Anxious About Choosing Acupuncture for Anxiety and Panic Attacks?

As many as 40 million people in America are suffering from symptoms related to anxiety. Prescription drugs are an option; however, some people are not keen on the possible side effects or the dependency on a medication. If medication is not a good choice for you, that doesn’t mean there is not another option. More and more people have been turning to acupuncture for anxiety and panic attacks, to help reduce stress in their lives, and even help with depression.

Using acupuncture therapy to help your anxiety is a great alternative, and many find that their symptoms decrease even after just their first session. Because acupuncture treats the body as a whole instead of localized symptoms, it helps to restore balance in your body overall that chronic stress and anxiety have altered. These issues are more than just emotional issues- you may suffer from low energy, headaches, aches and pains, insomnia, frequent colds, clenched jaw or grinding of your teeth along with the emotional symptoms you’ve been suffering from.

How Acupuncture Can Help Your Anxiety

Instead of being in “Flight-or-Flight” mode (or Sympathetic Mode), which takes a toll on a person's body, mood, brain, and emotional health, it helps to re-balance your body and put you in Parasympathetic Mode (PNS), also known as “rest-and-digest" mode. In this state, the body is more calm with general feelings of wellbeing, as well as getting you ready for resting and digesting. 

Your Heart Rate Variability which is the timing between your heart beats is one way to measure the amount of stress you may be feeling. Those with decreased HRV have higher levels of stress, anxiety, anger and depression. Those with healthier levels have reduced stress, more even emotions, better adaption in stressful situations, better overall functionality and performance in day-to-day life.

Once the HRV gets into optimal levels, it positively influences the CAN (Central Autonomic Network) that controls our working memory to store details of your current surroundings and organizing & gathering signals from our mind and body. This allows you to live in the “present”.

The combination of the two of these systems is essential in re-gaining balance in your mind and body’s overall health, as anxiety and stress have symptoms that branch out further than just emotional issues. Luckily, acupuncture works extremely well in balancing the body, and perhaps that’s why using acupuncture to treat these issues have been so effective.

More importantly, acupuncture allows the nervous system to adapt and re-learn how to better operate in a more optimal way going forwards. 

All in all, most who try acupuncture and follow up regularly to achieve bests results truly do see a difference in their day to day lives, as your body learns how to re-balance itself- and stay that way.