Alternative Medicine is the complete opposite of Conventional, because it's whole vision is to utilize non mainstream forms of treatment.
Alternative Medicine has also coined the term of 'Natural Medicine'
It is also used interchangeably with other practices such Traditional Medicine, like Chinese and Ayurvedic, as well as Integrative Medicine, which treats a person holistically and complementary.
Alternative Medicine takes the person entire lifestyle into account, and believes that in order to reduce symptoms, and ultimately cure a person of their specific ailment, the root cause must be established.
This in itself can be a bit tough where Anxiety Disorders are concerned, because not even health experts can determine one main cause, but only speculate a few possible causes.
In a typical consultation, a person will be asked about their diet, their job, their lifestyle, their exercise regime, and whether they smoke or drink. Less desirable questions can be asked as well, such as your toilet habits.
Alternative practitioners also don't usually do the same things as a conventional doctor would do, such as listening to your heart or putting a wooden stick in your mouth and asking you to say 'ahh'
They ask a lot of questions about their client, and often look at a person's tongue or the iris's of their eyes.
Many of the alternative treatments used are many years old, and not modern forms of treatment, like conventional medicine. These can be things like acupuncture, aromatherapy, reflexology and reiki.
On a side note, and purely for interest, I will give you an example of alternative therapy that I used on one of my own clients! Penny* came to me complaining of bad headaches. She explained that she is under a lot of stress at work and her job causes her tension headaches. She was living on paracetamol. After doing the consultation, and being certain that nothing medically was wrong with her, I suggested a course of Indian head massages, customizing it to include the pressure points on her face and head, and applying deeper massage techniques to her neck, shoulders and under her occiptal region. I also recommended other things she could do in her day to day life to help reduce the headaches, such as stretching her neck every morning and keeping hydrated. After the first session, Penny commented on how much better she was feeling, and after the course of treatments, her headaches had drastically reduced. Her headaches had been caused by nothing more than tension and tightness in her neck.
The scenario above is not directly mental health related, but Penny's stressful job was directly causing her tension in her neck which resulted in headaches regularly. Although pain medication helped to get rid of them, it didn't address the cause: which was the tightness in her neck!
This is a perfect example of alternative healing.
Pros of Alternative Medication:
Cons of Alternative Medication:
Important information regarding Alternative Medication:
My own experience with Alternative Medication:
I make use of alternative therapy regularly in order to manage my anxiety.
Whether this be in the form of herbal medication, meditation, therapy etc, as well as taking conventional medication.
This is referred to as complementary health, which is the path that I favour, purely because I don't believe that you can just take a pill and expect to be cured.
Alternative Medicine has also coined the term of 'Natural Medicine'
It is also used interchangeably with other practices such Traditional Medicine, like Chinese and Ayurvedic, as well as Integrative Medicine, which treats a person holistically and complementary.
Alternative Medicine takes the person entire lifestyle into account, and believes that in order to reduce symptoms, and ultimately cure a person of their specific ailment, the root cause must be established.
This in itself can be a bit tough where Anxiety Disorders are concerned, because not even health experts can determine one main cause, but only speculate a few possible causes.
In a typical consultation, a person will be asked about their diet, their job, their lifestyle, their exercise regime, and whether they smoke or drink. Less desirable questions can be asked as well, such as your toilet habits.
Alternative practitioners also don't usually do the same things as a conventional doctor would do, such as listening to your heart or putting a wooden stick in your mouth and asking you to say 'ahh'
They ask a lot of questions about their client, and often look at a person's tongue or the iris's of their eyes.
Many of the alternative treatments used are many years old, and not modern forms of treatment, like conventional medicine. These can be things like acupuncture, aromatherapy, reflexology and reiki.
On a side note, and purely for interest, I will give you an example of alternative therapy that I used on one of my own clients! Penny* came to me complaining of bad headaches. She explained that she is under a lot of stress at work and her job causes her tension headaches. She was living on paracetamol. After doing the consultation, and being certain that nothing medically was wrong with her, I suggested a course of Indian head massages, customizing it to include the pressure points on her face and head, and applying deeper massage techniques to her neck, shoulders and under her occiptal region. I also recommended other things she could do in her day to day life to help reduce the headaches, such as stretching her neck every morning and keeping hydrated. After the first session, Penny commented on how much better she was feeling, and after the course of treatments, her headaches had drastically reduced. Her headaches had been caused by nothing more than tension and tightness in her neck.
The scenario above is not directly mental health related, but Penny's stressful job was directly causing her tension in her neck which resulted in headaches regularly. Although pain medication helped to get rid of them, it didn't address the cause: which was the tightness in her neck!
This is a perfect example of alternative healing.
Pros of Alternative Medication:
- It addresses the actual cause of the ailment.
- No harsh drugs are used, making it non invasive and no risk of awful withdrawal symptoms.
- The treatments are often very relaxing.
- There are little to no side effects - and if a person should experience what is known as a 'healing crisis' which are symptoms such as headaches and fatigue, this is a GOOD SIGN, as it means the toxins are leaving the body!
Cons of Alternative Medication:
- In some cases, the effects may take longer to represent themselves.
- An open mind is needed, especially for people who are firm Western medicine believers, because alternative has very limited scientific proof.
- Can be expensive
- In many cases, depending on what is being treated, certain changes to lifestyle may have to be adopted, as the whole purpose of Alternative healing is to treat 'holistically'
Important information regarding Alternative Medication:
- Alternative Medicine is often deemed as 'Natural' and while this may be so, it is important to realize that while herbs and aromatherapy are indeed natural, it doesn't mean they are safe for everyone to use. There are some contraindications that can come along with Alternative Therapies. For example, a pregnant lady in her first trimester should avoid reflexology, and certain herbs and oils can not be used by pregnant woman or people with high blood pressure. The point is that, even though herbs are natural, you may still react to them, so this is just something to be aware of.
- Following on from above, just because something is natural doesn't mean it is safe at all. A wild mushroom growing in a field somewhere is as natural as you can get, but it will most likely poison you! Of course, all herbs and treatments utilized in alternative healing are safe for human consumption, but you may still have a contraindication which could cause you to react to a specific herb or treatment.
My own experience with Alternative Medication:
I make use of alternative therapy regularly in order to manage my anxiety.
Whether this be in the form of herbal medication, meditation, therapy etc, as well as taking conventional medication.
This is referred to as complementary health, which is the path that I favour, purely because I don't believe that you can just take a pill and expect to be cured.