It’s weird. Just like so many symptoms people with Parkinson’s live with, “freezing” can only be helped if it is known. Education is part of becoming at ease and living well no matter what the symptom is.
The term “freezing” in Parkinson’s disease, refers to a phenomenon when the patient suddenly can’t move at all for a few long seconds. It happens to Andy occasionally and usually when he is making a transition from sitting to standing, making a turn while standing or beginning to move after standing still.
For me, the experience is like a bit too long of a pause and just when the “freezing” incident ends is when I realize that it occurred.
For Andy, there is a moment of panic when he knows he cannot move but before anyone can help him, the moment ends and moving is possible again.
It’s weird. Just like so many symptoms people with Parkinson’s live with, “freezing” can only be helped if it is known. Education is part of becoming at ease and living well no matter what the symptom is.
Andy and I read about how music and rhythms found in nature can shorten the length and quantity of “freezing” events. We have found that to be true. We’ve always been music lovers and having music playing at home and in the car helps stop “freezing” from happening at all. Doctors don’t yet have a medical explanation for music interrupting patterns of “freezing.”
It also disappears as a symptom for Andy when we are at the beach and swimming daily in the ocean. The rhythm of the ocean waves has the same positive effect as music.
My own idea is that Parkinson’s is a disease that pulls a person away from their natural rhythms, tempos and sense of fully being a part of nature. Music, ocean waves, wind in the trees all serve to bring Andy back to balance and his identity as a person who moves freely.
There are many remedies for Parkinson’s symptoms that are also beneficial for those of us living without this disease and this is one of those cases.
I have long wondered about the purpose of disease in our world, because living with disease is part of life, even as we sometimes pretend it isn’t. Perhaps remedies that are good for all people is uncovering part of that purpose and could help us all in our lives.
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