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:
- Reduced anxiety. Acupuncture may be able to calm and regulate an overstimulated nervous system, thus reducing how reactive your body is to the stressors of daily life.
- Reconnecting with your body. If you often feel disconnected or dissociated from your body, acupuncture may help reconnect your mind with your body, allowing you to feel more fully present.
- Relief from chronic pain. Chronic pain has a significant negative impact on mental health, and can lead to depression, irritability and a lack of resilience. Acupuncture is an evidence-based treatment for chronic pain conditions, including fibromyalgia, migraines, back pain, and neck pain.
- Improved sleep. Given that sleep is probably among the top contributing factors to mental health conditions, taking steps to improve the quality and quantity of your sleep can have a big impact on your mental health. Acupuncture may be able to improve both quality and quantity of sleep..
- Stress management. Acupuncture may be able to help you manage stress by reducing stress hormones and increasing the circulation of endorphins in the body. Acupuncture may also help alleviate physical symptoms of stress, such as muscle tension, GI distress, and headaches.
- Increased energy. People often find that they have more energy and motivation following acupuncture, which can improve mood and overall sense of wellbeing.
- Reduced symptoms of PTSD. Emerging research suggests that acupuncture can be a highly effective, non-invasive approach to treating physiological symptoms of PTSD, in part by calming the nervous system, but also by helping the body “reconsolidate” traumatic memories in a way that reduces their ability to trigger the strong negative emotional responses associated with PTSD.
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:
- Chronic pain. As mentioned earlier, acupuncture has been used for thousands of years to treat a variety of pain conditions, including fibromyalgia, arthritis, migraines, back pain, and neck pain.
- Digestive issues. Acupuncture may be able to help with digestion by stimulating the nervous system to help with gut motility (i.e., moving food through the digestive tract to prevent constipation), and may also be effective at relieving other common digestive issues such as gas, bloating, and acid reflux (GERD).
- Post-operative recovery. Acupuncture may be able to speed up the healing process following surgery by promoting blood flow, releasing endorphins, limiting swelling, and easing pain.
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:
- Acupressure is a manual technique that stimulates the same acupuncture points. Practitioners use their hands, feet, elbows or other devices to stimulate these areas instead of needles.
- Moxibustion utilizes dried herbs which are burned on or near the surface of the skin.
- Electroacupuncture is a form of acupuncture that utilizes 2 needles at or near the acupuncture point instead of one, with a mild electric current passing through them.
Frequent questions about Acupuncture
How many sessions does it take for acupuncture to work?
- Not surprisingly, the number of sessions required for acupuncture to work depends on many factors, including the condition(s) being treated, factors specific to the person receiving acupuncture, and what other treatments the person is receiving in conjunction with acupuncture. Acute pain or injury may only require 3-6 treatments, whereas more complex, chronic conditions may take up to a year to resolve.
Does insurance cover acupuncture?
- Many insurance providers now cover acupuncture for physical health conditions, such as chronic pain, physical injuries, and post-surgery recovery. Some insurance plans may also cover acupuncture for mental health conditions, but if they do not, acupuncture treatments can be paid for using your HSA or flex spending accounts. Be sure to talk with your health insurance provider so that you know ahead of time what your plan does and does not cover.
When should I refer my client to an acupuncturist?
- If you are a therapist or other healthcare provider, you may want to consider encouraging your client or patient to consider adding acupuncture to their treatment plan. Acupuncture can be particularly beneficial for therapy clients who seem to express their emotional symptoms primarily as physical symptoms (e.g., migraines, chronic pain, muscle tension, GI issues, etc), as well as clients who often feel disconnected from their bodies. Clients who struggle with sleep problems may also benefit from acupuncture.
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:
- Fear of germs or contamination
- Unwanted forbidden or taboo thoughts involving sex, religion, and harm
- Aggressive thoughts towards others or self
- Having things symmetrical or in a perfect order
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:
- Excessive cleaning and/or handwashing
- Ordering and arranging things in a particular, precise way
- Repeatedly checking on things, such as continually checking to see if the door is locked or that the oven is off
- Compulsive counting
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:
- Thoughts that you’re not good enough for your partner.
- Thoughts of harming yourself, a loved one or a stranger.
- Thoughts that you’re gay when you’re actually straight, or vice versa.
- Thoughts of committing a horrible or unthinkable act that is in complete violation of your personal values.
These obsessions lead to compulsive behaviors such as:
- Continually ruminating about the obsessive thoughts in an attempt to prove they are inaccurate.
- Avoidance of people, places or things that are related to the intrusive thoughts.
- Seeking answers from others regarding the obsessive thoughts.
- Seeking reassurance from authority figures or loved ones that you have not acted – nor will you act – on your intrusive thoughts.
- Researching online to find solutions or reassurance for your intrusive thoughts.
- Silently praying or repeating certain mantras in an attempt to neutralize the intrusive thoughts or prevent you from carrying out the unwanted behaviors.
- Checking your body’s reactions for proof that the intrusive thoughts are incorrect (e.g., that you are not sexually attracted to children, etc).
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
- That there are no compulsions
- Pure O has compulsions like any other OCD subtype, but they are primarily mental instead of physical, so they can be harder to identify
- That the compulsions are only internal
- Pure O compulsions are primarily internal (i.e., thoughts), but they can also include physical behaviors like avoidance, seeking reassurance, and self-monitoring.
- That it isn’t OCD, but schizophrenia or borderline personality disorder instead
- People with any form of OCD often fear they are “going crazy,” or that they have a psychotic disorder, such as schizophrenia, or a personality disorder, such as borderline personality disorder. But obsessions and compulsions are distinct from delusions or hallucinations. People with OCD are aware that their obsessions are not logical, whereas someone suffering from a psychotic disorder believes what they are hearing, seeing or thinking is real, no matter how improbable.
- That the intrusive thoughts are an accurate reflection of character and personality
- Like with all forms of OCD, the obsessions and compulsions present in Pure O are a function of the disorder and do not represent who a person is. The majority of Pure O sufferers know that their intrusive thoughts are irrational and feel tremendous shame about them. In fact, this form of OCD often seems to prey on a person’s values by creating fears that the person is the opposite of who they are and want to be.
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/
