Mental Health + Acupuncture: Can It Really Help?
Amy DePoint 
Dive into this article for stories and a bit of nerdy brain stuff. I talk about how I transformed my grief, fear and anxiety, just by showing up.
Patients, friends, family, strangers have been asking me about acupuncture and mental health a lot lately. It's one of the reasons I fell in love with this! Let's dive into it!
Before I get into a bit of the story that completely rocked my world in 2019. Let me go back about 20 years. One of my first experiences with acupuncture was healing a broken heart. I would cry and cry and cry and my chest felt so heavy, like my heart had swollen with sadness to the point of shattering, its shards ripping up my insides. I couldn't think, eat, sleep, I was a mess. So, I crawled onto the treatment table at my student clinic and said, 'please, help.' What happened is really hard to describe. But that one 60 minute session, with no talking, no explaining why my heart was broken, allowed for a transformational shift to happen. I didn't have to do ANYTHING! I just had to show up. What ever magic happened that day, I wanted to be apart of it. My perspective shifted, I wasn't ruled by my fear and sadness anymore, I was able to eat and I'm sure I visibly looked like a something profound had happened. I had been one very sad sack and had not masked it at all. I was still sad, sure, but it wasn't the same. It's like my entire being was recalibrated and rebalanced. I didn't understand what happened then, but I have a better idea of what happened now. Even though I now understand the role acupuncture has on brain waves, regulating the nervous system, increasing/regulating serotonin, dopamine and other happy brain chemicals, and regulating cortisol and other hormones, it still feels like magic. Even after 20 years.
Lets fast forward to 2019. A lot of life happened since that one day in the student clinic. I have held the space for others heart break and joy. I have had other heart breaking moments too. But wisdom was also growing and nothing felt exactly like that one time again. However, something was really brewing in 2019. I couldn't put my finger on it but I was a lot more anxious, nervous system was fight or flight all of the time. I wasn't sure what I was scared of really. Just had a 'feeling'. I chalked it up to another unexpected move with 2 young kids and re creating my practice, again. Maybe that was a part of it, but I'm also convinced that we have a knowing or intuition about upcoming shifts. We can tell when we are on a growth cycle and when our world is about to hit the fan. And it did. It started with some Christmas family violence that gave me a chance to break some decades long cycles. But instead of being supported, I was blamed and everything started to spiral. In a matter of months I was completely cut off and our family of 4 lost relationships that we thought were very important. I now understand that I'm 100 percent responsible for this and I actually asked for this change, and I'm proud of myself for stepping out of the unhealthy pattern. ALOT more on that at another time. But back in 2020-2021, most of the time it felt like utter chaos in my mind and body. I started to self medicate with food, drink and phone and the joy I usually felt over everything, was elusive. I found I was in such a place of fear by the time Covid took over that Covid didn't register as a fear of mine at all. I had a lot of feelings and thoughts about what was happening globally but that's for another post. Turns out I was being handed an incredible opportunity, that honestly, at times, I wanted to run far away from. I knew, though, that I could absolutely not live my life in this state of fear and not trusting my intuition. So, I took the first step out of wallowing in my state of fear, blame and martyrdom. Over the next three years I would deep dive into the darkest corners of my soul and discovered some really phenomenal things. It took awhile and I had a lot of mentors and guides, but everything has shifted. I say this part because, I do believe that therapy, gratitude, forgiveness work, healthy movement, medications and nourishing foods can absolutely be instrumental to these moments when we realize, 'holy, bananas, somethings happening! Something is not 'right'. I'm scared.'' Acupuncture, herbs, body work can and do have a profound and immediate affect on us as well. Last summer, I went to have acupuncture with my friend and colleague Erika Sullivan. She did one of my favorite treatments on me, one I do a lot with my patients. I rested and then went to pick up the kids from school. I saw my daughter and yelled out her name, she looked at me, then right past me, then looked all around me. I yelled her name again, this time she did see me! Her jaw dropped. She said, 'Mom! I didn't even recognize you!' You guys, acupuncture is that transformational!
Showing up for acupuncture does amazing things for the mind and body. Many of us, including our allopathic family doctors and even leading researchers at Mayo, recognize that the body does keep the score. Acupuncture has had a lot of promising research done into somatic releasing. Without even knowing what the trauma may have been, acupuncture can actually transform that in the body, helping it to release its hold, if you want. Helping to shift chronic pain and illness too. I was tempted to list all of the research and articles linked to positive outcomes with acupuncture and mental health but I'll leave this post as it is. A few stories about my experiences. Our shared experiences. I look forward to holding the space for you. I can listen if you want. I love it. But you can always just show up. I know exactly what to do. I know how to gently release these heavy emotions; sadness, anxiety, depression, anger, fear. Never any pressure, but having choices is empowering and you do have choices! You can experience the shift you know is sitting there waiting to happen and come out the other side more calm, wise, joyful and in tune to your true and amazing self. I know, because I have been there.
Want to chat with me? Grab a cup of tea and a free discovery call or book your own appointment here. I look forward to meeting you.
Categories: : acupuncture, anxiety, depression, mental health, nervous system regulation