ASMR?

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 12/12/13 at 8:49am

If you don’t know what it is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_response

Does anyone else here have it/get it?

Or maybe you’re like me and have had it your whole life, but never had a name for it, or thought you were just weird, or thought, “Everybody does this, but no one talks about it.”

When I was a kid, I’d be watching a movie, and suddenly something would happen that would hypnotize me. It could be 3 seconds; it could be 2 minutes. But I’d know that if I got that movie or just that part of the movie on tape, I could rewind and re-watch that bit for sometimes up to an hour, hypnotizing myself into a trance. Bob Ross’s “The Joy of Painting” is a good example that a lot of people recognize. With his soothing voice, mellow demeanor, and methodical brushstrokes, nearly everyone acknowledges that watching him is a relaxing experience. But for me, it went way beyond relaxing; it was literally stupefying.

So, I went on like this my whole life, never fixating on this thing that would overtake me, but always pleasantly surprised when it would happen. And then YouTube came around. And you can find anything on YouTube. And whenever I had trouble sleeping, I’d hie me thither to YouTube, looking for videos of things that caused this reaction in me: massages, haircuts, palm readings, doctors examinations.

And pretty soon I discovered that this thing has a name. And a community. And that it’s neither as common or uncommon as I’d assumed. And that I have “triggers,” like other people have triggers, and these triggers run the gamut. They’re often sound-based: a bag rustling, pencils clicking, whispering. (It took me awhile to discover that my predominant trigger is watching other people perform monotonous tasks that require concentration.) Triggers usually produce tingling around the crown of the scalp. I almost never feel tingling, but the overwhelming sense of numbness and relaxation is unmistakable.

I’m not embarrassed by it, but the handful of times I’ve mentioned it to people, it's been met with a kind of “Huh. Well, that’s... interesting” reaction. Because it’s pretty hard to describe, and I’d imagine that anyone who doesn’t have ASMR would find most ASMR YouTube videos pretty fvcking weird.

So, I’m just curious: anyone else here?

[MikeInTheDistrict]

Posted: 12/12/13 at 2:17pm

I have it. :) Like you, I've had it my whole life. I have amazingly vivid experiences of having my hair stroked or being paid close, caring attention and getting all tingly and euphoric. I assumed that it was something everyone experienced and that there was already a name for it, but that I hadn't found out what that name was. Years later, I discovered relaxation videos on Youtube. Sometimes around 2010, there was a proliferation of whisper relaxation videos, which slowly morphed into "the ASMR movement" when the term began spreading and people started realizing that this was the feeling they were chasing. It was pretty cool to see this blow up from a handful of oddly specific videos on Youtube, to this "community." I've seen talk of ASMR appearing on NPR, Huffington Post, and other major media sources.

It's also nice how spoiled we are now to have literally thousands of videos tailored just for people like us. Unfortunately, very few of the videos created to elicit ASMR actually work for me. Part of the reason is I hate the sound of whispering and the majority of ASMR videos feature whispering. I don't know why I hate whispering, but for some irrational reason, it infuriates me. It's like the person is purposely trying to be inaudible and annoying. I prefer soft-spoken voices the best, followed by tapping or scratching noises. Also, it's sad how there's such a paucity of male ASMR artists, because male voices with American accents are oddly very soothing to me.

I am really looking forward to actual scientific studies to figure out what is actually going on. Is it an intense release of neurotransmitters like dopamine or oxytocin? A "mini-seizure" like a neurologist hypothesized on his blog a while back? It's not exactly a presing medical concern, but even a small-scale fMRI study would be interesting.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 12/12/13 at 2:22pm

I get tingly when I look at Growl's pictures...


Does that count?

[tazber]

Posted: 12/12/13 at 2:25pm

I read a great article about this awhile ago. The focus of the article was specifically that tingling sensation you get on your scalp when you hear music that you love.

This sort of thing happens to me all the time.

[tazber]

Posted: 12/12/13 at 2:27pm

Here's that article I was talking about.


Link