The float tank or sensory deprivation tank can be said to have come around full circle in the medical field as more and more individuals have come to find the treatment useful towards treating a variety of ailments.
Originally known as the isolation tank they were officially conceptualized and built by Dr. John C Lilly in the 50s who was a doctor of medicine and psychoanalyst deprives the inhabitant of the tanks of all external environmental stimuli (sight, gravity, sound, temperature, and smell) which frees the mind from the experiences of day to day consciousness which according to researchers has a tremendous impact on treating anxiety.
Treatment of anxiety, for the most part, involves medications that alter the state of mind that commonly have numerous ill side effects in tow and researcher have come to realize that the use of float pods effectively reduce anxiety levels quite significantly.
In this current digital age where individuals remain connected 24/7 on digital devices, society has been thrown into a high state of consciousness pertaining to how they represent themselves which has been found to be among the leading causes for anxiety and depression among young people which has skyrocketed at the turn of the century.
Neurobiological elements such as anxiety are actually inbuilt response systems that humans naturally use as a survival tool. It’s a response system that has been hardwired into the human species long before they were able to solve puzzles. From a general perspective, anxiety is a state of mind that involves thinking ahead and based on the scenario analysis of what lies ahead we subconsciously try to prepare and optimize ourselves in a manner that helps us engage the future successfully.
The problem of anxiety according to medical practitioners, however, starts when individuals constantly live in future scenarios in present moments. This means that when a person is supposed to sleeping night, they start thinking of little things such as what they are going to wear, what will the boss think of them, what they should say to their colleagues, what to post on Facebook or which video or status message they should be posting the nest day on their digital devices.
Some go to the extent of researching these things online, and when they cannot make a decision on what they have found, the anxiety levels increase two-fold. It is due to this that the number of patients seeking medical help for anxiety has steadily increased over the last decade or so.
Researchers have directly cited and attributed this rising phenomenon to the ever-increasing obsession with technology as clinical studies have shown that people choose to shock themselves rather than be without their technological devices.
This is where floatation therapy comes in as it provides individuals a brief period of disconnectedness with everything else except themselves.
This allows the mind to readjust and re-calibrate itself and focus on its own existence for just long enough to fine-tune its biological construct and chemical balances that the chemicals that cause anxiety are subdued.
