depression Archives - Acupuncture in the Park

Depression, Lack of Motivation, and Chinese Medicine

Last week I was at a networking event of CAM healers in the Minneapolis area, where I met a number of practitioners working with really interesting therapies. During one conversation, I was asked what kinds of conditions I treated most frequently. Hmmm…good question.

Actually, my answer was pretty simple and straight forward: Lately I seem to be seeing a lot of working women (and some men) who are dealing with depression, anxiety, and stress. One of the reasons why so many people are struggling emotionally is our current economy. While things seem to be getting a little better recently , I still see many people who are stuck in jobs they dislike (okay, hate) because they feel like any job is a good one right now. Many are working in positions where their co-workers have been laid off and not replaced. As a result, they are doing more work in the same amount of time for the same amount of pay. Under those conditions, who wouldn’t be depressed?

While depression is associated with a whole host of symptoms, one of the most life-altering is the lack of motivation and fatigue that some people experience. I have worked with a number of patients who experience this kind of sluggish depression in which they struggle to do anything during the course of the day. For some, just getting out of bed each morning or going to work is a challenge.

Why does this happen? In Chinese medicine, there are a number of answers. The simplest is that depression is considered a blockage–clearly something in the emotional realm is not moving smoothly. Over time any kind of blockage wipes you out–it literally depletes your energy–and you feel exhausted. Energetically, depression is like physical pain in that if it isn’t resolved, it takes all of your resources just to deal with it. This tires you out.

On a deeper level, depression is considered constrained Liver energy, or Qi. Your Chinese Liver is the organ system that regulates the smooth flow of all your body’s functions–physical and emotional. When the realities of your life are not what you want, it causes stagnation of your Liver Qi. Furthermore, each organ system in Chinese medicine has an emotional component, and the emotion most closely associated with your Liver is anger. It is frequently said that anger turned inward becomes depression.

So how do you explain the sluggishness sometimes associated with the depression/Liver Qi stagnation? Well, one of the first casualties of Liver constraint is that it heads right on over to your digestive system and shuts things down. Like an emotional upset that causes you to lose your appetite, depression messes with your digestion in slo mo. You will know that this is happening if you have symptoms like crazy cravings for sweets, weight gain around the middle, and absolutely no energy. The problem here is that your energy comes from eating good, healthy food, but also from digesting it well. When your digestive system is closed for business, you have no way of producing more energy, hence the feeling of exhaustion.

And there’s more. Your Chinese Liver is paired with the Gallbladder, which has a number of functions. However, it’s the emotional aspect of the Gallbladder that’s pertinent here. The emotion associated with your Gallbladder is something called courage. What we call courage may be the fearlessness that comes to mind for most. However, in this context, courage is also the ability to make a decision or a plan, move forward decisively, and follow it through to completion. Therefore, the inability to decide, act, or the lack of motivation to act is associated with a weakness of the Gallbladder system.

As an acupuncturist, the path to healing this chronic, sluggish, no-motivation depression is complicated. It involves soothing your Liver, strengthening digestion, rebuilding energy, calming your emotions, and addressing Gallbladder issues. This sounds like a lot, but through acupuncture, the use of Chinese medicinal herbs, diet, and some lifestyle modifications, many patients who are struggling with this kind of depression find relief from their symptoms.

Teenage Mental Health

At Acupuncture in the Park, we have found that treating pre-teens, teens, and young adults to be some of the most satisfying work that we do, primarily because they respond so quickly to the acupuncture, and the results can be life-changing. Not only have we treated our share of young patients with aches, pains, and soccer injuries, but also we have worked with kids who were struggling with depression, anxiety, anger, insomnia, and stress.

Not long ago, this letter to the editor about teen mental health appeared in our local newspaper:

Many parents may relate to the July 5 article “Worried about a moody teen?” An acquaintance told me recently that the severe anger of her middle son had caused problems in the family. She decided to try alternative medicine and took him to an acupuncturist. After one visit, the change in the 11-year-old was amazing. A local acupuncturist told me that acupuncture in pre-adolescents and adolescents can be extremely effective. It could be worth a try. (Minneapolis Star Tribune, Monday, July 12, 2010)

As the letter states, acupuncture can be incredibly effective for adolescents. This is true for a number of reasons. First, for the most part, they are young and healthy. Acupuncture tends to be far more effective for someone who is healthy and able to heal quickly, as opposed to someone in their seventies or eighties who has been ill for a long time.

The second reason that acupuncture works so well for adolescents goes back to Chinese medical theory. The Chinese say that children are considered to be pure Yang. Compared to the nourishing, cooling, substance of Yin, Yang is warm, active, and transformative. And that’s what kids do—they transform. They are growing and changing almost daily, and it seems that as soon as you have one stage figured out, they have moved onto the next. This is a good thing on the healing front. Because kids are growing so quickly, they also heal quickly. This is both good news and bad news, especially when we’re talking about adolescents.

The pure Yang thing can also work against kids, especially during the pre-teen and teen years. Good health, or balance, in Chinese medicine is all about smooth flow, and for the most part, our kids grow and flow smoothly. Unfortunately, as kids go through adolescence, they begin changing even more quickly. On top of the physical growth, kids are faced with increasing stress of school and peer relationships. Then Mother Nature throws in a dark cocktail of hormones to make that transformation even more…uh, interesting. For some kids, this sudden growth, plus hormones, plus stress creates a perfect storm that can block the smooth flow of energy and emotions, causing a wide variety of mental health symptoms.

