One Year On: My Bell’s Palsy Recovery — What Helped Me Heal

It’s been one year since the acute onset of my Bell’s palsy.

As soon as I had some clarity about what was going on (and, importantly, had ruled out that I was having a stroke), I couldn’t wait to try my hand at healing. I had heard so much about how acupuncture and Chinese medicine could support Bell’s palsy during my training, and my practitioner brain immediately went into action.

What became a huge learning curve, amongst all my action-oriented “trying to fix” during those first few days, was just how pivotal rest was to my recovery.

Everyone’s journey with Bell’s palsy is different, but I wanted to share some detail about what supported my own recovery — particularly for anyone else who, like me, is trying all the things while wearing their practitioner hat, and simultaneously needing to trust the process and press pause as the patient.

If you know someone who has just developed Bell’s palsy, or who is still recovering, please don’t hesitate to share this with them.

but first… Steroids

Steroids, most commonly prednisolone or prednisone, are a first-line conventional medical treatment for Bell’s palsy. While we still don’t fully understand exactly why Bell’s palsy occurs, it is thought to involve inflammation and swelling around the facial nerve.

The recommendation is generally to start steroids within 72 hours (three days) of symptoms beginning, as this is when they are most likely to be beneficial.

There is a period at the beginning, usually around 14 days, where the face is in total freeze. It is really hard during this time to wait this time out knowing its normal and that when its over things will start to shift.

Hot take: As someone who is lucky enough to avoid medication most of the time, I was completely unprepared for the side effects of a high dose of steroids.

I took them for 10 days and felt high — a kind of jacked-up, floating feeling that sometimes tipped into anxiety. I also learned very quickly not to take them on an empty stomach. One particular morning sent me into a fairly hysterical spin!

If you are prescribed steroids, it’s worth asking your doctor or pharmacist what to expect and how best to take them.

Acupuncture

The cause of Bell’s palsy can be one of the trickier concepts to convey to patients as a Chinese medicine practitioner. Within the framework of Chinese medicine, however, it offers a different way of understanding what is happening in the body and a holistic approach to supporting recovery.

In TCM, Bell’s palsy is often understood through the concept of Wind entering the channels of the face. This is a traditional Chinese medicine framework rather than a Western biomedical explanation, and it can be understood alongside other patterns in the body — for example, underlying deficiency or an excess pattern such as rising Yang.

It’s not lost on me that in the week leading up to my Bell’s palsy I had been feeling headachey and fatigued, with ringing in my ears. I definitely felt like there was something viral lurking in my system.

Then I went out into what was probably the windiest day of 2025.

I stood at a bus stop for what felt like forever, getting absolutely blasted by the wind. By the time I got home, I looked in the mirror and asked my partner:

“Does my face look funny?”

And, well… it did.

The concept of Wind in Chinese medicine can be quite literal in the way we talk about exposure to external conditions — but it isn't simply a claim that actual wind causes Bell’s palsy. It can also be used as a broader traditional framework for understanding certain patterns of sudden-onset symptoms.

From a TCM perspective, acupuncture treatment aims to address the individual's underlying pattern while also supporting the channels and muscles of the face.

I started treatment very soon after onset and initially had acupuncture every day or every other day.

Moxibustion

Something I found particularly lovely alongside acupuncture was moxibustion.

The deep, penetrating warmth of moxa — made from the Artemisia argyi plant — felt incredibly soothing. I remember feeling little sensations of the nerve endings beginning to twinkle alive again.

Moxibustion can also be demonstrated by your practitioner for appropriate home use between treatments.

Facial physiotherapy

There are a lot of facial exercise and physiotherapy videos online.

I found this one particularly informative and straightforward.

I did the exercises around three times a day.

One thing I learned very quickly, though, was that more isn't necessarily better. When you're desperate to get movement back into your face, it is incredibly tempting to work harder, for longer, and push yourself to the limit.

But the facial muscles and nerves are going through their own process of recovery, and being gentle was much more helpful for me than trying to force things to happen.

Self facial massage

After each physiotherapy session, I would use a little face oil and massage my face with lots of gentle circles.

I initially thought this was going to be another “thing I should do to fix my face”.

Instead, it became one of the most nourishing parts of the whole process.

I quickly realised just how tired and sore both sides of my face were from trying so hard to activate everything during those short exercise sessions. The massage gave everything a chance to soften. It felt soothing, warming and deeply comforting.

I imagined I was encouraging blood flow and warmth into the muscles and tissues of my face — but more than anything, I think it gave me a moment to stop trying so hard.

Coverage

With the TCM concept of Wind very much in mind, I became very committed to keeping my face covered.

I did not leave the house without something over my eyes, ears and neck.

Scarves. Sunglasses. Glasses. Bonnets over the ears. Hats.

All the accessories.

Sometimes I wore a facemask too. No wind was touching this face.

The disguises were quite wild.

Whether or not this made a physiological difference, it certainly made me feel protected — and there was something psychologically comforting about creating a little cocoon around myself while I recovered.

REST!

I cannot stress this one enough. Rest.

Interestingly, in the lead-up to the onset and during the early stages, I actually had quite a lot of energy. I had some strange symptoms and obviously knew something wasn't quite right, but I didn't feel particularly unwell. So resting felt unnecessary.

I had things I could do! I was still functioning! I could still work! I could still get on with things!

But in hindsight, this was probably the biggest lesson of the whole experience.

Giving your body the best possible conditions in which to find its equilibrium means reducing the other demands and stressors placed upon it.

And for someone whose natural response to something going wrong is to do more, research more, try more and fix more, this was a surprisingly difficult thing to learn.

My job wasn't necessarily to make my face recover.

My job was to create the conditions in which my body could recover.

That meant acupuncture. Physiotherapy. Nourishment. Warmth.

But it also meant doing less.

And resting.

Pro tip: cover your mirrors

This one might sound strange, but it was genuinely one of the best things I did.

I covered the mirrors in my house.

Other than when I needed to use one for a basic task or during my facial physiotherapy exercises, I stopped looking at my face.

Covering the mirrors gave me some psychological space to simply let the process happen.

One year on, my face has recovered, but I think the lessons from that period have stayed with me. Sometimes the most supportive thing we can do is create the conditions for healing, and then get out of the way.

And for a recovering practitioner who was very accustomed to being the person with the answers, that was a lesson I really needed.