Acupuncture for Emotional and Mental Disturbances

To the acupuncturist, if the spirit (Shcn) is not balanced, the whole system is lacking control and direction.

It is just as important that problems of the spirit are treated by rebalancing, removing blockages and restoring the natural flow of energy, not by suppressing symptoms with potentially addictive medicines, as it is that those of the body are treated in this way.

In China, acupuncture is in fact used as much for emotional and mental disturbances as for physical. This is primarily because the Chinese do not distinguish between physical and mental problems as we do in the West: both are treated at the same time by the same doctor, and are seen as different manifestations of one pattern of disharmony.

Most patients find acupuncture treatment relaxing and calming and, in the longer term, problems of emotional imbalance can be treated as effectively as those of physical imbalance.

Emotional imbalances, if untreated, may eventually result in physical symptoms, and are considered by the Chinese to be one of the major causes of disease. Emotions should be expressed freely, neither suppressed or over-indulged.