E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Getty Images Stock
People with relaxation-induced anxiety get stressed out when they begin to unwind, experts say.
You may be counting the days until you get your holiday R & R, but for some people, rest and relaxation is a scary thing. They freak out while chilling out.
The phenomenon, known as relaxation-induced anxiety, happens when people become anxious as a result of being relaxed. While it sounds contradictory, activities such as exercise, listening to music, or taking a vacation trigger anxious feelings.
"Someone with a fear of relaxation is able to initially relax," says Christina Luberto, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Cincinnati, who has developed a questionnaire, known as the Relaxation Sensitivity Index, to examine this fear. "But once they start to feel relaxed, they begin to feel anxious as a result."
Instead of enjoying a bit of down time, their heart rate increases, their breathing speeds up, their muscles tense and they feel nervous and worried. Relaxing activities don't truly unwind them but rather make them feel wound up.
Relaxation-induced anxiety is a fear of relaxation itself or an increased fear that occurs not long after relaxation is achieved, explains Luberto.
For example, people with this fear may dislike getting a massage because they're frightened by the physical sensations it creates when tension gets released from their muscles and their neck and shoulders loosen up.
Or some might be scared of the mental aspects of chilling out, such as the unwanted thoughts that enter their heads when their minds quiet down. Still others may be afraid of the social consequences of doing relaxing activities, such as appearing lazy, feeling a loss of control, or worrying they're not relaxing "correctly."
Luberto says relaxation-induced fears are relatively common based on a study involving 300 college students, most of whom were 21 years old, female and Caucasian.
Participants in the study were asked to rank on a scale of 0 to 5 statements such as "I worry that when I let my body relax, I will look silly" and "When my mind begins to wander, I worry that I might be going crazy." Luberto's preliminary findings revealed that about 15 percent of those tested experienced relaxation-induced anxiety.
While that number reflects the frequency of these fears in a group of relatively healthy young adults, Luberto says relaxation-induced fears may run as high as 50 percent among people with anxiety disorders. And there's not yet information on its frequency among individuals with other types of mood disorders or mental health problems.
Luberto is quick to point out that relaxation-induced anxiety isn't a diagnosis, and it doesn't necessarily require treatment unless this fear is interfering with a person's life.
But since relaxation techniques are a common treatment for anxiety disorders, this would obviously be problematic for people with a fear of relaxation. You can't suggest deep breathing exercises or meditation as a remedy for anxiety if these techniques make the person feel more nervous, uncomfortable, and worried while doing them.
Luberto developed her questionnaire as a tool for mental health professionals to use when working with anxiety patients. It can help identify those who are afraid of relaxation and might need a different treatment option to successfully overcome this fear.
Want more weird health news? Find The Body Odd on Facebook.
Leave a Comment:
I already don't have a high opinion of most psychologists, having been really screwed up by one. But the idea posited here of anxiety related to relaxation totally misses the point, even when they point out that 50% of people with anxiety related diagnoses tend to get worse with relaxation.
Of course many people with anxiety get worse with relaxation. They are using the tenseness of their body to SUPPRESS the anxiety. When they relax, the anxiety comes forth because it is no longer being suppressed. This is such common knowledge, I don't understand why this finding is such big news, plus why they don't discuss this mechanism.
Their example of getting a massage and then feeling anxious supports my same contention: the muscle tension is suppressing the anxiety, so when the muscles relax, the anxiety comes into awareness. If psychologists aren't aware of this mechanism, they shouldn't be practicing.
Plus it is well known that some people get more anxious when they do progressive relaxation and that is why many people are referred to psychologists in the first place, to learn to deal with their anxiety rather than just suppressing.
There are many types of body centered therapies that know about how the body stores memories and they get released when the muscles relax or are stimulated during say massage.
Unfortunately, "modern" psychology doesn't know how to deal effectively with this anxiety when it comes up, since they are presently in the "cognitive therapy", talk it out rationally phase. If they would just learn a little about how to teach people to dissolve their anxiety as it comes up, using what is simplistically as "energy techniques", they would at least be going in the right direction. I've been using it for years and it's saved my bacon many times and works better than anything I've tried. But the successful use depends upon how people process body feelings and anxiety specifically, so it is not for everyone.
I predict that we will find that qigung (chi gong) can help many people deal with this type of anxiety, since it is a way for people to connect with their inner feelings and show them ways to disperse the excess when it comes up. But it takes practice to learn how to do it and there are many types of qigong and not all do this well, so caveat emptor.
So, overall the information in this article was more shocking about how little psychologists know about the inner workings of humans, as if this is some big discovery! Argh!
Because of the way we are brought up, relaxing often makes us feel guilty. Also, a little freedom from our frantic "routine" is frightening for many because they are so afraid it will go too far. For most of us, our Routine defines us. We don't know who we are without it. I have felt this. Especially with Retirement! Guilt,guilt guilt.
The prototypical characteristic of the long distance runner.
There is a simple remedy for this type of anxiety. Give these persons an enjoyable repetitive task. Women have known this secret for ages - shelling peas, knitting, spinning yarn. Granny on the front porch. Snap,snap,snap,snap go the beans. click,click,click go the knitting needles.
They even had a phrase for it... "Idle hands are the devil's work"
When the hands are busy, the mind can be at peace, free of the guilt that comes from being idle, but still with a simple and repetitive task, the mind remains free to meditate or reflect on the day. It is relaxation for working folks.
Examine your assumptions. What is "relaxation"? Is Granny relaxed when she's shelling peas? If a person becomes bored and restless when forced to do nothing, is that a bad thing?
We are not all relaxed by the same things. Your right. Sometimes doing something is more relaxing than doing nothing.
Highly agree! I love making truffles. Very repetitive, other people find it boring or stressful.
Meditation is better better than anything else. Master it and you mind is completely under your control. Meditation promotes the growth of brain cells. When you meditate you lower your blood pressure. Meditation promotes peaceful thinking.
I find people often are this way when they are trying not to deal with things in their lives such as traumas, feelings (if you were taught to feel guilty while sitting still you feel guilty when you sit still and can release that and heal), events they never processed, abuse, or messages they absorbed growing up. If you can release that energy and heal from the issue that you are running from...grieve if needed, let it release instead of avoiding it...you can learn to enjoy relaxing without all the icky energy you had before blocking it.
People are constantly going…going…going. Their brain chemistry becomes "addicted" to going faster, so when they try to relax, their brain chemistry can't slow down either. Insomnia is another common by-product of an overstimulated brain. Just like a 2-5 year old kids who is running around excitedly—then a parent tells them to sit still or go to sleep. It's shock on the kid's brain. They just can't do it! The kid becomes crabby, restless and wants to get up and run around again. Their brain is "addicted" to the stimulus of moving faster & faster. Sitting still is boring and "suffocating" not just consciously, but physically for the brain's own function. Adults with relaxation-induced anxiety are the same.
Is this all they can think of to actually do a study of?