A Little Hug Later...

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 spectrum disorder. In persons with autistic conditions, it is often uncomfortable or impractical to expect them to turn to other human beings for comfort as their social an sensory interactions are largely affected (Grandin, 1992). "As a little kid I wanted to feel the nice feeling of being held but it was just too much overwhelming stimulation," Dr Grandin said in an interview on BBC (Grandin, 2006). Although Mary Temple Grandin invented the hugging machine for those with autism, the principles of the machine can certainly be put into effect for anyone experiencing anxiety (Grandin, 1996).

"Light pressure touch, say stroking of the skin, excites the sympathetic nervous system, which raises heart rate and raises respiration. The squeeze machine doingl produces a controlled deep pressure touch, which has a significant relaxing effect, it lowers heart rate and lowers respiration." Dougal Hare, Psychologist, University of Manchester.

"Deep pressure touch is a sensation produced when an individual is hugged, squeezed, stroked, or held (Krauss, 1987)." Although further research is necessary, deep touch pressure has been found to decrease anxiety (Warber, Gillespie, Kile, Gorenflo & Boiling, 2000).

Autism or not, anxiety can affect anyone, anywhere, at any time.

As the BeyondBlue campaign goes "I'm the ill ease that you feel when you walk into a crowded room. I am the one that raises the whip to your already racing heart. I am the tightening of your chest, the snowballing worries that feel like they might become an avalanche and just bury you in an instant. I'm the voice, you know the one, it's always questioning questioning questioning. And I am every single staring eye that watches you. So, now that we have become acquainted, what are you going to do about it?" But…

What do you do when you can't run from the darkness inside of you?

What do you do when you are your own worst enemy?

If a hugging machine can be used to calm hypersensitive persons as a therapeutic form of stress-relief, a real hug sesh could only exentuate what the machine is trying to emmulate. #amiright

There is little that feels better than a simple, natural, raw hug in all it's warm sweatiness.

Here are some of my favourite hugs for you to revel in before launching into your own hug venture.