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Showing posts from September, 2015

A Little Hug Later...

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In the spirit of R U OK Day , September 10th I thought it'd be appropriate to write about the following statement from Grey's Anatomy Episode "Beat Your Heart Out" concerning the effect of deep touch pressure on anxiety . [We'll conclude with a series of  favourite hugs].   In the nature of self-directed learning I wrote out the quote and googled it. 'Cos how else do you study medicine? #amiright "Cows are squeezed tightly in a chute before they're slaughtered. The chute applies intense pressure, resulting in decreased pulse rate, and muscle tone. It calms them down. "   Dr Virginia Dixon states as she commands Bailey and Cristina to hug her while she is having an anxiety attack. " The same principles apply to people like me. A hugging machine is used to relax the sympathetic nervous system, it slows the heart."  Before we begin, it's important to note that Dr Virginia Dixon had Asperger's Syndrome , an autism spec