Archive for October, 2019

Acupuncture for Mental Health at LynLake Centers for Wellbeing

When thinking about your mental health, acupuncture may not be the first intervention that comes to mind. But acupuncture can be an extremely effective addition to your mental health treatment plan, which is why we offer acupuncture services at LynLake Centers for Wellbeing in Minneapolis. 

What is Acupuncture?

Acupuncture is an ancient practice that originated in China over 3,000 years ago. Now practiced around the world by hundreds of thousands of trained providers (over 35,000 in the US alone), acupuncture has a significant body of evidence demonstrating its ability to improve many aspects of physical and psychological functioning. The practice of acupuncture involves inserting tiny needles through your skin at strategic points in the body. While the exact mechanisms for why acupuncture works as well as it does are still not fully understood, there is little doubt that acupuncture is an effective tool for healing. 

How acupuncture can improve mental health

When asked what benefits people might gain from adding acupuncture to their mental health treatment plan, our acupuncturists at LynLake  highlighted the following:

It is also important to point out that not everyone feels comfortable talking about sensitive, or even traumatic, events and topics. And many people are hesitant to use pharmaceuticals to treat their mental health symptoms, in large part because of the side effects that often come with them. Acupuncture provides mental health benefits with no side effects, and without having to go into detail about the more vulnerable parts of your inner world..
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How acupuncture can improve physical health

There is a giant body of research supporting acupuncture to treat physical health conditions, which is why most insurance plans now cover acupuncture as a medical intervention. And of course, improvements in your physical health will almost always lead to improvements in your mental health (the brain and body are connected, after all). Here are just a few of the many evidence-based physical health conditions acupuncture can help with: 

What to expect at your acupuncture session

The acupuncturists at LynLake Centers for Wellbeing take a whole-body approach to their work. Before they begin treating you, they will gather comprehensive information about your mental and physical health, your treatment goals, your symptoms and where you feel them in your body, and they will answer any questions you have about acupuncture. Then, your acupuncturist will do a physical assessment that is somewhat similar to what you would expect at a wellness physical at a doctor’s office, but through the lens of Chinese medicine. 

Once you and your acupuncturist have agreed on a plan for your acupuncture treatment, they will use whatever approach they believe will address your current symptoms and treatment goals. Often, but not always, this involves using acupuncture needles. Believe it or not, acupuncture needles do not cause pain – you may not even feel them at all! Your acupuncturist may decide to use a different form of acupuncture, depending on your needs and treatment goals. These may include the following: 

Frequent questions about Acupuncture

How many sessions does it take for acupuncture to work? 

Does insurance cover acupuncture? 

When should I refer my client to an acupuncturist? 

The Wrap Up

Acupuncture is a powerful tool that has been used for over 3,000 years to treat a variety of mental and physical health conditions. It is an effective, non-invasive, relatively low-cost treatment that is free of side effects. While most people are familiar with acupuncture as a treatment for pain conditions, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that acupuncture can be a highly effective tool for treating mental health conditions as well, including PTSD. If you haven’t considered acupuncture before, now may be the time to give it a try. Our acupuncturists in Minneapolis are ready to help you accomplish your mental and physical health goals today. 
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Pure O: A Silent Battle

Excessive hand washing, counting, putting everything in order just so: these behaviors are how most people imagine obsessive-compulsive disorder, typically referred to as OCD. And while that picture isn’t inaccurate, it is incomplete. There is another, more subtle subtype of OCD, where both obsessions and compulsions exist, but the compulsive behaviors are not apparent to anyone else. This subtype was initially called Pure O in the mistaken belief that sufferers have only obsessions but no compulsions. Although it is not an official diagnosis (people with Pure O are still diagnosed with OCD), this variation of the disorder often looks quite different from what we consider “typical” of OCD. 

