If you’ve seen me lately, and have been wondering why I’ve been giggling randomly to myself, it’s all the fault of my last float… Continue reading Sara’s favorite float so far
Tag Archives: altered states
A story of depression, anxiety and PTSD
“I remained happy, and carried with me the positive feeling into the next two days. It was almost a ‘celebratory’ feeling. One that has not been produced by any other medications, therapies, or methods of dealing with the individual diagnoses I live with. I didn’t feel the need for the anti-anxiety medications for nearly two days. Which, in my current state, almost never happens.” —Andrew
“Andrew” is a real person, though that’s not his real name. Over the last two years he’s been clinically diagnosed with Treatment-Resistant Major Depressive Disorder, PTSD, and Anxiety Disorder. He has worked with trauma therapists and all the resources in the Boston area, including MGH and McLean hospital. He’s even gone so far as to participate in clinical studies at MGH for current drug trials that are being studied for his particular diagnosis. To date, nothing has significantly improved his quality of life, and is left with very few options short of electroconvulsive therapy.
© Galilla S (flickr), CC-BY-SA
He contacted us, wanting to know if he could try floating before committing to anything so drastic as ECT. Sara and I gave it a little thought and said, you know what, helping someone like this is exactly why we want to open FLOAT. We offered a series of three floats over three weeks, if he would write up his experiences before and after so that we could share them here.
[After my third float] I felt calm and happy, an experience I can’t remember having in a long time. So much so that I was unfamiliar with it, and didn’t know what to do with the positive happy feeling. I know how to take care of myself in the dark troubling times, but over the last few years, have lost the innate knowledge of how to feel happy, and what to do with that time.
This is an anecdote – one person’s experience, and no kind of clinically controlled trial. Please interpret with caution. Still we were thrilled with the results, and are excited to share them here.
In floating, the mind follows the body
One of our guest floaters, Joshua, came out of the tank with an interesting comment that he had found the sense of relaxation he obtained to be quite different than his experience of massage or yoga. We asked him what he meant, and he wrote us a great discussion. With his permission, we’re sharing it here:
Many people compare floating to the relaxation available from meditation or yoga. In quick simple terms, I found floating to be the exact opposite of these two techniques. In floating, the mind follows the body. In yoga and meditation, the body follows the mind.
I also experienced a marked difference in the type of “quiet mind” that the other two techniques produce. Having said that, once familiar with the experience of floating, even when going back to meditation it became easier to “get there” and easier to “stay there”.
I want to float
In our December 2013 newsletter, as we were laying the groundwork for our float center, we asked our readers if they’d like to come over and float in the Space Burrito. We figured we had time to handle five people, and imagined we might get about that many responses, maybe double that. We gave them some things to consider about our home float tank, and said:
If all that doesn’t seem too weird and you still want to come try out our vintage float tank, then write us a little something about floating and you. What about it appeals to you? Why do you want to try it? No need to write a term paper; a paragraph or two will do.
Almost immediately, the responses started to pop in. Continue reading I want to float
First reactions
After we got our float tank up and running, we started having our friends come by and try it out. They’d helped us in numerous ways, including actually hauling the thing into our basement and maneuvering it into place. We were excited to share floating with them, and they were excited to try it out! Here are some of our friends’ thoughts after floating for the first time.