and meditation. These are some of the most common treatments that are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Although these treatments don’t simply cure everyone that tries them of anxiety, there are large numbers of people that have benefitted from trying out some of these treatments. There are also many people that prefer to use these treatments as opposed to taking the drugs that are prescribed by Western medicine.
Acupuncture
This treatment is very commonly used in Chinese medicine to treat several illnesses. Its use in treating anxiety will vary from its use to treat other illnesses, but the main principle of acupuncture is retained.
For those of you that don’t know, acupuncture is the insertion of thin needles through the skin at very strategic points on your body. It is most commonly used in Chinese medicine, and it has been mostly used as a treatment for pain.
The use of acupuncture to treat anxiety is more recent than its used to treat pain. However, this does not mean that it is not a useful treatment for stress management which is one of the main components of anxiety.
The explanation behind acupuncture in Chinese medicine has to do with the flow of energy through your body. In Traditional Chinese medicine it is believed that energy flows through certain pathways of your body, and it is known as chi or qi.
The belief behind acupuncture is that by inserting needles into these pathways the flow of energy can become balanced once again and fix the imbalance that is believed to cause anxiety in the first place.
Western medicine has a different explanation as to why acupuncture can be effective in reducing pain. According to Western medicine, acupuncture is effective because the acupuncture points stimulate the nerves in your body which causes your body to release its natural painkillers.
Herb Medicines
Another very common treatment used in Chinese medicine to treat anxiety and many other illnesses is known as herb medicine. This is simply the use of natural herbs to treat a disease or illness.
The process of using herb medicine will vary depending on what is being used and what it is used for but it can be anything from ingesting a tea with herbs, simply smelling the herbs, or even rubbing herbs on your body.
Although herb medicine might sound somewhat similar to just taking medicine prescribed in Western medicine, there is a really big difference between the two. Unlike Western medicine, when herb medicine is used in traditional Chinese medicine it is used to treat the individual and not the illness.
For example, if you were to visit a doctor at a hospital, you would be diagnosed with a disease or illness and then be prescribed whatever medicine is typically prescribed for that illness.
On the other hand, if you opted for a traditional Chinese medicine approach, you would be assessed and prescribed whatever type of herb is believed to work for you. There is more of a focus placed on the individual rather than on the disease.
With that being said, there are still certain types of herbs that are more commonly used to treat anxiety than others. You won’t just get prescribed any random herb in the world and be told that it will cure your anxiety.
One herb that is most famously used to treat anxiety and has been studied for decades is the ginkgo Biloba which comes from a tree and has been used for centuries to treat many illnesses.
Meditation
Lastly, meditation is also often associated with Chinese medicine, and it is often used with success to treat anxiety. As you have probably noticed, Chinese Medicine places a really big focus on your energy and the balancing of it within your body. It should not come as a surprise that meditation is another treatment used for anxiety.
If you struggle with anxiety, you are probably sick and tired of hearing people telling you to just relax and to forget about your stress. This is much easier said than done. However, whether you believe it or not, meditation can change your mindset and be a big help in calming yourself down, and avoiding and managing burnout.
By no means is meditation simply the cure to your anxiety. Don’t think that you can just start meditating tomorrow and all of your anxiety will simply disappear.
However, when you think about the main symptoms of anxiety which typically include feeling stressed and constantly worried. Next, think about what meditation aims to achieve which is to ground you, relax you, and make you more mindful of your feelings and thoughts, it makes sense that meditation could help alleviate some of the symptoms that come with anxiety.
Furthermore, out of the three treatments mentioned in this article, meditation is by far the easiest one for you to start. You don’t have to visit any sort of specialist or put anything into your body that you might not know a lot about.
All you might have to do is look up some meditation techniques and routines that you could start doing from the comfort of your own home.
It really doesn’t take much to begin practicing meditation. You can go at your own pace and start with just a couple of minutes of meditation a day, and then build up to more time as you begin to feel more comfortable doing it. You are in control of how much or how little meditation you do.
What are a Couple Great Online Resources for Chinese Medicine?
If you are interested in learning more about the Chinese medicine treatments that were mentioned in this article and want to learn more about Chinese medicine in general, you are in luck because there are several great online resources that can help you learn more about Chinese medicine.
It really depends on what you are looking for, but if you are looking to become a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine, then this websiteis a great resource with plenty of links for you to explore. On the other hand, if you are simply looking for more information on a topic like acupuncture, then this website might be more useful to you.
There are hundreds of other resources you can find on the internet that can teach you about all sorts of things relating to Chinese medicine. The resources linked above are a great place to start depending on what you are looking for but they are by no means the only great resources you can find online.
You will be better off by taking a glance at those resources and then looking up terms or practices that you still don’t quite understand.
At the end of the day, Chinese medicine is a very ancient practice that has been around for literally thousands of years. Therefore, there are a lot of things such as terms, practices, and explanations that you can learn about on the internet. You could spend hours just looking at resources that discuss herbal medicine which is only briefly discussed and explained in this article.
Conclusion
There are many people that are unsatisfied with their current way of treating their anxiety. Although taking drugs to treat anxiety works for many people as it helps fix the chemical imbalances in their brain, there are just as many people that don’t feel like they are getting the best out of their treatment.
This is why many people choose to explore alternative methods to treat their anxiety such as those used in Traditional Chinese medicine. The treatments mentioned in this article can be helpful to some people in treating their anxiety.
However, they are by no means guaranteed to work and lessen your symptoms of anxiety. If you choose to try any of the treatments mentioned in this article, then you need to keep in mind that they are not guaranteed to work.
