Acupuncture For Depression, How To Explain?

[joeylittle]

I want to get tattoos, @KwanYingirl - I'm planning on it, actually. Just am not sure yet how I want them to be. And thank you for the reminder that people who look at bodies see many, many bodies with many, many marks on them. That helps, too.

 

[sun seeker]

But really, give up coffee? :coffee: Cannot fathom.

Yeah, I sympathize. I had to stop drinking it over a year ago because of my digestion, and I still crave it at times.

However, I will point out that all this is conjecture at this point. Maybe they won't say a word about coffee!

 

[seedling]

My acupuncturist is fine with coffee unless it's causing you a problem, and even then he probably wouldn't make a big deal out of it unless it was negating the treatment you were getting. It's still your choice. If you ever decided that you wanted to quit, acupuncture can help with that.

I don't handle caffeine well and am glad that I am finally not hooked on it. It's been hard to quit at different times in my life, finally was too hard on my bladder.
My husband tolerates caffeine well - he can drink a cup and take a nap. I don't think it would matter to his health much one way of the other if he wasn't drinking it. He did quit having it with milk and tons of sugar and lost weight from that part of it.

I don't think our acupuncturists expect us to be perfect and "pure" in all things. They do like to know as much about us as possible so they can give us the very best treatment.

 

[joeylittle]

Well, it went alright.

She did a very thorough interview, and was well-versed in mental health lingo, which was nice. I think the interview ran about 90 minutes. Then she had me lay on the table for about 20 minutes with some needles in me. They really don't hurt going in; but it was interesting to notice where they ached and where they didn't.

She had an interesting way of talking about how the body can just shut down, which is her theory of why my metabolism is at a crawl, I have no appetite or energy, and interestingly, why I pick at scabs and the skin around my fingers. She thinks my blood is very, very slow. (?) She mingled the oriental medicine in with conventional science, which I really liked. I could buy into what she was saying more, if that makes sense. Not that I don't have an appreciation for different kinds of healing, but it is hard, when you've never thought about it before, to suddenly think of your liver as having an emotion and a temperature and such.

I'm fully expecting this to be a slow process; it was interesting that after I left I was really hungry. It makes sense since I hadn't eaten the day before, but it did give credence to some of the things she was saying.

This was interesting too - I have self-harm scars on my arms, but they are from very specific times, it's not an ongoing thing for me at all. However, when I do it, I really over-do it. She thought that it's possible there's some connection there to blood-letting, and trying to release stopped-up energy. I've no idea what to think of that, but it was interesting.

I get to keep drinking coffee :D

 

[digger]

I have self-harm scars on my arms, but they are from very specific times, it's not an ongoing thing for me at all. However, when I do it, I really over-do it. She thought that it's possible there's some connection there to blood-letting, and trying to release stopped-up energy.

Interesting. I know that for me self harm serves different purposes at different times, and there are different things that I do, or think of doing, accordingly that would meet different needs. The majority of self harm stuff for me now is now down to 'just' ideation (although sometimes that's even harder to deal with than acting on it imo). There was a point last year where I went through a really intense phase of repeatedly having urges and images in my head, of something very specific, that I think would probably fit with 'blood letting' suggestion too.

I get to keep drinking coffee :D

Yay! :coffee::laugh:

 

[anthony]

When you have a knowledgable and experienced acupuncturist, it will sound weird, but the Chinese have some serious factual evidence to backup their longevity of life, health and well-being into old age and other aspects of why they live longer and healthier than others in the world, which comes back to massage, relaxation and acupuncture to keep the bodies energy flowing correctly.

Doctors couldn't change the scar tissue in my ankle without surgery, which was the cause of said scar tissue. An acupuncturist halved it in a few weeks with nothing more than pushing more blood into the area and some light massage. The doctor was gob smacked when I returned to him with a much smaller, less scar tissued ankle. Mine trained in China for years, learning the more subtle aspects and skills of the craft. He was amazing. I never felt as good then after walking out of acupuncture compared to anything else that has supposed to fix something.

 

[seedling]

@joeylittle, Congrats on keeping your appointment! She sure did a thorough interview! It's nice she spent the time to really get a grasp on everything going on with you - should help your treatments.

I was often hungry after appointments in the beginning, esp. if he treated me for a lack of appetite.

My acupuncturist sometimes uses a prick on the ear to release a few drops of blood as part of a treatment, so blood letting can be a part of what they are trained to do. That might have given her your perspective on your cutting.

I'm seeing my current (and first) acupuncturist for the last time tomorrow and starting with a new one next week. Excited to see how she might be different and nervous to "start all over."