Does Reflexology work for Anxiety?

Introduction:

Young or old, we are all a very anxious and stressed generation. Anxiety is sometimes a misunderstood concept. It is actually an acceptable and healthy emotion. But, it only gets worse when someone feels anxiety at disproportionate levels at regular intervals and this is when it becomes a medical disorder.

Anxiety issues form a mental health category, which eventually leads to an extreme level of fear, nervousness, apprehension, and signs of wiriness. As a consequence of this disorder, it alters the way a person expresses his emotions and how he may behave. Extreme anxiety levels could seriously affect the life of a person on a daily basis.

Does reflexology work for anxiety-Image courtesy Healthista.com

Million Dollar Question - Does Reflexology work for Anxiety?

The straightforward answer to this question is ‘Yes’. Reflexology does work in curing or controlling anxiety in patients and results are better than any other treatment. The anxiety of late has become a very common issue with lots of people struggling with the same disorder while having similar or varying symptoms.

In the United States alone, 40 million people suffer from anxiety disorders and that makes it the most common disorder in the mental illness category. However, as per a research, a little less than 37% of anxiety patients only receive medical treatment.

There could be various reasons associated with anxiety patients not receiving medical treatment. However, the medical treatment consists of medication and it may also be combined with behavioral therapy and/ or psychotherapy to treat the disorder. Medications might also have certain side effects, due to which people prefer not to take the treatment.

Further, certain people suffering from depression, alcohol dependence, and certain other conditions could be so much influenced under some other conditions that the treatment of anxiety disorder is still in process and developing in stages while taking different forms.

Reflexology – The Best Possible Solution:

Reflexology does work in alleviating anxiety and it has proved to be one of the most effective and risk-free approaches to treat anxiety. Reflexology is actually a massage technique through which manual pressure is exerted on various pressure points in the body that helps in relieving from anxiety, tension, stress and several other mental and other types of disorders. Those pressure points could be in the hands, feet, shoulder, neck or any other part of the body where each pressure point addresses one or more health conditions.

Anxiety patients do feel better when multiple organs within their body come to their best performance level. For example, foot or hand reflexology to alleviate anxiety might help in controlling the disorder by enhancing blood flow to the extreme points in the body, controlling blood pressure or maintaining the heart rate.

This is the safest and most effective way to get rid of such long time illness with no use of medication. For reflexology, you do not need any equipment. All you need is to have a trained professional or help yourself by learning the art of reflexology.

Why Reflexology should be used for treating Stress and Anxiety Disorders?

According to a Reflexology study in 2000 with cancer patients, it was concluded that for people having high anxiety and stress levels, reflexology can be extremely helpful in calming down the body, nervous system and also to control the generic overall anxiety symptoms.

Any people decide to visit a professional reflexologist in the initial days of anxiety for consultation. Their curiosity is more towards how their body would respond to reflexology treatment and whether it will be an effective treatment for anxiety or not.


Cancer patients are also found to be dealing with excessive anxiety. Therefore, a study on cancer patients having anxiety proved to be really helpful in understanding the role of reflexology in controlling anxiety. For cancer patients study, foot reflexology was the main technique used in the treatment.

For a sample of 23 patients, it was deduced in the results that foot reflexology was extremely effective and it considerably reduced the symptoms of anxiety in cancer patients. On top of that, the reflexology treatment in cancer patients also helped with pain management and nausea. (anatomyfacts.com)

Pressure Points in Reflexology Context to Help in Anxiety:

Reflexology is definitely a science and the modern reflexology is in practice for the last 60 years. Techniques remain the same and it is just the better of how good you are with the identification of pressure points and which ones are effective for addressing anxiety woes. The following I a brief description of some of the key pressure points, which could be employed for controlling anxiety and several other mental disorders:

•    Hand area – The hand area could have a number of pressure points to be used for treating anxiety and other similar mental disorders. The overall benefit of hand massage also includes the complete relaxation of the body that eventually helps with anxiety as well. As per reflexologists, if your hands are found to be tense then this means you are stressed physically.

The reflexology of hands idea is just to free yourself from the trapped tension and also allow your body to calm down. Tense fingers in a clenched hands point to stress and an open palm with dangling fingers points that you are in a much-relaxed state. Professional reflexologists could also show you a chart having a hand with all the pressure points that they may try to simulate in our hand.

•    Foot area – There have been certain researches and studies that have approved that proper foot reflexology can help people struggling with stress, anxiety, pain and nausea disorders. In 2000, a study was carried out on a sample of cancer patients with anxiety who were given foot reflexology sessions for a certain period of time.

The results obtained showed that significant improvement in anxiety and also getting relaxed was observed. Actually, there are specific areas or pressure points in the feet, which when massaged could alter the complete energy flow within the body, only if it is simulated properly.

Foot reflexology and anxiety

•    Stomach area – This is also another very common pressure point to relieve people from anxiety. It is imperative to understand here that the energy system or chakra, which is located just between your navel and the rib cage needs to be soothed. Applying reflexology around the mentioned stomach area helps in lessening anxiety and to relax an overactive nervous system. It also eliminates or at least controls the uncomfortable stomach feeling.

Many people struggling with anxiety also have issues related to having a knotted stomach or feeling a lot of butterflies in it. Calming the stomach area actually gives healthier breathing and it also lessens the physical exertion that stress might have taken over your body.

•    Head area – This is also another area that reflexologists target to counter anxiety in people and several other disorders as well. If you experience anxiety with frequent stress or tension headaches then that could be a sign that your body is under extreme stress. At the point when epinephrine and cortisol production dominates along with the nervous system (sympathetic), then it becomes virtually impossible to relax for the human body. Although, this kind of issue is far less common in anxiety people, still many reflexologists target the head area at certain pressure points to help a person relax or to come out of anxiety.

Let us take this opportunity to also talk about the wrist reflexology, which has proved to be another effective method to deal with stress and anxiety. This technique might not be as popular or old as the foot or hand massage, but nonetheless, it is one of the finest and highly effective ones as well. Refer to the below points to practice this reflexology technique for you or your loved ones to get them out of anxiety or stress disorder:

•    The pressure point on the wrist is located just below the hand.
•    You need to measure twice the width of the thumbnail from the palm’s base.
•    Place your thumb gently over the point where you see the large branches of veins coming close to each other.
•    The veins could be pumped out for easy visibility by making a fist.
•    Now make sure that your hands are fully relaxed and then you need to press against the targeted pressure point on the wrist.
•    Pressing should continue until you experience slight pain.
•    The pressure point in the same position should be gently massaged while keeping the pressure on it.
•    Repeat the same process for the other wrist as well.

The Final Verdict:

As we have learned above that reflexology is the go-to procedure for many people to treat anxiety. It is just the idea of knowing the key pressure points that are directly or indirectly related to the alleviation of anxiety.

Reflexology needs to be educated and could only be effective when the desired pressure points are ideally simulated. Positive results can be obtained with regular reflexology sessions continued over a good few weeks.

The best part is reflexology for anxiety works in the most natural manner and with no side effects at all, which conventional medication for anxiety does have.