How Massage Therapy can help with Anxiety & Depression

To help understand how anxiety and depression can be helped with massage therapy we’ll start by looking at each condition separately.

Anxiety is an emotional state which is normal in daily life. It is a response to stressors which can indicate one is in danger and thus trigger the fight or flight response keeping one safe. Typically speaking, anxiety is transient meaning once the stressor which triggered the response is dealt with the body/mind return to a state of calm. Thus anxiety in and of itself is not a negative emotion but when anxiety persists over longer periods of time it can start to affect one physically and emotionally. It can lead to:

• an overall increase in muscular tension which can lead to a feeling of achiness as well as joint pain
• an increase in blood pressure
• a lack of sleep which compounds the physical effects of prolonged anxiety

Depression on the other hand isn’t as clearly understood. It is a common emotion and can be a response to emotional pain such as one feels with the loss of a loved one etc. Typically depression can be accompanied by a sense of apathy which leads to less physical activity thus causing the the body not to function optimally.

As with any presentation, there are many approaches to how one can use massage therapy to help with anxiety and depression so if one is suffering from either or both of these conditions it’s important to let one’s massage therapist know so a treatment can be tailored to one’s needs. It’s also important to know massage will not cure anxiety or depression in and of itself but it can help alleviate the symptoms leading to a great sense of well-being for the client.

Typically when a client let’s me know they are suffering from either anxiety or depression I’ll want to know what their goal is for the given treatment.

If they are are feeling muscle or joint pain due to overall increased muscle tension and they find it’s interfering with them taking part in activities they enjoy, I’ll suggest a deeper treatment. With a deeper treatment, they will likely see a significant decrease in muscle tension leading to less aches and pains. This will allow them to get back into the game pain free.

If on the other hand the client is more concerned with trying to deal with the emotion symptoms which come along with anxiety or depression I usually suggest a more gentle full body massage. A gentler touch during a massage has a soothing effect on the body and can help to lower the release of cortisol, the primary stress hormone released by the body.

If you have any questions about how massage may help you if you’re feel anxious or depressed please let me know.