You kept telling yourself to engage in relaxing activities, so you gave meditation, yoga, and mindfulness exercises a go. Not only did they not work, they made your anxiety worse. “Are you kidding me?”

Why does living with an emotional or mental illness have to be so hard? Right?

I mean, it makes perfect sense that engaging in proven relaxing activities would soothe the anxious beast. But no, it doesn’t go that way for many of us. Heck, it’s like a med that works well for others, but doesn’t do squat for us.

Nuts!

Well, it’s times like these that we need to learn all we can about our “eccentricities,” understand it isn’t just us, make the indicated adjustments, and keep moving forward.

Speaking of which…

“People with anxiety may strategically choose worrying over relaxing”

Bumped into some research from Penn State University I believe you’ll find interesting and helpful. I did.

“People with anxiety may strategically choose worrying over relaxing” was written by Katie Bohn for Penn State News. The study she detailed was published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Why would we do that?

Okay, the study reveals that those of us who wrestle with anxiety may actively resist relaxation in an effort to continue worrying. Why would we do that? According to psychology professor Dr. Michelle Newman and team, it’s to avoid a large jump in anxiety should something bad happen.

That fits my experience with relaxation-induced anxiety (RIA) like a glove.

The team found that people who were more sensitive to shifts in negative emotion – for instance, quickly moving from a calm state to one of fear – were more likely to feel anxious while being led through relaxation exercises.

From Dr. Newman…

People may be staying anxious to prevent a large shift in anxiety, but it’s actually healthier to let yourself experience those shifts. The more you do it, the more you realize you can do it and it’s better to allow yourself to be relaxed at times. Mindfulness training and other interventions can help people let go and live in the moment.

By the way, can you relate to being sensitive to shifts in negative emotion? As long as we’re doing questions, are you dealing with RIA?

Why do relaxation techniques increase anxiety?

“The more you do it, the more you realize you can do it. Keep saying it.”

Dr. Newman says researchers have known about RIA since the 1980s, but the specific cause remains in the shadows. Actually, Newman believes she began shining some light on the matter when she developed the contrast avoidance theory in 2011.

What’s that?

The contrast avoidance theory

The contrast avoidance theory revolves around the notion that we may intentionally (perhaps without knowing it) make ourselves anxious as a way to avoid the letdown we might feel if something – anything – bad happened.

Of course, such thinking does us absolutely no good and only makes us more miserable. But here’s the biggie. Since most of the things we worry about don’t happen, reinforced in the brain is, “See, I worried and nothing bad happened, so it makes sense that I should continue worrying.”

As misguided as it is, it makes sense.

The guts of the study

The research team recruited some 100 participants, evenly split between generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) patients, major depressive disorder (MDD) patients, and a control group with neither.

The participants were led through relaxation exercises before watching videos that held the potential to generate fear or sadness. Then it was on to answering questions designed to measure sensitivity to changes in emotional state.

Thing is, some may have found the negative emotions incited by the videos uncomfortable right after relaxation exercises. But others may have felt the exercises helped them deal with their negative emotions.

Well, the team led the participants through another relaxation exercise session before asking for the completion of a second survey.

The bottom-line

Here’s the bottom-line: The GAD patients were more likely to be sensitive to sharp spikes in emotion – like going from feeling relaxed to being frightened or stressed. And the team linked the sensitivity to feeling anxious during sessions intended to induce relaxation.

Though not as strong, the same results were noted for the MDD patients.

According to graduate student Hanjoo Kim…

Measuring relaxation-induced anxiety and implementing exposure techniques targeting the desensitization of negative contrast sensitivity may help patients reduce this anxiety. Also, it would be important to examine relaxation-induced anxiety in other disorders, such as panic disorder and persistent mild depression.

And there you have it.

You’re not alone

I’ve been on a mission for decades to negate the freak-factor involved with living with an emotional or mental illness. I’ve said it time and again: knowing others were in the same boat provided a lot of comfort in the early years of my illness.

Does your anxiety spike when you attempt to do something relaxing? Well, you aren’t alone, and now you have some insight into why it happens and what to do about it.

Check-out the full article on Penn State News: “People with anxiety may strategically choose worrying over relaxing”

And those Chipur info and inspiration articles: review all of the titles or by category below.

After a decades-long battle with panic, generalized anxiety, fluctuating moods, and alcohol dependence; Bill finally found his life’s passion and work – lending a hand to those in the same boat. At age 49 he hit grad school and earned his counseling credentials. And he continues his service through Chipur and other projects.