One of the blessings and curses about living in the UC is that we’re near everything. And while it’s easy to get to the places we need to be, it seems like we feel we need to be at more places. (As in, “I should do it now, since it’s just right around the corner.”) The grocery store, bank, post office; each are little stops on the road to a busy day. And if you have kids, forget it! School, soccer practice, play time … and you better add in at least two more trips to the grocery store.

Of course, that’s exactly what the core topic of this issue of New Heights is about … “connections.” But how do people continue to make their daily connections when they begin to find it abnormally difficult to get out of bed? Or when fear or sadness replaces their will to see their friends or loved ones? Or even leave their own house?

According the National Institute of Mental Health, 18.8 million American adults suffer from depression. The symptoms of the disorder usually appear in a combination and include loss of interest in activities previously enjoyed, a feeling of worthlessness or hopelessness, changes in sleeping or eating patterns, raised anxiety, lowered sex drive, fatigue, poor memory and more. The symptom list just goes on and on and doesn’t change whether you’re looking at it from a Western or Chinese medicine point of view. But there are differences between the two in their understanding of how the depression manifested itself and just what can be done to remedy it.

In the Chinese medicine framework, when referring to a major organ we’re automatically acknowledging it and the energetic system to which it relates. Eastern medicine also pairs organs; like the liver with the gallbladder (i.e., the yin and yang, respectively). Each complements the other and together energetically control numerous bodily functions that extend way beyond Western medicine’s interpretation.

Each major organ is also viewed as having an associated emotion. “Anger” corresponds to the previous combo, joy to the heart/small intestines, pensiveness (i.e., over-thinking or worrying) to the spleen/stomach, grief to the lungs/large intestines and fear to the kidneys/bladder. Practitioners of Eastern medicine believe all of our emotional problems – big and small – stem from these big five.

 

Each of the five emotions on its own is natural and healthy. Issues arise when someone is unable to release themselves from these feelings. In other words, when someone’s Qi (pronounced “chee” and meaning “life force energy”) gets stuck.

The Chinese say, “Where the mind goes, the Qi goes,” and from their perspective a vast majority of our health problems originate within our mental/emotional selves. So when negative or self-destructive energy remains stuck over a long period of time, it eventually degrades the physical sphere it inhabits.

But I haven’t mentioned depression yet, have I? It isn’t one of the five major emotions, yet so many of us struggle with it. Chinese medicine actually views depression as the anger emotion turned back on the person who felt it. It’s a byproduct of not expressing your anger via thoughtful and healthy means.

 

This stifling of the emotion can lead to many different problems – depression is only one
of them.

Acupuncture is an effective treatment for depression and focuses on releasing the Qi that’s stuck in your liver system. The release helps to lighten the patient’s entire body, mind and spirit.

Admittedly, acupuncture doesn’t resolve any existing external matters that originally contributed to the patient’s circumstance. But those matters become more manageable when the patient feels good, balanced and ready to take on change head-to-head, instead of covering his or her head with a blanket.

About the Author:

Becky Rubright, Acupuncture Physician, is owner of Living Harmony Healing Center and received her Masters of Traditional Oriental Medicine from Emperor’s College, Santa Monica, Calif. For more information visit our UC Buyer's Guide.