A few more thoughts from me on how acupuncture can help with addiction.
Often addictions are used as a way of changing ones state, altering how one feels. Acupuncture is a powerful natural tool for changing how one feels. Through the treatment, you are able to experience a shift in your state: you might feel relaxed, more grounded, you might feel that tension has been released. These changes can be subtle and incremental, as we change the patterning in your system. None the less, experiencing a natural tool to alter ones state enables your system to know that there are other ways of creating change. Whilst your vice might be what you’re used to, there are also other mechanisms out there that can create a change in body, mind and spirit. This can give your system a new mechanism to replace the old vice.
Furthermore, acupuncture can shift the underlying patterning or imbalance that creates the feeling of need for the vice. Perhaps it is stress, emotional imbalances, physical pain, or mental pain. Acupuncture can help with these, helping your system to process what life throws at you. It can relieve stress, balance and release emotions, help with physical pain. From a Chinese Medicine perspective, our systems should be able to cope with and adapt to life. If we are not able to, usually this is because of an imbalance in our system, a weakness or blockage that stops our body from processing ‘the event or place or ‘life’. Acupuncture can help to strengthen our systems in order to enable them to process life. We can become better at handling stress and emotions, and our body may improve it’s efficiency which will mean it feels less pain.
The changes that acupuncture creates can be slow, subtle, and incremental. With acupuncture, we are aiming to restore the body’s natural harmony and balance. All of us through our lives will develop imbalances, and parts of the system will get overloaded, whilst other parts will get weaker. Acupuncture can work like ‘shifting a dam’: if we have a big river, which has got used to flowing in one direction, we can use acupuncture to redirect this flow. This will change the course and patterning of how the body and mind operate. However, making this change is usually gradual, and needs a course of treatments, whilst we show the body the new direction, and encourage it to operate that way.
Acupuncture sessions can also include lifestyle advice. This may be about posture, eating habits, lifestyle choices. From a Chinese Medicine perspective, lifestyle changes are often the first step towards improving ones health. The way that Chinese Medicine understands the body and mind is a bit different to Western medicine, and so some of the advice may be different to what you’re used to. Some of the habitual ways we live in the West can, from a Chinese Medicine perspective, be a cause of ill-health and imbalance. For instance, Chinese Medicine often encourages eating warm cooked food and no cold raw salads for people with digestive issues. This can be counter intuitive for us in the West, but learning to understand the Chinese Medical conception of how the body operates can help to learn how to restore and nourish your system naturally.
Tamsin Ana 