Posted by sid on March 19, 2002, at 8:47:04
In reply to ACUPUNCTURE for depression?, posted by Janelle on March 19, 2002, at 1:28:20
Hi Janelle.
Yes I had direct experience with it for major depression and it helped me immensely. I used psychotherapy (talk and CBT) and acupuncture only. The therapy made me get better, but in a "slowly but surely" kind of mode. Then I added acupuncture and it had the effect of a huge step up within 2-3 weeks. Treatments made me feel MUCH better within 15-20 minutes, it was amazing. I'd go there kind of OK, but somewhat beay up, then I'd come out with a hige smile on my face, an unexplained one too... I saw a friend of mine right after a treatment and he was sure I'd found the love of my life and had had the sex of my life just before I met him. He kept asking "what's going on?", and all I could say was "I just had an acupuncture treatment, sorry, nothing extravagant."What it did was make me feel good and make me like it. I had homeworks too: go out in the sun w/o contact lenses or glasses for an hour a day (bare eyes). Also, exercise, eat well, cut coffee out of my diet, switch to green tea, cut sugar too. It was good for me.
I'd had dysthymia for a long time too, and unfortunately, therapy and acupunture did not work on the dysthymia. So recently I decided to try meds for it, as I know that majors episodes of depression are more likely for someone with dysthymia, and simply because I wanted to feel better if I could.
Unfortunately, acupunture treatments are very dependent on the provider - some are good, some not so much. If you live in the DC area, let me know, I'll recommend my acupunturist who was sooo good to me.
As far as articles about it, I read some. I don't have time to do a search right now, but I can do it if you want later this week. Let me know. What I remember from them is that acupuncture had about the same success rate against depression in women than some ADs (Prozac I presume). Also, some AD-resistant depression did respond to acupuncture, so it seemed like an interesting alternative for those who tried other options without success.
- sid
poster:sid
thread:98741
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020318/msgs/98779.html