Acupuncture for a Caregiver's Grief

Wowsers. As I mentioned previously (A Caregiver's Grief Process Stepping Up), I've started having acupuncture treatments to help me release the grief of losing Romeo to dementia. Wowsers. So far, so very good.

This is not the traditional Chinese acupuncture. It's Classical Five-Element Acupuncture. In my experience, one of the basic differences between the two is that in traditional Chinese acupuncture, the needles are left in for approximately 30 minutes or so, while in Classical Five-Element Acupuncture, the practitioner inserts the needles only very briefly, then removes them almost immediately. It seems as if the acupuncturist is inserting a needle into whatever energy blockages are in the body, puncturing them, and dispersing them, breaking them up. This is a good thing.

After my first treatment, I began crying before I left the acupuncture office. I cried on the 30-minute drive home, and I cried the rest of that day. These weren't wimpy tears rolling down my cheeks. These were huge drops of salty tears, coming from an unknown place deep within me. My cries were long, loud, and emotionally draining. My crying was not associated with anything specific about losing Romeo. These tears simply surrounded the situation itself. The tears were...well, who knows what they were? They simply were. And on this day, I let them come until they were gone. For now.

Yep, I've been crying frequently throughout this experience of Romeo's dementia. There are still more to come. Lots more. But at least now, with the help of acupuncture, they're no longer blocked. They're releasing.