How Acupuncture is Being Used In Treating Recovery From Addiction
The use of acupuncture to treat addiction is interesting as is the history of its inception in the US. Acupuncturists and other trained professionals have been using what we call the NADA Protocol to treat addiction along with other behavioural issues such as trauma and PTSD and other mental conditions. This is a 5 point acupuncture treatment using the ear and it has been found to do the following things:
Reduced cravings for alcohol and drugs, including nicotine
Minimized withdrawal symptoms
Increased calmness, better sleep, and less agitation
Relief from stress and emotional trauma
An easier connection with counseling
A discovery of inner quiet and strength
So here’s a little history. On November 10, 1970, more than two dozen members of the Puerto Rican activist group Young Lords, alongside members of the Black Panther Party, occupied the sixth floor of Lincoln Hospital, in the South Bronx. With heroin devastating Harlem and the South Bronx, the protestors demanded a long-promised drug treatment program, staffed by former users, that would “serve the community effectively and be run by the community.”
It began as a methadone clinic, but it was quickly recognized that suplementing one opiod for another was not going to be a long term solution. Lincoln Detox hired a young activist named Mutulu Shakur as director of political education. Shakur was affiliated with the militant Revolutionary Action Movement and the Republic of New Afrika, a Black nationalist and separatist group that advocated for an independent Black nation in the American South. Shakur read a 1973 New York Times article about the early successes of Hong Kong doctors who were using acupuncture to treat withdrawal symptoms of substance abuse. He was also stirred by the work of the so-called “barefoot doctors,” who were providing basic, low-cost, grassroots medical care in Maoist China. Chinese medical practitioners had practiced acupuncture for millennia, but at the time, it was largely unfamiliar to Westerners.
Shakur received acupuncture training in Quebec and California and, in 1976, he became certified and licensed to practice. Shakur returned to New York and established Lincoln Detox’s acupuncture training program, one of the first of its kind in the country. In 1985 the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association was established. A top area of focus was to teach lay people the 5 point ear acupuncture protocol to help treat addiction within their communities. There have now been over 25,000 people trained to provide this treatment in over 40 countries. They include counselors, nurses, medical doctors, acupuncturists, chiropractors, social workers, outreach workers, and more.
If you are interested in learning more of the story, check out the documentary, Dope is Death.