But, no, I have not had the experience. However, I do think that you are looking in a very promising area.
Each morning as the meds begin their dance, I come to a point where if I stretch my arms and legs the progress will continue but if I do not I can lose the whole thing and face a miserable morning. I have assumed that at least two possibilities exist. One is the fact that stretching the belly or center section of a muscle causes it to, in effect, wake up and begin to respond to insulin. The other possibility is the fact that at the ends of the muscles are special stretch receptors that are activated by doing so.
It is, as you describe, as though I am lacking the essential feedback that tells me where my limbs are - sort of a "Lost in Space" feeling. While not as direct, I also find it a help to use a stiff brush on my skin to flood my senses. There seems to be some sort of threshold to be attained.
I wonder if any of these could be "simply" (Ha!!) release of dopamine in response to the physical pleasure?
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Originally Posted by Fiona
So has any anybody out there had the experience as part of a physical therapy approach of having your body stretched passively by others? It seems like such a no brainer that if people are having a hard time moving their limbs on their own, having someone else gently extend them and gradually increase the range of motion would be invaluable.
I am particularly interested to know if anyone has had work done specifically by either someone else guiding the limbs with their own hands - or else been directed to move themselves - from the very periphery of the body.. In other words, moving by initiating the movement from the fingertips or toes...I have found this enormously helpful to relieve dystonia, and am now working with it more consciously to rebuild sensation and expand movement range. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? Like if you take a crunched up piece of elastic and try and stretch the middle out, you won't get very far. However, if you pull on both ends, then it will stretch to full range beautifully.
I have a hunch that working this way is greatly feeding and rebuilding important sensory neurons, and healing a broken sense of one's own kinesphere.
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