Anxiety and acupuncture

[Jen2020]

Hello I'm new here I was wondering if any one has had/tried acupuncture for anxiety my doc recommended it but with my anxiety I'm scared of everything

[Sfqueen]

I tried it 3 times and it did nothing for me

[Caroline289]

Hi Jen, definitely worth a try. I had acupuncture to help,me relax and to help sleep. It was a lovely experience not at all painful and I did feel calmer and would sleep the night I went. The best thing though, that I found helped me more than anything is yoga, because you learn to breath in a different way, try YouTube, Brett Larkin (USA) . I also tried hypnosis but I was too anxious to keep my eyes shut! Just to say I no longer have panic attacks, sometimes I am anxious but that's ok! I just do yoga!

[Beevee]

Hi Jen

Never tried acupuncture but spent a lot of money on other treatments to get rid of anxiety. None worked because I was using all these various treatments to stop myself from feeling the anxiety.

I then read up on anxiety and came across a saying which summed up the way to recover. "You won't get better until you stop trying to get better."

I then realised what I had been doing wrong all along. I had been trying to make myself better with all these various treatments and techniques.

To recover, if is vitally important that sufferers fully understand anxiety because this is the first step on the road to recovery. If you know what is happening to your mind and body and why, it takes away a lot of the fear which is the root cause of all anxiety disorders. Period.

The reason why my anxiety hung around was because I still feared all the symptoms of anxiety. I tried to push them away, fight the scary thoughts and feelings.

Biologically, my nerves had been battered by constant worrying about stuff and became sensitised. As a result, this made me worry even more about more stuff. I had entered the anxiety cycle of fear-adrenalin-fear.

If you imagine an empty tea cup (person with no anxiety disorder) and keep filling it with water (fears), the water will eventually make the cup overflow, unless you keep tipping it away (letting go of the fears). When it reaches overflow (anxiety), the smallest drop of water will cause the cup to keep overflowing. This is what is happening to your nerves.

To recover, you need to desensitise your nerves by allowing all those scary thoughts and feelings to have their say and not resist any of it. They are all symptoms of anxiety. If you resist the symptoms, protest, or react fearfully to them, you are adding more water to your cup and will get nowhere. You may feel terrible but they are harmless and will eventually disappear without trace so don't give them any respect. The water levels in your cup will eventually drop down to normal levels which means your reactions to stressful situations will be more in keeping with the threat and you will become your old self before anxiety showed up.

To cut to the chase, you need to stop fighting and do the exact opposite and do nothing. In other words, stop trying to get better. This will bring you peace of mind and body but don't go in search of it. The less you do, the more you recover.

Hope this helps

Beevee

[Devin76oh]

Completely agree with what Beevee says.

I have tried acupuncture. It was a great experience for me. I did it to relieve a lot of the things I was feeling physically because of the stress the aniety was causing me. It did help me to relax. I think this coupled with more of the methods that beevee is talking about help a lot.

I've taken to faith personally and it was the best thing I have ever done. Everything is much easier.

[Beevee in reply to Devin76oh]

Very good point, Devin76oh. I'm not knocking it for one second. Just don't think it will cure, otherwise bewilderment might set in which keeps the anxiety alive.

If anything, moments of relaxation can make you realise that it is the anxiety that drives the thoughts and feelings which simply aren't there when you are chilling! Sure, the symptoms will keep returning while your nerves are still sensitised but if you understand why this happens, it makes it easier to accept which eventually brings recovery.

Good night all and may tomorrow bring you moments of relief. If not, don't worry, just keep living your life with the anxiety alongside for the ride. It makes a lousy passenger and will get bored and leave when other interests filter back into your life.

"It will be alright in the end and if it's not alright, it's not the end."