Hyperventilating in the middle of a massage

[ricguy]

Hi everyone, my first post since finding out about this forum a few weeks ago. I think it's great to know there's such a support system on the net.

I'm writing about something I experienced recently - hyperventilating right in the middle of a massage therapy session. I know this seems strange when I have read so many articles saying that massage is supposed to relax and ease my anxiety fears. But it did happen to me.

At the start of the session, I was indeed feeling relaxed. But after about 10 minutes, I started feeling a knot in my stomach similar to what I feel when I get panic attacks. I tried to do deep breathing which momentarily helped, but the sensation came back soon after. I can't be sure what was causing it..perhaps it was the thought that lying on my stomach made breathing more difficult, or the coldness of the room, or the strokes being applied was making me uncomfortable. I requested to take a break and sat up. That's when my hands started tingling and soon after, a little numbness on my hands started creeping in. I requested for water, waited for the sensations to stop, and was able to continue without further issue.

Has anyone encountered something similar? Any advise or positive thoughts on how to deal with this in the future? Thanks.

[NixonRulz]

Hi everyone, my first post since finding out about this forum a few weeks ago. I think it's great to know there's such a support system on the net.

I'm writing about something I experienced recently - hyperventilating right in the middle of a massage therapy session. I know this seems strange when I have read so many articles saying that massage is supposed to relax and ease my anxiety fears. But it did happen to me.

At the start of the session, I was indeed feeling relaxed. But after about 10 minutes, I started feeling a knot in my stomach similar to what I feel when I get panic attacks. I tried to do deep breathing which momentarily helped, but the sensation came back soon after. I can't be sure what was causing it..perhaps it was the thought that lying on my stomach made breathing more difficult, or the coldness of the room, or the strokes being applied was making me uncomfortable. I requested to take a break and sat up. That's when my hands started tingling and soon after, a little numbness on my hands started creeping in. I requested for water, waited for the sensations to stop, and was able to continue without further issue.

Has anyone encountered something similar? Any advise or positive thoughts on how to deal with this in the future? Thanks.

It really doesn't matter what you are doing when you can start the panic cycle.

If you have a thousand get and start buying in and dwelling on it, it will start. Once you become concerned it will get even worse when the fight or flight kicks in.

And another thing. It's impossible to be relaxed and stressed at the same time so although you were getting a massage, which should be calming, your mind and body were not where you would hope

When an attack is imminent, I learned that positive thoughts and distraction were useless. And I tried it for many years before I realized that it didn't work.

The thing that I, and most others did that freed them from anxiety was to do nothing when they occurred. Just let it come.

Nothing bad ever happens so regardless of what you do, it will stop.

If you just sit there, let the panic come and not react, although you may be ant to run or scream or something.

Once you have done that a number of times, you can essentially retrain your brain to not treat your panic as a real threat so you will not get the fight or flight

Lots of good places to get that info.

The anxiety coach.com and any Claire Weekes book can really give you great info to get past this quickly

[ricguy]

Thanks NixonRulz, what you mentioned definitely makes sense. I didn't think of it that way, about the mind not being calm despite getting a massage.

What you mentioned: "If you just sit there, let the panic come and not react, although you may be ant to run or scream or something." This is what I find most difficult to do when I get an attack. I find walking slowly helps me contrary to sitting still, where sometimes the panic feeling grows, like I-may-faint kind of feeling. It can be frustrating cause on hindsight I usually would feel my panic didn't make sense.

Anyway, thanks. I've looked at the anxiety coach site and have ordered the workbook. Please continue to share any other advise. :)