FEAR AND ANXIETY
“Anxiety” is a modern term that does not have an exact equivalent in Chinese medicine. There is no Chinese medicine term that corresponds exactly to what we call “anxiety” but several ancient Chinese disease entities closely resemble anxiety. The four main disease entities that correspond to Anxiety are: “Fear and Palpitations” (Jing Ji) 惊 悸 “Panic Throbbing” (Zheng Chong) 怔 冲 “Mental restlessness” (Fan Zao) 烦 躁 “Agitation” (Zang Zao) 脏 躁 Fear is the emotion that pertains to the Kidneys and I would like to make three points. Firstly, “anxiety” does not correspond only to “fear”: it also corresponds to “worry” and “pensiveness” in Chinese medicine. Secondly, we normally say that fear depletes Kidney-Qi and it makes Qi descend. The Su Wen in chapter 39 says: “ Fear leads to loss of Jing which results in obstruction of the Upper Burner, when this is obstruc...