Anyone else scared to relax or stretch?

[dodo]

Sounds odd I know but I am almost frightened if the feeling of bring relaxed. I know my ectopics gave happened when relaxed so this may be the case but I just gave a real problem untensing.

I also find when I stretch that I feel lightheaded and like I can't breathe properly and like I'm gasping for air.

Has abyone got any advice for me?

[PokerFace]

I get the light headed feeling when I stretch, also my heart goes a bit funny like beats REALLY strongly when I do it, not like missed beat strong but still fairly strong!

Ectopics won't come EVERY time you relax or untense your muscles, they're more likely to come if you associate them with relaxing and untensing. I associated them with hot baths and showers and every time I had a bath or shower I'd get atleast 2 pretty viscious ectopics cuz I was expecting them. This went on for months cuz I couldn't avoid baths or showers cuz I have 1 everday but I was finding it really traumatic lol! Then one day I got in the shower and had none cuz I wasn't even thinking about ectopics. I only get them in the shower or bath now if I wind myself up about them.

ANYWAY. I guess what I'm trying to say is just relax and let them come if they do. Try not to dwell on them or bring them on yourself and they'll stop giving you greif again. xx :)

[Vixxy]

I was scared of relaxation for years. I felt that keeping my body tense was stopping the anxiety coming and kept me safe.
I had a bad relapse at the beginning of this year and finally came to the realisation that being tense was obviously NOT helping me in the least! So I started to practise relaxation. It wasn't easy with my body screaming at me that I should remain tense. It does this as part of the fight or flight reflex, if you're tense then you're ready to fight or run. However we're not about to need the strength that the tension provides, so the tension only serves to keep all those stress hormones flowing through your body.
As soon as you can relax your muscles your body will reduce the stress hormones in your blood.
So my advice is to face it. Before you go to sleep tonight. Get yourself comfy in bed and focus on relaxing each part of your body. Feet, calves, knees, thighs, buttocks, stomach, chest, back, shoulders, neck, hands, arms, chin, mouth, eyes and finally your forehead. Move onto the next section once the previous one feels relaxed.
You will be amazed at how much better you can feel once you get the hang of it.

[dodo]

I have dine relaxation in the past and found it very beneficial. I'm in a fair bit of pain and tingling everywhere today following my bad patch. It seems to be wearing off but I am still a bit fearful of letting go. Just been to the shops and could feel myself tensing and not breathing properly.

Also something else I do is if I have a pain in my chest for instance I press on it it move in a certain way to see if the pain is because of tensing and then it's almost reassurance to keep myself like that ad I know it's just muscular?

Apologies for my spelling as I'm on my phone Internet.

[PokerFace]

I do that with pains in my chest, at one point I actually scratched and bruised myself all over my chest cuz I was doin it so often!

Face the fear and do it anyway remember :) If you found relaxation benificial before, you will again. It's just getting around the scary part that's the hardest but you're strong enough to do it dodo, much stronger than you give yourself credit for. xx