TCM, Emotions, & Mental Illness

[Guest guest]

>1) IF the acupuncture points and the acupressure points are similar...why

>does one need to spend lots of time on the theory and the Mind-Body-Soul

>stuff? The few acupressure articles I've read seem to suggest that

>acupressure is mostly just a matter of knowing where to press in order to

>fix specific problems.

 

The TCM understanding of the body-mind-emotions-spirit connection is a lot more

sophisticated than the Western understanding. Western psychology and psychiatry

looks at it primarily as a one way street as in stress can impact your health.

TCM sees it as a two-way street. Not only can emotions trigger physical health

problems, physical health problems can trigger emotions.

 

In TCM, severe mental illness is seen as having a physical root, usually one

involving the Heart. Dagmar speaks a little about this in her current

newsletter. There's a previous post on this from me in the archieves.

 

Being aware of emotions can be a great diagnostic tool. In the West, doctors

used to be trained to pay a lot more attention to patients' emotions as an aid

to diagnosis. For example, asthma patients frequently will look anxious. Having

problems breathing tend to make people anxious. The thing is, sometimes asthma

is so slight that the person doesn't realize s/he has it. There may not even be

wheezing present to tip the healer off. But a chronically anxious look can be a

clue pointing to breathing problems. (Looking anxious can point to other things

as well.) The breathing problems may be so slight in the beginning that the

person doesn't realize s/he's having problems breathing, but at some level the

person realizes something is wrong; hence, the chronically anxious look.

 

Western doctors and nurses used to be taught to suspect pain and/or digestive

system problems if the patient came across as angry. TCM goes a bit further

than this. If a person looks and acts angry a lot, suspect Liver and/or Gall

Bladder problems. An imbalanced Liver will produce feelings of anger, and the

Liver is particularly vulnerable to anger. It can be a snowballing situation.

Regardless of what the original assault on the Liver was, the damaged Liver will

make the person more vulnerable to anger, the anger in turn (if not handled

correctly) will further damage the Liver. It snowballs. BTW, sometimes when you

treat Liver imbalances via physical means (herbs, massage, acupressure, etc.),

the person will go through a period of being very angry because they're no

longer blocking.

 

The Lungs and Large Intestine are vulnerable to worry, anxiety, and sadness.

(Westerners aren't the only people to have made the connection between the Lungs

and anxiety.) The Spleen and Stomach are vulnerable to obsessing, and will

produce a tendency to obsess when in imbalance. The Kidneys and Bladder are

vulnerable to fear and shock, and in turn will tilt the person towards feeling

fear and shock. The Heart and Small Intestine are vulnerable to joy. This may

sound odd, but what TCM is talking about here is excessive joy. The type of

person who doesn't take anything seriously or a person who is manic.

 

BTW, when you learn tongue diagnosis, an excessively long tongue often will be a

sign of a tendency to Heart problems.

 

You'll see the fear-Kidney-Bladder connection a lot in young patients. Suspect

and rule in or rule out Kidney and Bladder problems if the person comes across

as afraid a lot.

 

BTW, the TCM definition of Kidney problems and the Western definition are not

always the same. By Western standards, the person may not have much of a

problem with the Kidneys, but by TCM standards, that may be the person's major

problem. If left untreated, the Kidney imbalance can eventually manifest as

problems that Western medicine recognizes.

 

Victoria

 

 

 

 

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