Mental health and massage (part 1)

We know that massage feels good.

Did you know that it helps with mental health?

Here's part 1 of this 2-part series on the mental health crisis.

I'll talk about surprising stats. In the next post, we'll investigate how massage can help.

Mental health conditions are rapidly rising, especially with the whole COVID-19 scene making things even trickier.

I get stressed out just seeing my FB memories from 2020...

There are just some memories that hit home a little too hard.

Here's a breakdown of what's been going down, along with some links to dive deeper:

Worldwide Crunch:

A big review and mash-up of studies on PubMed spilled the beans on how mental health issues are playing out on a global level:

Feeling Blue: 28.0% of folks are dealing with depression [1]

Nervous Nellies: Anxiety is hitting 26.9% of the population [1]

Counting Sheep: Around 27.6% are struggling with snooze struggles [1]

These numbers show just how heavy the load is on mental wellness. Do you find these numbers as alarming as I do?

Pandemic Surge:

Another PubMed gem took a peek at surveys in the US and saw a spike in mental health concerns:

In just 3 years, mental health (as recorded by physicians) declined with over 9% of the population. That's INSANE.

The population as a whole world wide suffered from:

Depression: 28.0% [1]
Anxiety: 26.9% [1]
Sleep Problems: 27.6% [1]

Oy. I had never understood anxiety until the "Just 2 weeks to flatten the curve" turned into months and months.

Starting from a 20.02% baseline in 2017, the numbers jumped to 29.63% in the pandemic of 2020 [2].

They discovered that:

✔️ Money matters (the lack of ability to provide) [1] (duh.)

✔️ How ready they were to tackle mental health issues made an impact. [1]

If you wanna learn more, here are some deets:

If you're keen to dig into the studies, punch in these PMIDs on PubMed:

🔍 PMID: 33986414 [1]
🔍 PMID: 32988427 [2]

Or maybe you're just like me and want to forget it all.

The good news?

Massage can help
-reduce anxiety
-eradicate stress
-enhance mind-body connection
-improve sleep
-reduce pain

All of these symptoms can be problematic when a client's mental health declines.

You'll find more info in my next blog post.

🔥 TIP:
Use this as an idea to email your clients and get them to schedule!

If you're feeling overwhelmed, this link might help. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has a bunch of resources and stats to help