Where to get massage to relieve depression

It is used daily to help relieve depression, chest tightness, head heaviness and other discomforts associated with depression. The commonly used locations are Baihui on the top of the head, Shenmen on the wrist, Tanzhong on the chest, and Taichong on the instep. The feedback on the effect is generally good.

I accompanied a friend to the Psychosomatic Department of a traditional Chinese medicine hospital for a follow-up consultation. The doctor who treated me said that I had recently met several young office workers who were mildly depressed. They all complained that their chests felt like they had half a wet sponge pressed down on them, making them unable to breathe. So they taught me how to press Tanzhong, which is the midpoint between the two nipples. Don’t use too much force, just press it to feel sore and swollen, 3 times each time. Release the button for 0 seconds, rest for 10 seconds, and then press it again. You can do it while commuting or in meetings. Last week, I met one of the girls and she said that she had persisted for almost three weeks and her chest tightness was reduced by almost two-thirds. Sometimes when she gets emotional, she can’t help crying. If she presses Tanzhong for two minutes, she won’t be in a panic like before and can’t stop for a long time after crying.

When I had an anxiety attack and was depressed in the past, I often pressed the Shenmen point, which is in the striated pit on the inside of the wrist near the side of the little finger. Put your wrist on the table and you can reach it with your thumb. When you rub it, you will feel soreness running up your arm. After rubbing it for a minute or two, the bad things that are going over and over in your mind seem to slow down. If you feel that your head is too heavy to lift, just clench your knuckles and tap for a hundred times, right in the middle of the top of your head. Do this for dozens of times, and you will feel numbness and swelling, as if some wind is coming in from the top of your head that has been stuffy for a long time, and you will feel much better. When soaking your feet at night, you can also press Taichong. Push it up between the big toe and the second toe, and push it to the position between the bones. Many people will hiss and gasp in pain when they press this position when they are angry or in a bad mood. Pressing it for two minutes can dissipate a lot of the unknown fire in the chest.

But to be honest, there is no unified conclusion in the industry on the effect of massage in relieving depression. Some studies believe that massage can reduce the level of cortisol, the stress hormone, and promote the secretion of endorphins, which can indeed help relax the mood from a physiological level.； Some scholars believe that this is more of a function of psychological suggestion. To put it bluntly, it means that you spend time taking care of your body and draw your attention away from the trivial things that annoy you. In essence, it is not much different from the mood improvement brought about by holding a cat and petting for ten minutes or drinking a cup of your favorite hot milk tea.

I personally feel that there is no need to worry about whether it is a physiological effect or a psychological effect, as long as it is useful, but it must be understood clearly that massage can only be used as an auxiliary means, just like drinking more hot water when you have a cold cannot replace taking antipyretics. If you have been diagnosed with moderate to severe depression, you must not expect to press a few acupuncture points. If you need to take medicine according to the doctor's instructions, take medicine, and if you need psychological counseling, do psychological counseling. These small methods are just to help you have a little more comfortable hand in your difficult daily life.