Many use acupuncture to treat depression or depression-related symptoms; learn how to treat depression with acupuncture in this acupuncture video.
Try acupuncture
Make dietary changes
Consider herbs
Add exercise
Robert Linde is an acupuncture physician and herbal therapist in St. Petersburg, Fla. Educated at the Florida Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Linde operates a professional herbalist training program.
ROBERT LINDE: Acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine can actually be very, very effective on issue like depression, irritability, anger, anxiety. All are things that are very easy for us to treat depending on what your diagnosis is from a Chinese perspective. And so when you go and see your acupuncturers, you'll get a number of questions, not only about your emotional state and what the possible causes are, but what kind of things you do with your diet and exercise and even things that you drink may all have an influence on those. Once your acupuncturist determines what your cause is from a Chinese medical standpoint, they are likely to do some acupuncture either on the front or the back. There's a variety of different points that can be effective for that. And they are very likely to prescribe some dietary changes, exercise and some herbs, so strongly consider taking some herbs. They are very, very effective on treating a variety of emotional disorders. So a lot of times when we look at depression itself, we see its relationship to the energetic liver. So it's a little bit different from your real liver. Chinese medicine is based on observations, so we put all kinds of other interesting symptoms in with the liver. And stress being one of the big motivators for the liver and oftentimes can cause some depression, especially situational depression. So one of the things I always like is herbs, acupuncture and exercise. They can be extremely helpful in trying to alleviate some situational depression that's been going on for a little bit too long sometimes. So talk to your acupuncturist, make sure there's somebody who can handle cases dealing with emotional stressors like depression.
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