In traditional Chinese medicine, treatment for ‘depression’ is a short-hand for a wide range of syndromes. Syndromes are descriptions of conditions in Chinese medicine.

Before starting treatment for depression, the acupuncturist would carefully take your case. What that means is you tell them your problems.

Then they will:

• take your pulses
• look at your tongue
• examine painful areas
• palpate your abdomen and
• consider the results of previous treatments on the flow of Qi along your acupuncture channels.

Diagnosis via ‘Syndromes’

To help him plan your treatment they’ll then diagnose your condition in terms of syndromes. You could easily have more than one syndrome.

The following are only examples of what might be diagnosed. There are many possibilities and it’s not a complete list.

• Qi stagnation
• Qi deficiency, including Stomach Qi deficiency
• Damp
• Liver Qi stagnation
• Lung Qi stagnation
• Weak Shen
• Gallbladder deficiency
• Yang deficiency
• Blockage (‘Bi’ syndrome) in a channel
• Kidney and/or Jing deficiency
• Pericardium deficiency or blockage

As you can see from the above list, there are many possibilities. Each requires a different acupuncture strategy, with different points. People who share a Western diagnosis, such as ‘depression’, might be diagnosed with a combination of patterns of disharmony in Chinese medicine.

Each such disharmony might require a different treatment, and it’s up to the skill of the acupuncturist in preparing a treatment to prioritize and harmonize treatments to suit the patient. There’s no ‘standard’ treatment.

Qi in Treatment for Depression

Now for a bit of theory that helps you understand how you can help yourself.

From the point of view of Chinese medicine, everything we are and can know about is a form of Qi. The word ‘depression’ suggests a lowered state of vitality, which means a lowered state of Qi.

Raising your Qi level is therefore important in nearly all forms of treatment for depression! Some forms of lowered Qi, especially those from Qi Stagnation, get depressed because there are two warring factors at work in your mind or body.

• Put it this way. A country in a state of civil war will be less able to defend itself, let alone effectively counter-attack an invader.
• Alternatively, try holding your hands out in front of you. Now press them together with all your might. While doing that, you will have less energy available to do other things.

The Qi Stagnation type of depression is like that. Your body goes into a state of civil war, lowering your Qi. If that internal ‘struggle’ can be resolved, even temporarily, (acupuncture is very good at this!) then you may be able to stand back and reassess your situation.

More important, you’ll be more relaxed and you’ll certainly have more energy!

Raising Qi – Treatment for Depression Self-Help

If Qi is depressed or deficient, there are many ways to raise it.

Here are some of the best ways you can give yourself a treatment for depression:

Yang factors

• Light: natural if possible, and sunlight in particular. If you live in climates that get little sunlight, think about using light-bulbs that emit light at the same frequencies as sunlight (‘full-spectrum’ light).
  • If you can’t get good light – see above – consider a tanning bed, but take care to choose the right kind, which has an electronic ballast, not a magnetic ballast. Magnetic ballast sunbeds often make a loud buzzing and emit electromagnetic wavelengths that may dangerous. Also, important, is that it should emit UVB light which stimulates the production of Vitamin D in your skin, whereas while UVA light tans you, it also burns you. However, if you use sunlight or the tanning bed to get the benefit you need, don’t shower too soon afterwards, because the vitamin D is manufactured on the surface of your skin, and showering would wash it off. Leave it there to be absorbed over the next 48 hours before showering!

  • Warmth and the Sun

    • Also, if you can’t get enough sunlight (or it is too weak for your body to make its own Vitamin D from the sunlight where you live) take Vitamin D3 or foods that contain it. If you take it as a supplement, there are other vitamins and minerals that help you absorb it better, including magnesium, vitamin K2, boron, zinc and vitamin A and healthy fats including animal-based with the emphasis on omega-3 fats … a good, varied, diet comes to mind! … How much Vitamin D3 to take? Answer: enough to keep your vitamin D blood levels at 40 – 60ng/l, and the only way to find that out is to have a blood test. Serious and respected researchers in the field often take 3000-5000 IUs of D3 pd. Healthy D levels will boost your immunity and inhibit many diseases. Take vitamin K2 at the same time. But sunlight is definitely best, if you live in a climate and at a latitude where you can get enough daily.
    • Warmth: if you are cold, you won’t be able to digest food, nor move around properly – see exercise, below. Warmth is a form of Qi, dispelling cold. Cold slows and drains Yang Qi. So, for most people, warmth makes a good treatment for depression.

    Humour is a yang factor

    • Laughter: watch films that make you laugh. The act of laughing increases and spreads your Qi.

    Yin factors

    • Food Depressed people often eat either the wrong food, or they don’t eat enough food, or they eat it the wrong way. The wrong food or diet gives your body the wrong treatment for depression! Your body needs good food, at the right temperature and eaten right, to make Qi and Blood.  So if having vegetables, have many different kinds, not just the same kind, let us say, of cabbage everyday. Don’t forget warm drinks as well as warm food.
    • Take up meditation. It’s not hard to learn, it doesn’t take long to do, and if you do it regularly, say for ten minutes every day, over time you may find it changes the whole way you think. For a method that has helped millions of people for thousands of years click on meditation. (

    Move Qi

    • Exercise: physical movement that gets you out of breath and makes your heart pump faster has a hugely beneficial effect on your endocrine glands, including those that help you to be cheerful. As you age, don’t reduce the exercise you take, and make sure that the exercise you take includes not just movement to make you out of breath,but exercise to maintain your strength. Exercise also helps you to keep your appetite. Exercise moves your Qi and helps to increase it: wonderful as a treatment for depression, especially the kind caused by Qi stagnation!
    • Dancing is rhythmic and enjoyable, and definitely moves your qi!
    • Support: friends, especially those who make you laugh. Both friendship and laughter circulate your Qi, giving you exactly the right kind of treatment for depression.
    • Get some massage! Massage is a great way to move your Qi. All you need to do is just lie there!
    • Acupuncture: See how to contact a member of the Acupuncture council of Ireland below.