Extinguishing the Fear at the Roots of Anxiety

Extinguishing the Fear at the Roots of Anxiety

Above is the hyperlink to the New York Times article on anxiety. We live is a face paced world full of stress. The effect of stress can play havoc with both physical and mental health.

Perhaps the most well understood of effect of acute stress include production of cortisol, a stress hormone produced in our body, resulting in a number of problems including immune suppression, anxiety, blood sugar dysregulation, and weight gain. This understanding has helped to create a field of science referred as neuro-psycho-immunology.

Anxiety in Chinese medicine represents a Yang aspect of Shen (psych-emotional-spiritual) disturbance often leading to depletion of Shen energy resulting in symptoms of depression based on anxiety which is different from Yin aspec of Shen disturbance which results in depression based on fear, hopelessness, and helplessness.

There are many mind-body medicine combined with therapy that can result in significant transformative changes for mental health. An integrative approach focuses on understanding of the present mindfulness of the anxiety at a functional level. As to extinguishing the fear at the roots of anxiety, I am not sure any modality without transformative therapy work can be successful. Perhaps that is the reason, despite the explosion of mental illness medications, we still have an epidemic of mental illness negatively impacting quality of life...