Before the middle of the twentieth century in China, all mental disorders were gently treated with herbal remedies. Since hospitals and physicians stored records, evidence exists that suggest such treatments were usually successful. The Fog Tea of Tianmu Mountain was the famous evidence of these herbal concoctions, which helped millions of Chinese overcome their opium addiction, after the opium wars. Most people believe that the 19th century Chinese psychiatric herbal formulas were at least as effective as whatever American or European physicians were prescribing their patients at that time.
Things have not changed much then. The Chinese herbal remedies of those times are still as potent as Western pharmaceutical drugs of today despite the technological advancements in Western pharmaceuticals. Most people who have tried these herbs strongly believe that Chinese herbs can definitely treat sufferers of their mental disorders by complementing them with therapy and prescription drugs. Chinese herbs are quite safe to use, and won’t negatively interact with any psychiatric medication.
In China, Psychiatrists Are Rare
The Chinese never really accepted psychiatry since their culture never promoted individuality. It’s more or less the mentality of foreigners to spend enormous amounts of money on personal improvement which is deemed as a form of vanity by the Chinese. Even nowadays, despite the flooding of Western money and Western ideas into China, you’ll probably just find a handful of psychiatrists in the phone book in Beijing.
Because the Chinese had less need for it, psychiatry might also not have evolved. This kind of medical intervention is irrelevant in many cases when there are literally thousands of pharmacies selling various kinds of herbal psychiatric drugs. Chinese herbal medicine is one the most precious treasures of Asian medicine.
In the United States and the UK, Chinese herbal medicine is not a replacement for counseling and modern pharma drugs; nevertheless, these remedies can still be a valuable tool in the hands of any qualified, skill, and experienced counselor or practitioner. To use these plants, you don’t have to be a Chinese herbologist; however it certainly helps if you have at least, some basic knowledge of Asian medicine.
What is Qi?
‘Chi’ or ‘Qi’ (pronounced chee), is the vital energy flowing in our body. Chinese medicine practitioners think that health is tied up to these undetectable flows, and when the qi flows in an improper way, we become ill.
Health is likewise related to balance or harmony. The traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) principles of yin and yang help to depict this. If your body suffers from a certain imbalance in the body, we state that your yin and yang is not balanced in relation to each other resulting in mental or physical disease or distress.
To TCM practitioners, almost all types of mental disease are, first of all, an indication of an imbalance or weak circulation. Insomnia, depression, schizophrenia, paranoia, phobia, etc. are symptoms of congestion or disharmony, not distinct health conditions in themselves. Treating these symptoms entails restoring the balance or regulating the flow in the body of those sufferers. In this instance, herbal medicine can immensely help.
Easily the world’s most highly evolved medical system Chinese herbal medicine possesses a tremendous scale of experience that spans countless trillions of uses over millennia. Its stock or collection of drugs includes natural mineral, animal, and vegetable substances numbering more than 10,000.
There are herbs that may seem strange to the emotional or mental responsiveness of people in the West; however, we will only talk about ordinary safe substances that can be easily bought. Mimosa bark, hare’s ear root, and sour dates may not be as widely known as marijuana, tea, or coffee but you can easily purchase these mind bending substances in Chinese communities throughout Asia, Europe, and North America or in the Web.
Mind Bending Herbal Medications
Terming these Chinese herbs as mind bending doesn’t necessarily mean that they are psychedelics or stimulants. Psychedelic and stimulant herbs have a more limited medical usage. When utilized in the correct combinations these herbs affect the mind in much more useful ways. And when we talk about mind, we refer to intelligence, memory, thought, remembrance, imagination, emotion, and consciousness.
The Bothered Spirit
Since TCM, reserves a special place for spirit, or specifically, Shen, we won’t include spirit as an aspect of mind. Shen does not reside in the brain but in the heart. Disharmonies in the mind usually are signs that the Shen, dwelling in the heart, is troubled or unsettled. This condition is known as Disturbed Shen.
Psychosis, insomnia, and anxiety all begin with a disturbed Shen. These conditions are not diseases of the brain although sufferers may manifest aberrant brain chemistry. Since Shen resides in the chest, these are considered diseases of the chest, not of the head.
Disturbed Shen for most people will not bring about heart disease or any physical problems of the heart. But this does not alter the fact that isturbed Shen is a physical condition and will respond to treatments such as herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage, and exercise.
There can be several causes for disturbed Shen. Factors such as excess emotions, held back emotions, blood loss, sleep loss, diet, drugs, heat, stagnation, or certain events in our life or in our memory can lead to a disturbed Shen. Strong emotions can also affect our organs apart from disturbing the Shen. The heart can be stressed by being startled or by excessive joy, the liver can be assaulted by anger, the kidneys can be taxed by fear, the lung is endangered by grief and the gut can be affected by worry.
When you have tension in the chest it can also disturb Shen. Guilt, inhibited expression, and thoughts about loss among other things, can cause the chest to tighten. This tightening is a protective response that causes us to show less emotion and feel fewer feelings. Modern day medical professionals term this condition ‘depression’. We refer to it as it as LQS (Liver Qi Stagnation) or stagnation of the chest qi, and we deem it to be the beginning of various kinds of mental health problems. Clinical depression to TCM practitioners is not a definable disease. Instead it is an indication that the qi of the chest is oppressed, constrained, or stuck. In time, this constraint will impact the underlying organs, resulting in anxiety by heating up the heart or anger by inflaming the liver.
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