relaxation/breathing

[Guest guest]

Hi LT,

That's interesting. I keep meaning to break the OCD

group habit but can't since every day I learn a little

something that might help.

That's great that you had an appt -- was it with a

OCD therapist? Does he/she do ERP? The

breathing/relaxation techniques are good for everyone

at times, but I've heard they don't do alot for OCD.

Lynn

--- jtlt@... wrote:

---------------------------------

In a message dated 5/31/2006 11:20:25 A.M. Eastern

Standard Time,

lynnovale@... writes:

I read in one OCD book that rocking may

increase Serotonin thus making the person feel

better.

Seems like running/exercise might do the same.

Lynn

This makes sense. My daughter just had a doc's appt

yesterday & learned her

first " tool " - a breathing exercise. It was

interesting to watch & listen

while the doctor explained that putting a thought in

your mind, even if only

pretending, can physically affect your body. She said

that in studies done on

adults with OCD they found that during the moment they

are experiencing an

obsession & the need to perform a compulsion, the

anxiety actually causes the

temp in the their finger tips & toes to drop. This,

apparently is a physical

symptom of anxiety as the blood flows to other organs

rapidly for the body

to deal with the anxiety. ( I hope I'm getting all

this straight....).

As an example, she had each of us 'pretend' that we

were just frightened or

taken by surprise - with an audible gasp & sort of

jump back (she said to

pretend an angry pitbull just ran into the room).

Amazingly, you can actually

feel sensations such as prickly feeling on the back of

your neck, goose-bumps

on your arms, etc. Even though nothing really

happened. You actually just

tricked your brain into THINKING something horrible

happened, and just by

that, you experience a physical reaction.

Using this information, she said that calm breathing,

etc can also produce a

physical reaction when you start to experience anxiety

- then she launched

into the breathing technique.

Anyway, I'm sure I'm not saying anything here that

most of you haven't

already gone through or heard about... so I'm just

rambling I guess... but as I

said, that just makes your statement make sense to me.

Rocking IS a consoling

motion - toddlers rock when they're upset - rocking

puts a babies to sleep.

She can probably tell it helps her to relax & likes

it, although she may not

understand why it helps. And we all know that

exercise provides a stress

outlet - it just all makes sense.

Interesting.

LT