It appears to me you more likely have a yang excess.

The 8 Principles of Chinese Medicine Up to now, we've only talked about 6 of 8 principles. The 8 principles are a general categorizing system for diagnosis... They are

internal/external cold/hot deficient/excess yin/yang

One Chinese physician proposed adding downward/ upward direction to this, for a total of 10 principles.

So for you - so far - we have: yang, hot and excess.

Is Disease Internal or External? Causes of external heat are usually viruses, flu's etc. And external diseases are usually recent, not chronic. Nor do they often have severe emotional effects... unless they've been around for a while and caused other internal problems. Usually emotional issues are due to internal causes. Sources of emotional trauma may be external, but disease processes are still considered to be internal. I'm going to assume your disease is internal, but if your symptoms are only a recent development, then an external pathogen is a possibility.

Zang Fu Syndromes of Social Phobia Now, if we take our 8 principle diagnosis of internal, hot, excess, and yang over to article on Social Phobia... in particular section on Zang Fu syndromes (opens another window for reference)

We see 5 Zang Fu syndromes listed. The first two are deficiency. The last three are excess. So, we can further differentiate by seeing which symptoms of your fit those syndromes. Here is where Tongue and Pulse diagnosis become key, and where a one-on-one with a Chinese Medicine practitioner is indispensable. Also, I don't have enough information from you to make this further differentiation.

Just for your information, 5 Social Phobia Zang Fu patterns in terms of 8 principles are:

Heart and Kidney Yin Deficiency = internal, hot, yang, deficient Spleen and Heart Qi and Blood Deficiency = internal, no temp, yin, deficient Heart Fire or Excess Heart Yang = internal, hot, yang, deficient and excess Phlegm Fire Disturbing Heart = internal, hot, yang, excess Liver Heat and Blood Deficiency = internal, hot, yang, deficient and excess

Diagnosis by Zang Fu vs. Diagnosis by Type Now, these 5 Zang Fu syndromes are not end-all-be-all... this is what is called "diagnosis by type." It is not exactly same as "pattern differentiation." It's a process by which we start with a disease (in this case Anxiety), and look at what Chinese Medical scholars believe to be differential diagnosis. This style of diagnosis is fairly new... so it is in development. But it's a good place to start.

Once we have a type, we can take representative herbal formula and modify it more specifically to you. This part is based on pattern differentiation and a knowledge of actions of various chinese herbs. There are hundreds of herbs to choose from. We can fine-tune your formula over a few visits to eliminate side effects. For more about how herbal medicine can be effective without side effects, read article, "Healing Without Side Effects?"

One on One Help Probably best thing for anxiety would be to see a Chinese Medicine physician who can get you right herbal formula, and give you acupuncture to regulate your nervous system.

Other Helpful Therapies for Social Phobia Along with this, it would be good to see a counselor who can guide you through some self-reflection about your social phobia... especially if it's been a recurrent part of your history.

It may take all three of those things- and in addition to counseling, prayer and meditation can be powerfully transformative. It's not easy to confront deeply held fears, and mistaken ideas about ourselves and world, but it's well worth it. You can't really run from them- not in any constructive way. They'll just hang around and wait for you to deal with them... and you won't be happy until you do.

In fact, wasn't it Eleanor Roosevelt who said that best way to destroy fear is to do thing you are most afraid of? Try toastmasters - most people are more afraid of public speaking than death! Toastmasters is a support and learning group for public speaking, and first lesson is how to use fear to your advantage!

BEST WISHES in your healing... and if I can help further, please let me know.

All best, B

"Antibiotic use is a short-term risk factor for symptomatic vulvovaginal candidiasis, either as a first episode or in form of recurrence. Increasing duration of antibiotic use is directly related with an increased prevalence of Candida vaginal infection." - Am J Obstet Gynecol 1999 Jan

"The spectrum of diarrheal disease associated with antibiotic therapy ranges from antibiotic associated diarrhea and colitis, to more severe pseudomembranous colitis, which is always associated with Clostridium difficile (CD)." - Acta Gastroenterol Latinoam 1996

The FDA approves unsafe drugs if they are effective enough.

"No drug product is "perfectly" safe. Every single drug that affects body will have some side effects. Since FDA considers both benefits and risks of all medications before approval, side effects are generally not serious. For every drug FDA approves, benefits are balanced against its risks. In addition, FDA makes sure labeling (package insert) outlines benefits and risks reported in tested population. You and your health-care provider should decide together if benefits outweigh risks for YOU. Talking about your medicines with your health-care provider is just as important and good for your health as a complete check-up and taking your medicine as directed." - Frequently asked questions from Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) at FDA

"The benefit-risk ratio weighs benefits provided by a drug, versus risks or safety problems that may be associated with use of drug. No drug can be considered to be totally safe. Drugs that are associated with more significant safety problems are expected to have sufficiently greater benefits to justify increased risk." - Questions and Answers from CDER's Over-the-Counter Drug Products Public Hearing (FDA)

What does benefit-risk mean to us?

"There are categories that, from my perspective, clearly fall out where benefits unequivocally outweigh risks... I think physicians very frequently discuss risk-benefit ratios for all sorts of treatments, and it ultimately comes down to a decision between patient and doctor." - Questions and Answers from CDER's Over-the-Counter Drug Products Public Hearing (FDA)

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs):

Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen "Gastrointestinal (GI) Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) from +NSAIDs are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in arthritic patients taking these drugs... Clearly, need to develop newer NSAIDs with lower risks of ulcers and bleeding as well as symptomatic ADRs is still representing a major challenge." - J Physiol Paris 2001

High dosage Steroid use (e.g. in Asthma or COPD) "High dose of inhaled steroids may lead to adrenocortical suppression and hence estrogen deficiency in postmenopausal women" - J Allergy Clin Immunol 1989 Feb

"the daily dose, but not duration, of inhaled steroid therapy may adversely affect bone density" (osteoporosis) - J Allergy Clin Immunol 1995 Aug

"The potential risks of antiasthmatic inhaled steroid therapy are essentially dose-related and include oropharyngeal complications such as:

thrush and dysphonia, and systemic complications such as hyperactivity behavioural change hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis suppression facial and weight changes characteristic of hypercortisonism cataracts increased intraocular pressure dermal atrophy causing steroid purpura retarded growth in children and osteoporosis. A few cases of fracture or acute adrenocortical insufficiency have been reported." - Can Respir J 1998

This last article is subtitled "First do no harm" after Hippocratic Oath taken by most MD's.

Drug Misadventures: "Still, we know from studies published to date that drug misadventures account for: 8-10% of admissions of patients to hospitals 25% of admissions to hospitals by persons age 65 years of age or older 10-15% of visits to emergency rooms in some urban settings 4.5 drug order errors per 1000 drug orders in hospitals Significant decreases in quality of life (due to inappropriate prescribing, e.g., of hypnotics for elderly) 2 in 1000 deaths in hospitals, and Deterioration or destruction of specific organs." - from "Toward defining and applying a higher standard of quality for medication use in United States" from American Society of Health-System Pharmacists

So in summary, it's clear that no medicine is totally safe. Except perhaps prayer!

Hopefully comparison above is telling- risks of most western medical interventions are greater than in acupuncture.

So, I ask you- if it works and it's safer, why is it an "alternative"?