Using Acupuncture and AA 12-step program to Stop Relapses and Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome

It takes a lot of fortitude, support, and determination to overcome alcoholism. Using acupuncture, an alternative medicine and AA 12-step program to stop relapses and post acute withdrawal syndrome can sure stack the odds in your favor.

Acupuncture is a form of therapy based on Oriental Medicine that evolved from principles and philosophies that are unique to the Orient. The acupuncturist inserts thin needles into specific points on the skin to change the flow of qi (energy) in the Channels of the body to bring about rebalance in the body’s Qi and healing and a return to good health.

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an organization that developed the set of guiding principals known as the twelve-step program. It was first published in a book, "Alcoholics Anonymous: The Story of How More Than One hundred Men Have Recovered From Alcoholism”, in 1939.

Alcoholics Anonymous (4th edition ed.). Alcoholics Anonymous World Services states the twelve steps as being:

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His Will for us and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

What makes it difficult to fight going back into one relapse after another are the cravings for alcohol that are so difficult to ignore. Acupuncture treatments can take the craving for alcohol away when you follow a concentrated therapy session over a one-month time period (approximately 21 sessions) and then follow that up with a maintenance schedule of weekly follow-up sessions. Acupuncture relieves the cravings for alcohol, and also alleviates other symptoms of alcoholism such as fatigue and withdrawal symptoms such as tremors. It can also reduce the depression or anxiety that those going through detox or withdrawal from alcohol often feel. Acupuncture is safe when it is performed by a trained acupuncturist and has very few side effects.

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