OCD by the letter

To understand Pure O, it is essential to place it in the context of the broader OCD diagnosis. As mentioned earlier, OCD stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, and according to the DSM*, the obsessions are defined as:

Recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or images that are experienced, at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive and unwanted, and that in most individuals cause marked anxiety or distress.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), OCD appears first as obsessive thoughts, commonly put into groups called subtypes:

The DSM defines compulsions, the flip side of the OCD coin, as:

Repetitive behaviors (e.g., hand washing, ordering, checking) or mental acts (e.g., praying, counting, repeating words silently) that the individual feels driven to perform in response to an obsession or according to rules that must be applied rigidly.

For those suffering from OCD, compulsions are the mechanisms they use to manage stress caused by their unwanted thoughts. NIMH lists some of the more common compulsions as:

How is Pure O Different?

Pure O came by its name because it was initially believed that Pure O sufferers had purely obsessive thoughts with no corresponding compulsions. This belief took root because of the difficulty in distinguishing between the obsessive thoughts and the compulsive thoughts that follow.

Some of the more common Pure O obsessions are:

These obsessions lead to compulsive behaviors such as:

Because the obsessive thoughts typically involve content that is extremely embarrassing, shameful, or even illegal, sufferers of Pure O often keep these thoughts and related compulsions to themselves. Moreover, since this form of the disorder doesn’t readily conform to the more common conception of OCD, many people who suffer from it don’t realize that they have OCD. To make matters worse, mental health professionals don’t always recognize this form of OCD for what it is, since it doesn’t present in the same way as other forms of OCD. Consequently, people with Pure O are at risk of being undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, and thus their condition might remain untreated – or treated incorrectly – for years. 
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Pure O misconceptions

  1. That there are no compulsions
  1. That the compulsions are only internal
  1. That it isn’t OCD, but schizophrenia or borderline personality disorder instead
  1. That the intrusive thoughts are an accurate reflection of character and personality

How is Pure O treated?

The most effective treatments for Pure O are the same that are used for “traditional” OCD, including cognitive and behavioral therapies, as well as medication. 

Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)
Perhaps the most common approach to treating OCD, the Exposure in ERP refers to exposing yourself to the thoughts, images, objects and situations that make you anxious and/or start your obsessions. The Response Prevention part of ERP refers to learning how to stop yourself from engaging in the compulsive behavior. By repeatedly exposing yourself to the thoughts you are trying to avoid, and then preventing yourself from avoiding them or carrying out rituals to neutralize them, the obsessive thoughts lose their power. Typically, a therapist will assist in the response prevention process – teaching the client skills for managing their distress while preventing them from engaging in their compulsive behaviors – until the person is able to do so on their own.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), clients are taught how to accept that their intrusive thoughts exist but are harmless on their own, and in doing so, the client slowly begins to tolerate these thoughts and no longer needs to devote all their energy to fighting them. While learning to accept these thoughts without reacting to them takes time and practice, research on ACT for OCD points to this intervention as a very effective treatment for all forms of the disorder. 

Oftentimes, these treatment approaches are combined with medication to enhance their effectiveness. 

How do I know if I have OCD?

Everyone has random, odd, even inappropriate thoughts on occasion and most people can quickly dismiss them, so having those types of thoughts doesn’t automatically qualify as OCD or Pure O. If these thoughts cannot be dismissed, if they cause excessive stress and anxiety, and if managing that stress becomes so intrusive and time-consuming that it impacts regular activities, it is definitely a good idea to schedule a psychological assessment to determine what is causing your symptoms, and what your options are for treatment.  

At LynLake Centers for Wellbeing, we offer comprehensive psychological assessments from experienced, licensed clinical psychologists. We also have compassionate, non-judgmental therapists who are trained in treating OCD. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help.

OCD Resources

These websites are focused on OCD and contain a wealth of helpful information:

www.iocdf.corg

www.intrusivethoughts.org

www.beyondocd.org

https://drmichaeljgreenberg.com/articles/

Articles

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd/index.shtml

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/acceptance-and-commitment-therapy

https://www.intrusivethoughts.org/ocd-symptoms/pure-ocd/

https://iocdf.org/about-ocd/ocd-treatment/