If you are dealing with depression, anxiety, or other mental health issues, you will come across a wide range of treatment options. One of the most surprising options you will find is osteopathy. Simply put, osteopathy involves the use of physical therapy such as moving, touching, stretching and mobilising joints and muscles to deal with health issues.
Considering the basic mechanism of osteopathy, many people often feel it is not suitable for dealing with mental health problems. However, nothing could be further from the truth because osteopathy can solve mental and physical health issues. So, what is the link between osteopathy and mental health? Can osteopathy relieve mental health challenges?
Here are the answers you need:
The link between osteopathy and mental health
If you take the time to consider osteopathy and mental health, you will notice that the relationship between the two concepts is not farfetched. Health is an all-encompassing concept with diverse branches. So, it is not a surprise that physical health or mental health doesn’t stand alone.
Your mind and body function together. If something is wrong with your body, your mind will be affected and vice versa. Therefore, anything that affects your physical health will have an impact on your mental well-being.
As a result of this, you can use osteopathy to improve your physical well-being. Over time, this will have a notable effect on your mental health. In view of this, you should not overlook osteopathy whenever you want to deal with any mental health issue.
How can osteopathy improve our mental health?
When dealing with depression, anxiety, unhappiness, and a host of mental health problems, osteopathy can come in handy to solve the issues. In general, a London osteopath assesses your condition to see what you are going through.
Afterwards, such a professional will create a customised treatment option to take care of your needs. This option will likely combine an array of osteopathic techniques such as a massage, breathing exercise, spinal manipulation, and muscle energy technique. Each of these techniques will play a specific role to help you to deal with physical factors that may be responsible for the mental health issues you are dealing with.
An example of how osteopathy may aid mental health
Let’s use anxiety or depression as an example to see how osteopathy may help to alleviate mental health problems. In a bid to make a living, lots of people are involved in stressful, energy-sapping work that is taking a toll on their bodies. Also, stress at school, home, etc. is contributing to the challenges many people are facing.
As a result of these challenges, we can suffer from:
- Poor posture – depending on the kind of work you are doing.
- Digestive problems – this will result in reduced appetite, nausea and other issues that make it difficult to eat enough.
- Difficult breathing – breathing may become shallower and shorter. This can lead to persistent headaches as well as tightness in the neck and jaw.
- Muscular tightness – this can be due to constant movement from one place to another.
If not treated immediately, these physical health issues will start making the affected individual feel tired, exhausted or fatigued. No matter how mentally strong the person is, the issues will start telling on their mental health as they become unhappy and unmotivated. The person may experience restlessness, anxiety and/or depression as they struggle to deal with their physical challenges.
To deal with the resulting depression and anxiety, an osteopath can use the following methods:
- Body stretches – this technique will alleviate the tension in the muscles in the upper back, neck, and thoracic region. Body stretches will help you to relax and sleep better.
- Breathing exercises – these exercises can reduce blood pressure and heart rate. When these things happen, you are bound to experience an improvement in the symptoms of depression and anxiety.
- Massage – an osteopath can use a soft tissue massage to apply deep pressure to different parts of your body. The massage will get rid of unwanted fluid, make the blood circulate better, and help your muscles to relax.
When all these methods are used and you experience an improvement in your physical health, you will feel better about yourself. You will feel happy and motivated; hence, some common mental health issues will disappear.
Osteopathy can relieve mental health issues
Although the link between the two concepts is not straightforward, osteopathy can come in handy for anyone looking for a way to deal with mental health problems. So, if you would like to solve a mental health issue, you should think about combining osteopathy with other treatment options available today.