How to prevent depression in Traditional Chinese medicine?

How to prevent depression in Traditional Chinese medicine?

Many people think that depression is far away from us, but it is not. In recent years, as people’s life rhythm has accelerated and pressure has increased, the incidence of depression has increased year by year.

 The World Health Organization believes that depression currently ranks fourth among the top ten globally. Depression seriously affects people’s quality of life and brings a heavy burden to themselves and their families. Therefore, we must pay attention to the prevention and treatment of depression.

“Three lows” symptoms are apparent

 Depression is a mood disorder or affective disorder with depression as the primary symptom caused by various reasons. The typical manifestations of the disease include the signs of “three lows”-low emotional interest, low activity ability, and low thinking vitality.

 Low emotional interest is manifested as it is challenging to feel happy and often feel sad inexplicably. Patients are accompanied by persistent depression and generally do not change with the improvement of the environment. But sometimes there are differences between day and night. In the eyes of the patient, there is no interest in the former hobby. Decreased mobility is mainly manifested as fatigue, weakness, heavy body, and even inability to get up or go out. Low thinking vitality is manifested by slowness, inadequate response, and prolonged thinking about problems, which often brings difficulties to work.

 In addition, insomnia is also one of the most common symptoms of depression. More than 90% of patients with depression have insomnia, most of them wake up early, and some people have difficulty falling asleep, poor sleep, easy awakening, and more dreams. This affects people’s daytime activities and even further aggravates emotional symptoms, requiring active treatment.

TCM starts with soothing the liver and relieving depression

 The treatment of depression in modern medicine includes medication, physical therapy, and psychotherapy. The treatment principle is early detection, early diagnosis, early treatment, an entire course of treatment, and prevention of recurrence. If there is a change in mood or physical discomfort such as insomnia, and pain you should contact your provider for diagnosis and treatment in time, and a particular course of treatment must be adhered to. Antidepressants take a long time to take effect, usually 2 to 4 weeks.

  Depression is mainly caused by excessive emotions, leading to an imbalance of yin, yang, qi, and blood in the viscera and unfavorable brain spirit. Traditional Chinese medicine emphasizes “seeking the root of disease.” Therefore, we must start with the root cause of depression and restore the normal state of mind by balancing the qi and blood and regulating the brain.

 Most patients with depression suffer from long-term life and work pressure or experience adverse life events. Unsmooth emotions lead to the imbalance of the body’s qi and dysfunction. The liver tree stagnates over time and even becomes a stalemate, and emotional symptoms are further aggravated. Excessive liver-qi dispersing and violating the spleen and stomach will affect the digestive function of the spleen and stomach, leading to loss of qi and blood, dysfunction, clustering of symptoms, fatigue, insomnia, palpitation, pain. Therefore, treatment should start with soothing the liver and relieving depression, balancing the five internal organs, and regulating the mind.

 The treatment of depression in TCM is targeted and individualized therapy under the guidance of syndrome differentiation and treatment, including TCM decoction, acupuncture, electroacupuncture, cupping, ear acupuncture, Qigong.

 Patients who can take Chinese medicine can choose Chinese medicine decoctions or proprietary Chinese medicines. Patients who are not suitable for taking medicine (such as postpartum breastfeeding women) can choose non-drug treatments, such as acupuncture, walking cups, and ear acupuncture. The meridian system of the human body is spread throughout the body, communicating internal and external, connecting the internal organs and six organs and the limbs. Therefore, acupuncture and cupping stimulate acupuncture points on the body surface, balance the yin and yang qi and blood of the five internal organs by dredging the meridians and regulating the brain, which is beneficial mood and body of patients with depression. In addition, the symptoms have an excellent therapeutic effect.

Self-regulation is important

 Self-regulation of patients with depression is also essential. First of all, studies have confirmed that exercise can alleviate depression. Therefore, it is recommended that patients with depression take more than 30 minutes of exercise a day, such as running, swimming, walking, dancing. In addition, traditional Chinese medicine Qigong Taijiquan and Baduanjin are also good choices. They are simple and easy to learn, and have an excellent function of regulating shape, mind, and spirit, and can help restore the balance of qi and blood. Secondly, we recommend performing self-acupoint massage every day, including Hegu, Taichong, Neiguan, Sanyinjiao. These acupuncture points have the effect of regulating qi and depressing depression, and when used in conjunction, they can coordinate the liver and spleen and promote mood recovery.

 You can also drink some tea substitutes. For example, suppose you are depressed, accompanied by flank pain, mouth pain, insomnia, and other symptoms. In that case, you can use 3 grams of white plum blossoms, 3 grams of albizia flowers, and 3 grams of gardenia flowers to soak in water to help relieve your mood and body symptom. Finally, it is necessary to actively carry out self-emotion regulation, communicate with others frequently, resolve destructive emotions, and release stress, which plays a vital role in reducing the recurrence of depression.

 In short, as a high incidence of modern society, depression is not far away from us. When you find that you and your relatives and friends have emotional symptoms, you must pay attention to them, adjust them in time, and treat them in time. For patients with mild to moderate depression, TCM can be used for treatment. For patients with severe depression, integrated traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine can shorten the onset time and increase the efficacy. Depression can be treated effectively with active self-regulation at the same time.