Ancient wisdom for modern anxiety: looking at anxiety through the lens of Chinese Medicine

“Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”

― Arthur Somers Roche  

From a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective, our bodies are meant to handle small amounts of fear, worry, grief, stress, anger, and joy. However, if any emotion is felt too often or at disproportionate levels, it can throw the body’s systems off balance and lead to disease.

TCM looks at the body as one system with many parts, working harmoniously together. If one system gets clogged, breaks, or needs greasing, the whole system will function poorly or not at all. 

Anxiety is mainly correlated with the Heart organ in Chinese Medicine, which also houses the mind. A healthy heart equals a healthy mind and spirit. High levels of anxiety over prolonged periods can weaken or burden the Heart and mind. Since every system is connected, if the Heart begins to weaken it will pull from other individual systems in order to keep the whole system running. On the other hand, a weakness in one of the other systems can also pull from or burden the Heart system causing anxiety. To find the root cause and identify which system is causing the main disruption, we look at different patterns of symptoms along with tongue and pulse diagnosis.

Apart from the Heart, the Lungs, Kidneys, Liver and Spleen are also involved in the pathology of anxiety. If you are interested, read on to learn more about the characteristics of anxiety for each organ in Chinese Medicine.  

Heart

The person suffering from anxiety from a Heart disharmony is experiencing palpitations, a feeling of tightness in the chest, hot flushes, dizziness and/or irritability. They are restless and fidgety, and they tend to move in rapid movements. They often suffer from insomnia as well.

Lungs

The Lungs are affected by sadness and grief. Sighing and prone to crying are characteristic symptoms of mental-emotional patterns of the Lungs. The person tends to be pale and speak with a weak voice. The anxiety of the Lungs is often about spiritual matters, the meaning of life and existential suffering.

Kidneys

The emotion of Kidneys is fear; this emotion together with worry, is the one that is most closely linked with anxiety. A person with a Kidney imbalance appears gaunt and scared with almost a look of panic in the eyes. This person always fears the worst in any situation. The anxiety of the Kidneys is usually about life situations, the person is deeply pessimistic, and the anxiety is often related to guilt.

Liver

People of this type tend to worry easily; they are often tense and sometimes perfectionists. Their anxiety comes from the high standards they set themselves. The mental-emotional aspect of the Liver is responsible for our ideas, plans, projects, life dreams and visions. The Liver anxiety is therefore related to a dissatisfaction with one’s achievements.

Spleen

The emotion related to the Spleen is pensiveness, which is related to worry as well. Pensiveness is experienced by people whose thoughts go “around in circles” or have “mental arguments”; in severe cases it can become obsessive. The Spleen anxiety may also be related to nurturing issues, such as being overprotective towards one’s children, ignoring one’s own needs and putting the needs of others first or suffering from a lack of mothering.  

Much Love,

Andrea