Finally, acupuncture works for emotional health issues because it affects brain chemistry. Researchers studying the effects of acupuncture have determined that acupuncture causes an increase in production of endorphins and other feel-good chemicals in the brain, causing a calming effect. For this reason, acupuncture can effectively treat emotional conditions including stress, anxiety, depression, and panic attacks.

Many parents don’t know where to turn when their adolescent is struggling with anger or depression. Understandably, they’re hesitant to medicate their teen, but they also know that their child needs help.

The good news is that in these healthy, ever changing adolescents, acupuncture can be a life saver, which is so aptly expressed in the letter above. If your teen is struggling, consider giving acupuncture a try.

Your Emotions, Digestion, and Acupuncture

Have you ever heard people talk about having butterflies in their stomach, a gut feeling, a nervous stomach, or a visceral reaction? Of course you have. We use these terms because we intuitively know that our emotions are very closely tied to our digestion.

One of the most common conditions that we see in the clinic is something called a Liver and Spleen disharmony. This just means that strong emotions are interfering with the digestive process. If you’ve ever had a huge emotional upset that has ruined your appetite or given you an upset stomach, you know what I’m talking about. A Liver and Spleen disharmony is similar, but it usually works in slow motion.

Your Chinese Liver is an organ system that oversees the smooth flow of everything in your body, including digestion, bowels, circulation, menses, and emotions. Stress, anger, or an emotional upheaval can cause the Liver system to stagnate. When this happens, one of the first things it affects is your Chinese Spleen, which is your organ of digestion.

In the clinic this pattern is a player in many, if not most, conditions affecting our patients. It can manifest in conditions such as Irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, depression, insomnia, PMS, fatigue, and even obesity, to name just a few.

So what exactly is happening when you are stressed out, upset or worried? Your stomach is a muscle, and when you’re in the emotional wringer, that stomach muscle contracts, making it difficult for you to digest much of anything.

Why you have this reaction goes back to the fight or flight response you experience when you’re stressed or feel threatened. Your body responds by shutting down those functions that aren’t necessary to run or fight, including digestion. The idea is that in ancient times, feeling threatened was a short-lived affair—only as long as it took to chase off or kill the wild animal lingering in front of your cave.

Today, however, many of us are in a constant state of fight or flight due to the unrelenting stress of our daily lives—whether it’s a cranky boss, a sick kid, a late mortgage payment, or having too much to do. Constant emotional upheaval doesn’t give your body time to recover its equilibrium, and your digestion stays on the back burner, unable to do its job effectively.

What can you do to get your digestion back on track and working efficiently? The most important thing to know is that it’s a two-step process: getting your stress and emotions under control, while you pamper your digestive tract. Acupuncture can be extremely effective for this kind of imbalance. In fact, many of our patients who have recovered from this kind of pattern never dreamt that they could ever feel good again. Two things you can do for yourself:

-Calm down and chill out. This may seem to be the most obvious, but is often the hardest thing to do. Find time during your day to relax; whether you take a yoga class, meditate, go fishing, or take a stroll in the woods. Without decompressing, your emotions and digestion will not have an opportunity to recover.

-Pamper your digestion. This means sitting down and actually eating a meal—not something on the run in between meetings or kids’ sporting events. This also means eating good food, fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains and a little protein. Cooking most of your food makes it easier to digest—raw foods take more digestive effort to break down. The same goes for very cold foods; when you drink or eat something frozen, it uses up a lot of your digestive energy. Chewing your food and enjoying the dining process will help you digest your meal more effectively.

Acupuncture for Seasonal Affective Disorder

by Lynn Jaffee, L.Ac.

If this cool fall weather has you thinking of palm trees, sunny beaches, and moving south, you’re not alone! Everyone feels the effects of fall in one way or another. However, for some, the move from the bright days of summer to the cool winter weather brings with it a form of depression, called Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD.

People who suffer from SAD feel fine during the warmer months, but suffer from symptoms such as depression, fatigue, lack of motivation, difficulty concentrating, and lethargy during the late fall and winter. Over ten million people in the United States suffer from SAD, two-thirds of which are women. The cause of SAD is unknown, but it is thought by western doctors to be related to a drop in melatonin levels in the brain caused by decreased exposure to sunlight during the winter. Currently, SAD is treated through the use of light therapy, and in some cases, antidepressants.

From a Chinese medical framework, SAD is related to an imbalance between Yin and Yang. The theory of Yin and Yang was developed thousands of years ago to describe the relationship between opposing forces in nature. Yang describes that which is bright, active, moving, warm and transforming. In contrast, Yin describes those things which are cool, dark, still, and nourishing. This time of year the seasons are changing from summer, which is a bright and warm Yang time of the year to the colder, darker, and more nourishing Yin winter months.

For some people, the abundance of Yin during the winter becomes overwhelming, giving way to the hallmark symptoms of SAD. Lethargy, fatigue, and lack of motivation all reflect Yin characteristics. Like a frozen river, this lack of movement ultimately creates stagnation which manifests as depression and feelings of sadness.

While there is no magic bullet for SAD, incorporating some Yang activities into your life can help. Remember, Yang is warm, bright, and active. Try to get outside during the middle of the day if possible, especially on sunny days. While you may not feel motivated, taking a walk, going to the gym, or cross country skiing are all good ways to stir up the warmth and activity of Yang. Also, activitiy in the form of change–trying something new–is a way to boost Yang. Choose activities that warm not only your body, but your heart as well. Time with friends or a special family event are both moving and warming activities.

Needless to say, Chinese medicine can offer some relief for SAD, too. Acupuncture, combined with heat therapy and some Yang fortifying foods and/or herbs can be an effective way to get through the winter.

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Share and Enjoy !

Share and Enjoy !

Share and Enjoy !