Experiences using the weighted blanket
Jan. 14th, 2022 01:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrLeaving unlocked because it might be useful to link to.
In case I do link this to someone who doesn't know me: I have generalised anxiety and some signs of autism and/or ADHD, as well as chronic fatigue syndrome which makes me generally weak, sore and bad at carrying heavy things.
So: 9kg is heavy! It's enough of a pain to move around I think I'm going to have to mostly leave it in the bedroom and just cope with not having it when Cam's asleep and I'm on the couch, maybe I'll buy another one for the loungeroom. I think it's maybe hurting my legs a little with the weight? Hard to tell, my leg pain is within it's usual variation, especially taking into account the time spent carrying a 9kg blanket, but I definitely have a "ehhh no thank you" feeling from my legs when I think about using it. When I put it on my chest my head feels a little weird, like more blood is pumping into it. Also it's quite warm, which isn't ideal in Summer.
On the other hand it works so well I still love it, and don't like the idea of a lighter and thus less effective one. I guess I could fold a 4kg one in half for more flexibility of weight? But I generally want the full weight when I want it at all, so idk if that would make much difference. Maybe I'll try just putting it on my chest and arms for a bit.
I was hoping it would help with two things (a) general anxiety (b) a specific sort of...buzzing discomfort in my skin I think of as my body going INPUT INPUT. I've found both respond well to stim-ish things like interlacing my fingers, pressure on my wrists etc, especially the latter.
And it does help with both of them! It doesn't always make the feeling entirely go away but definitely quiets my brain.
The other night I was having a relatively mild anxiety attack about a genuinely scary thing and the blanket shut it down surprisingly well. I still didn't feel great about the thing, but the screaming alarm of immediate danger had become a calm awareness of not feeling very happy, and I just sat with that and thought through it until I felt a bit better.
With the INPUT INPUT feeling I end up feeling kind of blank, like the horrible buzzing has been replaced with calm silence but my brain still doesn't have room for any real thought. So I just sort of zone out staring at nothing in particular. It's not boring exactly, but it is mildly frustrating to just have to sit there and wait it out. It's still much better than the alternative.
I was hoping the blanket would mean less time spent feeling both "AHHH MUST DO SOMETHING" and "AHHHH CAN'T DO ANYTHING TOO ANXIOUS/BUZZY" and it does, just not in quite the way I expected/hoped for. Sometimes it's obvious I just need to rest but my anxiety has decided I Must Do Something, or demands a distraction. But I thought at least some of it was genuine boredom/motivation, and the inability to do anything about it was the anxiety/understimulation undercutting my attention span/ability to enjoy things.
But it seems the feeling of boredom/motivation was just a side effect of the anxiety/understimulation, and the inability to do anything is there even once you take the anxiety/understimulation away, like they're two sides of the same...neuroatypicality attack or whatever the hell it is. The best case scenario is me still not doing anything, but just not feeling so bad about it.
EDIT: Ok last night it happened like I thought it would: felt anxious and motivated, blanket calmed me down a little and then I felt able to get things done. The blanket was less helpful for this sort of anxiety.
Still have to wait and see what the overall effect will be, beyond the immediate short term effect.
In case I do link this to someone who doesn't know me: I have generalised anxiety and some signs of autism and/or ADHD, as well as chronic fatigue syndrome which makes me generally weak, sore and bad at carrying heavy things.
So: 9kg is heavy! It's enough of a pain to move around I think I'm going to have to mostly leave it in the bedroom and just cope with not having it when Cam's asleep and I'm on the couch, maybe I'll buy another one for the loungeroom. I think it's maybe hurting my legs a little with the weight? Hard to tell, my leg pain is within it's usual variation, especially taking into account the time spent carrying a 9kg blanket, but I definitely have a "ehhh no thank you" feeling from my legs when I think about using it. When I put it on my chest my head feels a little weird, like more blood is pumping into it. Also it's quite warm, which isn't ideal in Summer.
On the other hand it works so well I still love it, and don't like the idea of a lighter and thus less effective one. I guess I could fold a 4kg one in half for more flexibility of weight? But I generally want the full weight when I want it at all, so idk if that would make much difference. Maybe I'll try just putting it on my chest and arms for a bit.
I was hoping it would help with two things (a) general anxiety (b) a specific sort of...buzzing discomfort in my skin I think of as my body going INPUT INPUT. I've found both respond well to stim-ish things like interlacing my fingers, pressure on my wrists etc, especially the latter.
And it does help with both of them! It doesn't always make the feeling entirely go away but definitely quiets my brain.
The other night I was having a relatively mild anxiety attack about a genuinely scary thing and the blanket shut it down surprisingly well. I still didn't feel great about the thing, but the screaming alarm of immediate danger had become a calm awareness of not feeling very happy, and I just sat with that and thought through it until I felt a bit better.
With the INPUT INPUT feeling I end up feeling kind of blank, like the horrible buzzing has been replaced with calm silence but my brain still doesn't have room for any real thought. So I just sort of zone out staring at nothing in particular. It's not boring exactly, but it is mildly frustrating to just have to sit there and wait it out. It's still much better than the alternative.
I was hoping the blanket would mean less time spent feeling both "AHHH MUST DO SOMETHING" and "AHHHH CAN'T DO ANYTHING TOO ANXIOUS/BUZZY" and it does, just not in quite the way I expected/hoped for. Sometimes it's obvious I just need to rest but my anxiety has decided I Must Do Something, or demands a distraction. But I thought at least some of it was genuine boredom/motivation, and the inability to do anything about it was the anxiety/understimulation undercutting my attention span/ability to enjoy things.
But it seems the feeling of boredom/motivation was just a side effect of the anxiety/understimulation, and the inability to do anything is there even once you take the anxiety/understimulation away, like they're two sides of the same...neuroatypicality attack or whatever the hell it is. The best case scenario is me still not doing anything, but just not feeling so bad about it.
EDIT: Ok last night it happened like I thought it would: felt anxious and motivated, blanket calmed me down a little and then I felt able to get things done. The blanket was less helpful for this sort of anxiety.
Still have to wait and see what the overall effect will be, beyond the immediate short term effect.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-15 10:20 pm (UTC)I got one from Aldi with a cooling cover (which can be removed and washed). You might be able to find a cover in your blanket's size?
It's not magic -- I still had to take my pyjama pants off and stick my feet outside the blanket last night -- but it's better than nothing, especially when I wake up at 2am and need to have a blanket on me.
no subject
Date: 2022-01-17 02:36 pm (UTC)Huh, maybe! I'll look into it, thank you.
Thanks for sharing
Date: 2022-01-19 09:22 pm (UTC)They are heavy -- I gave up trying to lug my 5.5kg blanket from room to room. The weight is too much when I'm fully supine (lying down). (I already use a blanket support at the foot of the bed because my feet don't like to be weighted down by standard sheets/quilt.)
When I'm in my recliner, the bottom edge is on my calves and then folded in half to cover the rest of me, so actually the same weight as yours.
It's definitely soothing -- I feel like my only job is to lay there, instead of worrying at what I should be doing.
Re: Thanks for sharing
Date: 2022-01-21 12:34 pm (UTC)Yeah I'm thinking a 5.5 folded in half might suit me better a lot of the time.