{"id":601,"date":"2018-01-25T05:46:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T05:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gentleweight.com\/?page_id=601"},"modified":"2021-10-20T21:25:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-20T21:25:26","slug":"weighted-blankets-anxiety-depression","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/gentleweight.com\/weighted-blankets-anxiety-depression\/","title":{"rendered":"Weighted Blankets: A Quick, Natural Fix For Anxiety and Depression?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For transparency, I wanted to let you know that this page contains affiliate links.<\/strong> What is an affiliate link?<\/em> In a nutshell, as an Amazon and Shareasale affiliate if you make a purchase after clicking a link on this site, I may receive a small commission, at absolutely no extra cost to you<\/span>! Why do I have affiliate links on my site?<\/em> Running a site like this and producing quality free content can be surprisingly time and resource intensive. Earning some affiliate income allows me to offset and justify the time and cost involved in producing content, paying for hosting, maintaining the site etc. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

If you are considering a weighted product for yourself, a friend, family member or child: <\/strong>Please make sure you are well educated on the right weight to use, and whether use of a weighted product would be safe in your specific situation. If you are at all uncertain, please consult a qualified medical practitioner. Material provided on this site is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered a substitute for qualified medical advice (more info about that here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

One of the many benefits that weighted blankets provide, comes in the form of supporting both adults or kids that suffer from anxiety or depression (which aren\u2019t commonly that far apart).<\/span><\/p>\n

Also See: ABA Therapy<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

You may want to know how is it that weighted blankets became a way of mitigating the occurrence of these episodes, and if it does indeed work.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you do, then I must say right off the bat: there\u2019s a high chance that a heavy blanket will alleviate your symptoms, and if you want to understand how and why, then I suggest you stay with me a little longer\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

My Experience with Anxiety<\/h2>\n

I have to say, I’ve never been diagnosed with anxiety or depression disorders.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I do know that most of us have gone through at least a couple episodes, and I personally had several of them when I was a teenager.<\/span><\/p>\n

Thankfully, I don\u2019t have to struggle with those kinds of episodes anymore. And also, I\u2019m glad to say that I won that combat way before I even knew of the existence of weighted blankets. <\/span><\/p>\n

Even though It doesn\u2019t happen to me anymore, I\u2019ve experienced what most anxious people experience throughout many years, just that my episodes came in a different way:<\/span><\/p>\n

While sleeping…<\/p>\n

They are more commonly referred to as NPAs (or night panic attacks), and they are a common affliction of people with anxiety disorders. <\/span><\/p>\n

These particular episodes used to trigger sheer-horror on me, to say it in a few words, but more of this ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n

My Episodes<\/h3>\n

Given that anxiety episodes come from the subconscious, sleeping was the only time when they could take over my mind, and avoid every last bit of logic-reasoning I had when I was awake, and made me panic while asleep about things that I couldn\u2019t even try to describe in real life.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but I\u2019ll try to help you guys understand better.<\/span><\/p>\n

The anxiety used to kick-in full motion when triggered by this recurrent \u201cnightmare\u201d I had, and I\u2019m not even sure that it was a nightmare, because sometimes it happened while I was starting to fall asleep, so it was more like a \u201cfeeling\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Those weren\u2019t the regular dreams where you can identify objects or dimensions, or even yourself.<\/span><\/p>\n

No\u2026 These \u201cnightmares\u201d took me inside of a strange mind-state.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the dream started, I constantly used to try to understand where I was, or what I was feeling, and I couldn\u2019t even get close to doing so, since the \u201cplace\u201d I was, was infinite: no dimensions, no colors, nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n

And as I started understanding that there wasn\u2019t anything to be understood there, I would constantly try to count -Yeah, \u201cCOUNT\u201d- (I\u2019m a man of maths, and I used to think that maybe counting numbers could help me make sense out of it).<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, it never did, and I usually found out that there was nothing to count, and it would never end, because time was also infinite in that dream, so I wasn\u2019t going anywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

It felt like I had to be there forever, and as my anxiety grew to a point where I felt I couldn\u2019t manage my sanity anymore (usually short after finding out that, in the dream, I wasn\u2019t breathing) then I would wake up.<\/span><\/p>\n

And, as usual, waking up took a while to become a relief, after several minutes of hyperventilating, sweating and trembling.<\/span><\/p>\n

No, I would recommend that experience to anyone. And yes, I know that some people go through that on a day-to-day basis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, in order to tell you a little more about his, let’s talk a little about anxiety first.<\/p>\n

Anxiety and Depression: A Quick Overview<\/h2>\n

Anxiety is a very serious condition, in fact, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America<\/a> (ADAA) <\/span>18.1% of the population<\/span>\u00a0in the US are affected by anxiety disorders. They also state that \u201cNearly one-half of those diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even if you haven’t been diagnosed with it, you must know that occasional anxiety is a normal part of a life experience, and even though the worst episodes of anxiety can be really hard to explain -especially to anyone that hasn’t gone through one of them- but I’ll try to tell you what it is about.<\/p>\n

There are several kinds of anxiety and the main ones are:<\/p>\n