Stress Relief

Normally people feel stressed in response to a specific concern or general worry, that unless resolved can over time begin to affect their health. The issue can be everything or anything and varies from person to person. Generally, we get stressed by either problems at work, relationship or family issues or money worries. Also life events, such as moving house, recovering from illness, or a death in the family can environmentally stress people.

One of the first symptoms of stress is restless sleep, in people who normally sleep soundly. Most people manage to get off to sleep as normal, but then awake again, usually between 1-4am, and have great trouble getting back off. Always they say they feel wide awake as soon as they wake up – and then their minds take over. They begin thinking about things, which inevitably leads onto thinking about stressful events or problems, or worries over job performance or unhappiness in their relationships. Once these thoughts start, they go round and round, and people obviously struggle to get back to sleep in these circumstances. They feel too ‘het’ up and restless.

When our sleep is restless and insufficient it can affect our mood and well-being during the day, making it more difficult to cope with our stresses and life in general. This only serves to compound the problem (see the insomnia page for a greater explanation).

Other symptoms of general stress include quickness to temper and irritability, poor concentration levels and decision making, increased breathing and heart rate, hollow sensation in the stomach – leading to waves of nausea or reduced appetite. Unwelcome changes in bowel habit can be experienced. Bad moods and unhappiness, and poor morale can also follow. Many of these symptoms arise from the release of stress hormones into the blood stream by the body.

 

I enjoy great success in treating the symptoms of stress and have lots of positive experience in this area.

Acupuncture is very good at relaxing the nervous system, and encouraging it to release positive hormones into the system – that promote feelings of well-being. It can help to break patterns of restless sleep, and so give rise to feeling better during the day and more able to cope. In doing so, it is able to quickly provide people with perspective again, that help them to cope more easily with their stress, and also provide them with the energy to hopefully resolve their problems.

I normally suggest that people should allow for 4-6 visits for simple cases of stress.

More difficult cases can take 6-12 visits, especially if the cause of the stress (problems with a work colleague for example) is ongoing with little hope of a resolution in sight.