Feeling helpless and clueless

So your tongue is only a small part of the overall picture. You would do best to find a practitioner in your area (even if you have to travel a bit) to at least have someone go through your entire medical history, ask detailed questions and look at other signs in addition to the tongue. Generally speaking your tongue (at least in the picture, which can be misleading) so some general qi stagnation with some mild qi deficiency.

Most of your symptoms sound more like general liver qi stagnation symptoms than anything else. An shen bu xin wan is from the nourish the heart and calm the spirit category which might help your palpitations but will not be enough. Initially the best likely be jia wei xiao yao wan on it’s own for a couple weeks, then possibly adding an shen back in with it. Jia wei xiao yao wan is from the “regulate and harmonize the liver and spleen” category which is a better fit overall from what you are describing.

Generally speaking you do not choose formulas by your symptoms (but rather the deeper TCM diagnosis) - see "how to choose a formula for more details on that.

Personally, for many things I prefer a mix of acupuncture and herbs. Not so much, however, because I think acupuncture cannot fix many issues. Rather I find that the combination of herbs and acupuncture is overall less expensive for the patient and often significantly faster to get changes and/or resolution to their issues.

Generally speaking, no, that is not a normal response - sleeping through the treatment is probably the most normal. That said, there are many different techniques, near infinite number of point combinations, etc. so the experiences are a bit all over the place.

Hi Chad, I have been taking jia wei xiao yao wan and it has removed the redness from my tongue. Here is a recent picture. My tongue looks so swollen with dents/bumps inner and outer. I’m alarmed. Can you pls tell me what the bumps and dents mean?

Do you think I’m showing yang deficient in my tongue? I’m still trying to find another acupuncturist. I’m grateful for any help. Thank you so much.

Hi Chad, I doubled the dosage for the jia wei xiao Yao wan for 3 days. But I stopped when I noticed my tongue was no longer red. Did I over do it? Should I switch to something else?

I also just found out the acupuncturist I was seeing didn’t study Chinese herbal because it is an additional 2 year study. That’s the reason I wasn’t given or recommended anything during the session.

Thank you for your help.