Need advice from the massage-minded among us, please

[rainfletcher]

Very stressful week at work today, which hit its peak for me on Wednesday when a co-worker of mine got his Very Last Warning. I consider this guy a friend, and I know enough to know that he can't afford to lose this job. And additionally, it got me worried about the tenuousness of my own situation: while I am in nowhere near the trouble this guy

Comments

[goat]

Unlikely. Is it a muscle soreness, like after a bunch of sit ups, or a digestion issue? It's hard to tell from your wording.

It could be that your muscles were so tense that you did get a bit of a work out. If it's digestive, stress can definitely cause you to have weird problems in that area.

Solution: rest, water (not cold), massage the space between your eyebrows, and where your head meets your neck.

Also, *hugs*

[rainfletcher]

Well, the hugs are the best part, so thank you for that.

There is no soreness in those muscles now, so it looks like it was something I ate rather than simply stress, because I never lost my appetite. When I get stressed to the point of, erm, discomfort like this, it is generally accompanied by a complete loss of appetite and in some cases literally a dread of eating. None of that this time, thankfully.

Spent 14 hours in bed with weird dreams, and I'm feeling mostly better. I'll work on the eyebrows and head-neck spots.

Thank you much for the hugs and advice.

[goat]

I'm glad you're feeling better! That does sound like a mild case of food poisoning. The eyebrows and neck spots help with stress, so that's just something to keep in mind.

If you want to read an interesting discussion on toxins & massages or cleanses, you can find it here: http://aroraborealis.livejournal.com/831832.html

I particularly like viellen's comment, which is towards the bottom.

[rainfletcher]

Huh, so the Massage Releases Toxins thing that my brother had drilled into him at his school is widely considered to be bunk, eh?

That was an interesting discussion: thank you very much for linking to it. It does make me wonder why that massage I got from my brother way back when knocked me out the way it did, but maybe it was just that I was so used to holding all that tension.

[spin1969]

CMTs can't really diagnose things...out of our scope of practice and all.

However, given that stressors and tension in one part of the body CAN cause pain in another (they're called trigger points and referral zones), I can tell you what you're describing is possible.

Need me to come down there at some point?

[rainfletcher]

Well, first of all, you can come down here any old time just for the sake of doing so, if you want. There's the whole meeting the kids thing, after all.

My only recent experience with massage was a bad one, as it happens. My brother did some work on my back, and I felt like I couldn't move for like a day and a half afterward. I was told after the fact that this was probably due to a release of toxins from the points of tension (which were many, per Mike). It's kind of scary to think of how much crap I must be holding onto in these muscles.

But a day later, it's looking like it probably was just something I ate, timed poorly to come when I was already in the middle of a period of anxiety.

Thank you.

[shasta71]

Ok, I'm not a certified massage therapist, but I *am* a certified skeptic, and I can tell you that I've read a thing or two about this whole "toxin" thing. Here's the thing: our body naturally releases what needs to be released. We do not need to "cleanse" or "purge" or "release" toxins through the application of massage, needles, pressure points, "meridians," spinal manipulations, colonic irrigations, fasts, foot baths, or Chinese foot pads. Our bodies are self-cleansing. This is not to say that we don't have nasty stuff that occasionally backs up in our guts, but unless you have some sort of actual physical blockage, that shit (pun intended!) will work its way out eventually. We do get lactic acid buildup in our muscles, but that is not really a toxin... and it goes away on its own. If you smoke, you will get tar in your lungs, but even that will go away if you stop smoking! Massage is good for you. It is therapeutic, it feels good, and it causes our bodies to release endorphins and other happy/relaxation chemicals... but the "toxin

[rainfletcher]

Well, let me put it to you this way. Over this last vacation (ha!) weekend, my body showed me that it's more than capable of purging something it doesn't want. Along with pretty much everything else. So there ya go.

I really hope that being able to eat again (and retain what I eat) will go some length toward relieving the stress.