Relaxation constantly gets credit for creating a soothing calm that can help alleviate your paruresis – but that credit may not always be warranted. In certain individuals, relaxation can actually make their anxiety worse.
The phenomenon, aptly dubbed “relaxation-induced anxiety,” hits when relaxation has the opposite of its intended effect. Rather than calming people down, sitting with a quiet mind can actually wind people up. Symptoms include an elevated heart rate and breathing rate, muscle tension and stress.
How’s that for calm?
University of Cincinnati doctoral student Christina Luberto explored the condition with a study of 300 students across campus, 15 percent of whom admitted to suffering from relaxation-induced anxiety. Luberto used an index she created to gauge the results. Her Relaxation Sensitivity asked participants to respond to 21 questions, asking them to rate issues such as thinking they looked silly when they let their body relax to thinking they were going crazy when their minds started to wander.
Relaxation-induced anxiety can increase your shy bladder anxiety and symptoms, and Luberto estimated that as many as 50 percent of those with existing anxiety issues suffer from the condition.
Read full article in the University of Cincinnati website: http://www.uc.edu/news/nr.aspx?id=16730
