Detox and the Return to Innocence: Clearing Toxins with Acupuncture
There’s a common term in acupuncture treatment: “the healing crisis.” This is a rather dramatic name for a common, often mild occurrence. This “crisis” is a “detox period” which usually manifests as cold or flu-like symptoms, diarrhea or phlegm expulsion, or a short period where symptoms get worse before improving or disappearing altogether.
Many conditions that afflict body-mind-spirit are the result of stagnation and accumulation. An illustrative example of this are: allergens getting stuck in the eyes, ears and nose. Otherwise known as seasonal allergies, food sensitivity or other allergic triggers. The problem is usually not due to any external factor, but rather to unresolved stagnation within the body, usually the head, throat and digestive system that causes hypersensitivity.
Issues involving the ear, nose, throat, eyes and head are often the body’s attempt to keep an unresolved condition contained within the body to prevent it from spreading. The immune energy keeps the condition stuck in the head to prevent it from moving into the interior of the body where more serious harm could result. The body experiences an inflammatory immune reaction as it repeatedly tries to expel and/or contain the condition.
The same process can occur with psycho-emotional material as well. An experience occurs, and the body is unable to brush it off and let it go. The experience and the thoughts or emotions created from it become stuck in the chest. Agitation, restlessness and chest tightness result. The body tries to bring the emotions and thoughts up to the tongue to be released through the voice. Yet, if that fails, the unreleased energy moves back into the chest. The body will continue to try and release the stuck emotions, bringing it into the shoulders, maybe to the skin, and then to the ears and mouth: manifesting as physical and/or mental-emotional symptoms. If the issue is still not able to be released, it can move into the lower back, ribs, and finally stomach and intestines. Just like the example with allergies, similar stuckness can occur with unreleased emotions and thoughts.
When something is stuck it creates pain. Stuck energy also contributes to the accumulation of blood and fluids: a fibroid, weight gain, nasal polyps, acne: these are all examples. Stagnation can also cause fatigue, moodiness, depression, anxiety and sleep disturbance.
Healing is the process of letting go of stuck-ness and expelling accumulations that have occurred as a result. This is achieved through the detox of the healing crisis.
Acupuncture treatment works in two main ways. It builds strength and resources in the body so a full release can be achieved. Allergies that continually manifest in a low-grade manner, as well as emotional holdings that progressively manifest as psycho-somatic symptoms are the result of underlying insufficiency of energy and fluids to fully expel whatever is stuck. Perhaps the immune system has become taxed from diet, or a person is caught up in guilt that has depleted his ability to let go of the past. Both of these scenarios can contribute to the creation of an insufficiency of energy, preventing the body from fully letting go and expelling a physical or mental-emotional “pest.”
Acupuncture treats the individual. It does not treat disease: it treats people who possess certain symptoms and imbalances. The treatment focuses on the unique condition of the patient. Two persons complaining of wheezing will most likely be treated in totally different ways. Even though they possess the same symptom, they are two different people, with two different stories that have caused their symptoms. Perhaps one man’s wheezing comes from a physical weakening of the kidney energy from longterm use of steroidal medications. And perhaps the other’s wheezing comes from longterm unresolved fear or grief disturbing the harmonious relationship between his lung and kidney energies. Different points and different strategies will be used for each case, always based on the individual.
Once the patient’s energy has been strengthened, he will begin the process of the release. It may take the form of a fluid release: nasal discharge, urination and sweat in the form of a common cold. Perhaps it will come out through the bowels. Or maybe it will be released through emotional discharge: crying or instant understanding of the issue.
Chinese medicine helps us gain respect for the common cold, or any type of detox situation. The runny nose, headache, sore throat, frequent urination are all ways the body gets rid of toxins. Sometimes these cold symptoms can be joined with emotional release as well. We can certainly catch a cold from someone around us, but these symptoms can also be the result of stored toxins leaving our body. A detox is always good news, even if it is inconvenient or uncomfortable.
When we undergo a period of “healing,” we should expect a detox period to follow. A recent patient was being treated for low back pain. Based on his pulses, I told him he needed to rest. His body was giving him pain so he’d rebuild his energy. He was distressed that he wasn’t instantly better after treatment. His back pain wasn’t due to an injury or strain. It was depletion of energy, due to intense emotional experiences. He needed to take time and space to process his emotions, release his grief. He needed to allow a period of emotional detoxification and recuperation. I explained this to him: his body was fine. It was just telling him what he needed to do to get better. He needed to rest and stop being so active. He needed to feel his feelings and stop distracting himself.
Perhaps one of the nicest things about a cold or body pain is the body’s demand for calm and rest. It can be very difficult to allow a full release of “the baggage” when one’s life is filled with the busy-ness of daily responsibilities and distractions. The body is wise. It knows what it needs. When one has made the decision to let go of the junk, the body will create a situation for this to occur. It will force us to take time and space.
Of course, retreating from the world for an entire week, laid up in bed with a messy cold or a stiff painful back can cause many people great frustration, perhaps even a sense of depression. Many people just keep going, refusing to acknowledge that anything is happening. This was the case with my patient. Much of the acupuncture treatment I gave him was to calm his mind, and help his body to build the blood and fluids so he could fully embrace his emotions and begin to process and let them go. I soothed his suffering so he could move on. I helped him change his thinking around his pain and tiredness. Soon he started to enjoy his quiet time by himself, seeing it as a blessing rather than a curse.
I’ve always seen acupuncture as a spiritually-based healing method at its root. It is no mistake that most spiritual disciplines require stillness and quiet reflection as pre-requisites for developing inner clarity and freedom. Within the spiritual “medical” treatment that is acupuncture, the healing crisis is the body’s call for attention and focus as release is occurring.
The clearing of accumulations and stagnations can be seen as a return to innocence. The Buddhists often describe the enlightened state as the ability to see the world as a baby sees it: full of wonder, as if seeing it for the first time. Think if it: fluid being released from the nose, mouth and eyes: quite a physical metaphor for clearing from the organs of perception anything blocking the enlightened state of experiencing the world.
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