How Massage Can Help Alleviate Depression and Anxiety

How Massage Can Help Alleviate Depression and Anxiety

Think about a time that you felt anxious or depressed. What comes to mind? Perhaps feeling nervous before a big presentation or hopeless after a personal loss. Depression and anxiety may seem to begin and end with your emotional state, but these conditions can take a harmful toll on your the body as well.

Constantly feeling anxious or depressed causes the muscles to carry excessive tension. Serotonin, a chemical responsible for stabilizing mood, also affects your body's response to painful physical stimuli. Those with depression, and an imbalance of serotonin, experience this through back pain and aching muscles and joints. For those who are anxious and constantly on high alert, this tension can be felt in the jaw, fists, neck, shoulders, or hips.

Massage therapy has proven to be a successful tool in treating these conditions by simultaneously alleviating their physical and emotional symptoms. Studies show that regular massage not only relieves muscle and joint pain, but also raises serotonin levels and improves one's mood through a state of deep relaxation.

The next time you feel anxiety or depression setting in, try using massage to bring your body and mind back to a relaxed, invigorated state. We often don't feel like driving or going out when we feel low, so here's a clever solution meaning you never have to even leave your own house. On-demand apps like Soothe deliver licensed, certified and vetted massage therapists to your door in as little as an hour with everything needed to experience a spa-quality massage in the comfort of your own home.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20361919

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18478478

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/anxiety-disorders/index.shtml

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC486942/