Does Chiropractic work for Anxiety? Lots of Chiropractors have a list of conditions on their websites that they claim to heal and often anxiety, stress and depression are on the list. Does it work? The simple answer is it depends what is causing your anxiety.
If you believe that your mind and body are one, then this will make some sense to you. If you believe that anxiety is psychological and has no connection with the physical body then this won’t be of interest.
Chiropractors work primarily with the back, the spine and the neck. The nervous system has its superhighway, the spinal cord, running down the spine and any interruption in its flow could have an effect on mood. The link between anxiety and posture has often been made.
Let’s go back to common symptoms of anxiety: Feeling out of it, or strange, light-headed, slightly dizzy, difficulty swallowing, tight chest and breathing. Could some or even all of these be down to a misaligned spine butting pressure on the nerves and blood vessels in your neck and back? Yes, potentially they could. In which case, a Chiropractor might well be able to help you with anxiety.
If your anxiety is accompanied by, or exacerbated by, tension headaches that effect the back of your neck or reach over your crown onto your face then there may well be a link between you anxiety and spinal cord or skeletal structure, in which case in would well be worth speaking to a Chiropractor.
An interesting point: a lot of anxiety medication, such as Xanax and other benzodiazepines work also to relax muscles. Some people claim that part of their ant-anxiety effect is caused by the fact that they lessen pressure on the spinal cord and allow everything to work more easily.
There are no guarantees that a Chiropractor can have an effect on anxiety but it might well be worth a try.
I’ve been having a lot more anxiety the last week or so, and I don’t really know why. Another thing I’ve noticed is that my fingers went to sleep twice. I wonder if I have something pressing on a nerve. Could that increase anxiety?
Great post. You are spot on. Interference in your nervous system from a misaligned vertebrae causes an increased stress response, leading to higher levels of adrenaline and cortisol– our stress hormones. Since high levels of stress hormones are responsible for pretty much any chronic disease –mental and physical– that’s why chiropractic care helps with a multitude of conditions the same way exercise does.
I have seen some dramatic results with anxiety and depression in my chiropractic practice.
After overcoming my own anxiety symptoms, I now specialize in that aspect of my practice.
best approach is to combine a mind- body method together.
Terri- if I were you, I’d get myself to a Chiro right away and go on a corrective program to fix your neck.