Christina Luberto, a doctoral student in the University of Cincinnati\u2019s Department of Psychology, has now developed a questionnaire, the Relaxation Sensitivity Index (RSI), to examine the phenomenon. Preliminary findings on the RSI will be presented on Nov.17, at the 46th annual convention of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) in National Harbor, Md.<\/p>\n \u201cRelaxation-induced anxiety, or the paradoxical increase in anxiety as a result of relaxation, is a relatively common occurrence<\/strong>,\u201d explains Luberto. \u201cWe wanted to develop a test to examine why certain individuals fear relaxation events or sensations associated with taking a time-out just to relax.\u201d<\/p>\n The RSI is a 21-item questionnaire that explores fears related to relaxation anxiety in three key categories:<\/p>\n Physical Issues<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cIt scares me when my breathing becomes deeper; I hate getting massages because of the feeling it creates when my muscles relax\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Cognitive Issues<\/strong> \u2013 \u201cI don\u2019t like to relax because I don\u2019t like it when my thoughts slow down; I don\u2019t like to relax because it makes me feel out of control\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Social Issues <\/strong>\u2013 \u201cI worry that when I let my body relax, I\u2019ll look unattractive; I worry that if I relax, other people will think I\u2019m lazy\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Participants rate how much each statement applies to them on a scale of 0 to 5. Three-hundred undergraduate college students participated in the study. They were, on average, 21 years old, female and Caucasian.<\/p>\n Luberto says that exploring the idea of relaxation sensitivity was based on a related concept of anxiety sensitivity, which is the fear of arousal<\/strong>. Early results from the RSI study found that people who are high in relaxation sensitivity are also high in anxiety sensitivity.<\/p>\n \u201cThis suggests that for some people, any deviation from normal functioning, whether it is arousal or relaxation, is stressful<\/strong>,\u201d says Luberto. Results also suggested that the RSI is a valid and reliable measure of relaxation-related fears and is able to identify which individuals have experienced increased anxiety when relaxing in the past.<\/p>\n Luberto states that additional research needs to be conducted to examine the effectiveness of the RSI in more diverse populations (including beyond college age), as well as among individuals with psychiatric disorders. Ultimately, the RSI could be used to identify patients who would not respond to being treated through relaxation therapies, which is a common component of treatment for anxiety disorders<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The study was supported by the UC Department of Psychology\u2019s Frakes Foundation Endowment Fund and William Seeman Psychology Fund.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the University of Cincinnati press release: Although many people look forward to getting away on vacation or just putting their feet up at home, there are others who can… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[123,12,39],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8314"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8314"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8366,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8314\/revisions\/8366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"stress\"](\"http:\/\/www.therapytoronto.ca\/images\/blogpics\/StressedStudent.jpg\")
Although many people look forward to getting away on vacation or just putting their feet up at home, there are others who can get as anxious about taking time to relax as they would if they were delivering a national address<\/strong>.<\/p>\n