Acupuncture is sometimes used as a secondary option when considering addiction treatment protocols. One reason lies in the enormous amount of time and energy necessary to treat the patient, which means listening to and counseling them, then applying the necessary means to restore them to health. Great discipline must be exercised on the practitioner’s part to take their time in the process, and on the patient’s part, as they may not see immediate results.
Secondly, the NADA protocol’s shorter training period for those already trained in acupuncture schools, train students rigorously for 4 years in the United States and Canada. In times past, becoming acquainted with all 74 channels and nearly 1,000 energetic points of the human body, took years of apprenticeship, then practice, to master. A practitioner’s technique, form, and treatment protocols were constantly refined and open to new interpretations, hence the vast amount of literature we have on the subject.
The 74 channels are set together in several groupings that control energy on various levels. By adjusting these channels, and their corresponding points with acupuncture, moxibustion, acupressure, and massage, the mechanisms of disease can be adjusted and the patient healed accordingly.
Remember, in drug addiction we are dealing first with disease mechanisms as opposed to actual named diseases. This is where the root of healing begins, and acupuncturists, along with other health practitioners, are thoroughly trained in counseling the patient to discover where their addiction began. Once this is revealed manual therapies can take a more powerful role in treatment.