You Are One Of Those People Who Can’t Even Sit
A University of Cincinnati researcher developed a questionnaire to explore physical, cognitive, and social problems around the anxiety of relaxing for a moment.
While many people can’t wait to leave for vacation or set foot home in the evening after returning from work, there are others who may become anxious to have time to relax.
Christian Luberto, a PhD researcher in the psychology department at the University of Cincinnati, has just developed a questionnaire, based on the Relaxation Sensitivity Index.(RSI from “Relaxation Sensitivity Index”), to examine the phenomenon. Initial assessments of RSI were presented on November 17, 2012 at the 46th National Convention of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT from “Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies”) in the USA.
Luberto explained: “Anxiety caused by relaxation, or the paradoxical growth of anxiety as a result of relaxation, is quite common. We researchers would like to develop a test to examine why certain individuals are afraid to relax and experience the sensation associated with taking the time to relax. ”
The RSI is a 21-point questionnaire that summarizes fears related to anxiety about relaxing into three focal points:
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Physical problems : eg: “I get scared when I breathe deeply; I hate being massaged because of the sensation of feeling my muscles relax etc. ”;
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Cognitive problems : for example: “I don’t like to relax because I don’t like to think little; I don’t want to relax because it makes me feel out of control etc. “;
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Social problems : eg: “I worry when I let my body relax, I no longer feel attractive; I don’t want other people to think I’m lazy etc. ”
From here it is then calculated with a scale from 0 to 5 how much each statement fits the subject. Three hundred three-year undergraduate students participated in the study. They were, on average, 21 years old, and they were Caucasian females.
Luberto argued that the feeling of relaxation is connected to the related concept of the feeling of anxiety, which is the fear of arousal. Recent results from the RSI study revealed that people who have a high feeling of relaxation have an equally high feeling for anxiety. “This suggests that for some people, any variation in the normal conduct of life, whether it is exciting or relaxing, is stressful,” Luberto concluded. The results suggested by the RSI are valid and reliable measures of relaxation related to fears, and are capable of identifying which individuals have experienced an increase in anxiety in the past when they relax.
According to Luberto, other research needs to be conducted to examine the effectiveness of RSI in other populations (above college age), as well as in individuals suffering from psychiatric disorders. Lately, RSI could be used to identify patients who may not respond to treatment through relaxation therapies, which is common within the treatment of anxiety-inducing disorders.
Source: http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx
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