How does TCM clear bad obsessions?

In the popular Taiwanese drama “The Eliminator of Bad Obsessions”, different characters, due to intense emotions like pain, anger, longing, etc., manifest their obsessions into human-like forms. These forms can communicate with the male lead in the show, and once the underlying reasons behind these obsessions are resolved, the forms disappear.

From my experience in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), when emotions like pain, anxiety, anger, longing, and stress become persistent and intense, while they do not materialize into human forms, they inevitably disrupt the balance of qi, blood, yin, and yang in the body. This disturbance can manifest in pathological forms within the body, leading to explicit or hidden illnesses. These are the “fruits” of negative obsessions that we must address and clear in the real world.

From a symptomatic perspective, the issues caused by these obsessions often present as phlegm stagnation, blood stasis, and qi stagnation. These conditions are related to the various blockages in the body caused by emotional stagnation. To resolve these, methods such as resolving phlegm, dispelling blood stasis, and regulating qi to alleviate emotional stagnation must be used. From a deficiency perspective, long-term obsessions can lead to significant depletion of the body, resulting in various deficiency syndromes and consumptive diseases, often manifesting as liver and kidney deficiencies in cases related to emotional imbalances.

I had a local Kiwi patient who, due to childhood abuse, would experience the pain she suffered as a child vividly when her illness relapsed, accompanied by various mental symptoms. This is also a form of long-term obsession that continuously and subtly depletes the body. I diagnosed her with liver deficiency and prescribed treatment accordingly, achieving excellent results in a short time.

This illustrates that no matter what kind of pain or obsession a person experiences, when it affects and projects onto the body, it inevitably forms a pathological model. In TCM, we can use acupuncture or herbal treatments to help the body unravel this model, thus achieving harmony between body and mind. Unfortunately, very few people realize the significant advantage of TCM in regulating the “shen” (spirit).

From the perspective of disease prevention, this reminds us of the importance of having enough insight and emotional management skills to prevent emotions from developing into long-term negative states. Many subtle or deliberately hidden deep negative emotions can lurk and grow, becoming long-term sources of serious illness and hidden dangers.