- 02
- Aug
- 2021
Treat The Root Cause of Your Anxiety
Several styles of acupuncture are practiced in the United States. I practice Five Element acupuncture, which focuses specifically on treating the whole person – body, mind, and spirit. This holistic and powerful style of acupuncture is especially effective in treating anxiety and other emotional issues.
Each of the Five Elements relates to one of the five categories of emotion. When an emotion goes out of balance, so does its corresponding Element. The Elements and their corresponding emotions are:
- Wood – Anger
- Fire – Joy or Lack of Joy
- Earth – Sympathy or Worry
- Metal – Grief
- Water – Fear
Symptoms are like warning signals from our body/mind/spirit, telling us there is an underlying health issue. If a fire started in your kitchen, the smoke detector’s alarm would sound to warn you of the danger. The alarm is like a symptom, but the cause of the alarm is the fire. Would you cut power to the smoke detector to stop that annoying alarm sound, instead of putting out the fire? Of course not. You would put out the fire, silencing the alarm. In the same way, if you treat your health symptoms instead of their underlying conditions, you can end up with more serious issues in the long run.
Treating the Root Cause of Anxiety
There are many anti-anxiety drugs on the market that treat anxiety symptomatically, such as benzodiazepines. These drugs all have side effects, and some can build a dependency. Treating anxiety as a symptom and ignoring its root cause can mask the anxiety temporarily but will do little or no good to address its underlying cause. Five Element acupuncture treats the underlying cause of anxiety, instead of putting a bandage on the symptom.
Five Element acupuncture diagnoses and treats the underlying root cause of each person’s symptoms, which appear as a unique energy imbalance we call the Causative Factor, or CF. During early childhood, we experience many emotions. Our vital Qi (pronounced “chee”) energy becomes temporarily imbalanced by these emotional shifts. These emotional imbalances occur thousands of times in our youth. When these imbalances occur, the Element associated with each emotion goes out of balance. Nature restores the balance again and again. However, like the straw that broke the camel’s back, thousands of imbalances eventually cripple one of the Five Elements, preventing its natural ability to return to balance by itself.
Anxiety and the Five Elements
Anxiety can arise due to an imbalance in any of the Five Elements – Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, or Water. There are five main types of anxiety, each type stemming from one of the Elements. A person’s CF Element will determine which type of anxiety they may develop. It is interesting to understand how an imbalance in each Element can cause these differing types of anxiety.
Wood Anxiety
Our Wood Element keeps us feeling hopeful, goal-oriented, and determined. When things in life don’t go as planned, Wood gives us the power to create and adjust. When Wood becomes one’s CF, you may feel anger, a lack of direction, or a lack of hope. A kind of hopeless anxiety can develop from the frustration and futility that sets in.
Fire Anxiety
Fire keeps us feeling warm, joyful, and in control. When Fire becomes one’s CF, you may feel the complete opposite – withdrawn, sad, and out of control. Your life may feel chaotic. You may feel overwhelmed. This overwhelming anxiety flows from extreme sadness, a sense of losing control or feeling overly vulnerable.
Earth Anxiety
Earth keeps us grounded, secure, and gives us a feeling of home. The Earth provides our nourishment in body, mind, and spirit. When Earth becomes one’s CF, you may feel ungrounded and insecure, as if there is no solid ground beneath your feet. You may worry excessively, feel sorry for yourself, or feel like you don’t belong. Anxiety can develop from these feelings of insecurity, self-pity, or worry – a kind of abandoned anxiety.
Metal Anxiety
Metal gives us a sense of quality and value, like what we think about precious metals such as gold and silver. Our self-worth comes from the Metal Element. When Metal becomes one’s CF, you may feel a lack of self-esteem, a lack of satisfaction, or like you aren’t good enough. You may feel an emptiness inside or hold onto regrets. A self-critical anxiety develops from a lack of self-worth, negative self-talk, or not being able to let go.
Water Anxiety
The Water Element makes us resilient, gives us strength, and helps us feel reassured. Water provides the willpower and energy reserves to “keep on keeping on”. When Water becomes one’s CF, you may feel a lack of will and ambition, fatigue, deep-seated fear, or even terror. It is a kind of frozen-in-fear anxiety.
Addressing Anxiety
To resolve anxiety with Five Element acupuncture, each individual’s unique CF Element is treated and restored to balance. Five Element acupuncture works well for anxiety because it can address the anxiety’s underlying root cause.
To learn what Elemental type of anxiety you may have, and how to rebalance yourself at the root, call the Acupuncture & Holistic Health Center at (904) 296-9545 to schedule your acupuncture appointment today.