This is something rather different from me today! One, because I normally focus on travel but, two, because this is all relatively new to me and people don’t seem to get it? But, I thought that if its helping me, it could potentially help others too and even if it was just one person then, my job here is done!
I know I suffer from anxiety, I don’t need a doctor to tell me I do. Mental illnesses run in our family and know the feeling of my heart wanting to explode out of my chest, having days when I haven’t been able to eat a morsel of food due to worrying to the extremes of binge eating to try to ease my internal pains. I’ve always been able to just about carry on through life using calms and my own coping mechanisms to keep panic attacks at bay, which have happened. But, recently I’ve felt even more relaxed than normal and I feel like I owe a lot of that to ASMR.
ASMR stands for “autonomous sensory meridian response” – if you put it in to google, this is what you will find as its description at the most basic level:
ASMR is an experience characterized by a static-like or tingling sensation on the skin that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. It has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia and may overlap with frisson. ASMR signifies the subjective experience of “low-grade euphoria” characterized by “a combination of positive feelings and a distinct static-like tingling sensation on the skin”. It is most commonly triggered by specific auditory or visual stimuli, and less commonly by intentional attention control
Anyone who experiences or enjoys it have their own triggers. I read an article about someone who found the sound of someone continuously writing in a book a comforting and soothing sound, that often once it stopped they missed the sound. It can be something as monotonous as watching someone repetitively paint a wall or pulling stickers off plastic. It’s a strange sensation that I often find it hard to explain, but it does come back to the repetitiveness of a sound or action that chills me out.
I didn’t know what this was up until a few months ago. I was the weird kid at school who would ask her friend to play with her hair or tickle her arm in class. It would send me to sleep or the very least relax me in tense situations (thank god I had a sister and friend who obliged!) I’d often be sat on Facebook and those sped up videos of people cutting and dying hair would come up and I’d be instantly mesmerised by the action of it, at the time I didn’t even realise there was an explanation for it, it was just nice to watch but I always wished they were longer videos.
As I mentioned I saw a lot hair play/cut videos pop up on my timeline but eventually due to the algorithm someone called Gentle Whisperings started appearing too. At first it seemed really odd, there was this blonde, Russian woman whispering at different volumes whilst combing a dolls head on my feed, but because I’d previously enjoyed similar videos I started watching them here and there. Eventually I noticed the “ASMR” in the title of the videos so I took a delve in to reading all about it, and I found that the triggers, the sensations and how other people used it to combat stress and anxiety, were exactly the same as I what I had done without actually realising I was. The penny dropped & I instantly felt like I’d found nearly all the answers I needed.
Everyone that I’ve mentioned it to finds it really odd that I enjoy watching or listening to ASMR videos and eventually the two words come, “you’re weird.” Normally that would be something that would stop me from sharing it with others, but I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t. But, I feel like I’ve become a much more relaxed person to be around from watching it. I would often find the negatives in everything but actually I’m way more chilled out since ASMR consciously came in to my life that I can done one of two things, completely ignore anyone that’s being remotely negative around me or instead, find positives in the negatives that someone presents me. I’m not hiding it because I don’t feel ashamed about it. In a way it’s just like listening to the Calm App or videos with the sounds of waves or whale sounds – it’s therapeutic in its own way and it makes me feel better and eradicates (or close to) the stresses, worries and struggles I have with myself everyday, then surely that can only be a good thing?
“Tingle’s” are the sensation that some ASMR lovers get when they watch or listen to their favourite videos. It’s a tingly feeling that runs from the top of your head and down your spine as if someone is playing with your hair – and yes, I do actually sometimes get these! My main triggers are the hair combing, hair inspection and hair separation videos. Both from a visual aspect and the sound of it. My secondary trigger is also repetitive tapping sounds on wood or plastic.
I’ll be honest, there’s two main times when I use ASMR. One being when I’m at work, this is usually just to listen to the sounds, if work is particularly stressful or I need some “quiet time” to myself I stick my headphones in and listen to the noise. It gives me that time to just escape from the distractions around me so I can focus better on what I’m doing.
I also find that when I’m going to sleep all the things that have worried me recently I start to think of as soon as my head hits the pillow and the lights go out. My heartbeat races and I get hot with imagining all the strange scenarios my worries could all lead to. By using the videos before my brain goes in to overdrive, it feels like my head has been emptied as I’m just focussed on watching the videos.
When I get in to bed – rather than scrolling aimlessly, something that will usually keep me awake, I watch the videos to give a sense of calm in the bedroom. My husband doesn’t particularly like the sounds so when he went on a stag do I found it incredibly difficult to sleep with him not next to me, so I played the videos and fell asleep to them within a matter of minutes of switching the videos on.
Weirdly, I’m not a massive fan of YouTubers who add their mics to brushes and combs – they do this to create a more intense sound. For me the noise becomes far too muffled and scratchy that it makes me completely switch off. That’s a huge no-no for me! At the other end of the scale, I don’t like it when I can hardly hear the hair brushing or tapping. This is usually down to more amateur video creators who don’t have the right microphones or tech to pick up the sound.
It might sound odd, but I also don’t enjoy listening to UK accents whispering on their videos either! To me, it just sounds strange and I focus too much on that when I hear it, that the intention to relax suddenly becomes nul and void by it.
I found I picked up on things that I didn’t enjoy just as much as the triggers that I did like just as quick.
Once I realised that ASMR was “a thing” I immediately went over to YouTube to follow Gentle Whisperings and found a whole host of other, longer videos that she had created. I think for me, she is my favourite, simply because her voice (or whispers!) is very soothing – she seems to know what people enjoy.
I really enjoy Prisma ASMR for their hair examination and separation videos, there’s no talking but I really enjoy just watching or listening to it when I need instant relaxation – a really good channel to fall asleep to.
itsblitzzz is a great channel to subscribe to as she regularly gets her fans to come along and film an ASMR video with her, she’ll do hair play, massage and back tracing that’s quite relaxing to watch. He hand movements are what draw me in as well.
I get it, some of you might be thinking that I’m even weirder than you thought I was, but there may be some of you who are slightly intrigued by it all and want to see if it works for you in terms of reducing your stress levels and anxiety. I’m not claiming it is a magic fix for all, but going off my own experiences I’m finding that it really helping me become a calmer, more balanced and rational person for it. If you have any inkling to see what it is all about, try checking out the ASMR creators I mentioned and start working out if you have any triggers that make you feel relaxed and calm. it might be exactly what you were looking for!
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