General articles about how acupuncture works mostly focus on pain. What is surprising to many, is that it works on the level of mental health as well. One of the more common issues we see here at One World Acupuncture is depression.
How does it work to help alleviate depression? One way to explain its positive affect on the body is that it works to bring all systems in the body to their most natural state. Depression caused by any number of factors like genetics, stress, ill health, poor dietary choices, poor life choices or the inability to make choices to name only a few causes. Acupuncture works on the whole body through balancing energetic disharmonies.
Some folks have energetic disturbances that are so far out of balance that acupuncture can be considered one tool in an entire tool box of help. I have noticed that with the proper medications and talk therapy, acupuncture can help manage depression.
For others suffering depression which is more situational or transient, acupuncture works very well to bring their systems into a better balance. Once folks are in better balance, they often can “move freely about the cabin” without feeling low.
This view of depression is simplistic at best. We who practice acupuncture use many observational tools to properly diagnose and use the correct treatment acupin approach to treating depression. But I don’t want folks who are new to acupuncture feel like acupuncture is not successful if one does not completely understand how it works or believe that it works at all. Patients tell me stories all the time of their pets being successfully treated by acupuncture and trust me, dogs do not believe in acupuncture.
At the time of this writing, we have given over 25,000 treatments, many of those for depression and other mental health disorders. The hardest part about treating depression is getting folks to come in for treatment. Sometimes people deep in depression have a hard time reaching out for help. So I encourage you to reach out to this clinic if you live in our area. If you don’t live within 25-30 miles of this clinic, I strongly suggest you google “community acupuncture near me” or go to the People of Community Acupuncture (POCA) website which is a national organization of acupuncture clinics who provide affordable acupuncture.
If you’ve not tried acupuncture or tried in someplace else but the price was too high to afford regular treatments, come in and give us a try. I doubt very seriously you will be sorry.
I’ve heard this before, and I still think it’s really something. I’ve heard acupuncture helping with other things, but depression seems pretty far from what acupuncture can help with. I was surprised to see that you’ve done so many treatments for depression. That’s a lot more than I thought. If this were a study, that would be a pretty good sample size. Thanks for the info!
Thank you for your comment. I am sorry I’ve not replied sooner, I am still getting into the ‘blogging habit’. Yes, it would indeed be a great sample size. In a former life I worked in clinical research and I have it in my head to get some data through some kind of “softball” study. The rigorous studies are expensive and would take a grand effort. It could also be helpful to me and my profession to also study the effect of protocol specific treatments and compare their efficacy.
Thanks for sharing! I had no idea that acupuncture could help alleviate depression— that is so amazing! The fact that it helps just shows me how much our bodies crave natural remedies as opposed to more artificial ones. I’m not saying modern medicine isn’t great, but I think that a natural remedy like acupuncture might be better than a pill in some instances.