ASMR --- Head Tingles

     Have you ever heard a sound or had skin to skin contact with someone and that odd feeling of relaxation mixed with head tingles? Do certain voices or accents put you in a state of calm? And have you been afraid or embarrassed to talk about it?
     I have had 'head tingles' most of my life, triggered by simple things like the sound of certain people talking, whispers in my ears, personal attention, tapping, and the list goes on. I never knew what it was or why these certain things gave me such a pleasurable response. Sometimes the tingles would be so strong that it wouldn't be just my head but would flow through my whole body. At the age of 23, with the help of the Internet I finally decided to find out what these tingles were and why I got them.
      In October 2012 I found a website describing ASMR or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. It talked about how there is little known about ASMR, but that many people have it...or experience it, things aren't quite clear yet about it, more research needs to be done. I was relieved to know though that I wasn't alone or a freak. Through this website I found out that there was a whole ASMR community, and thousands of trigger videos on YouTube. I immediately sought them out!
     The first video I watched was made by +RelaxingASMR, it was just his hands and his voice as he drew with some tools he had needed for school many years ago. I had never felt so many tingles before! I was so relaxed that I nearly fell asleep! Later that month, after watching probably 20 of his videos I started seeking out other ASMR artist. I found the queen of ASMR! Ilse or +TheWaterwhispers quickly became my favorite! Her Dutch accent and calm voice puts me in such a state of relaxation that it had become my habit to watch at least one of her videos a day to help manage my stress levels.
     Ok, now that I have shared how I discovered ASMR and a little of what it is  or what is known (honestly there is so much more I could share but my time at the moment is limited) I will tell you why I shared this. There is so much stress, and darkness, anxiety, and depression in this world that I wanted to share something I use to combat it and maybe help someone else. I have suffered for a long time from insomina and depression and anxiety, and I have to say watching these videos, and learning my triggers has helped so much! Even if you don't experience head tingles these couple of ASMR artist might be able to help you relax a little, and if you get head tingles they can probably help a lot! There are many, many ASMR artist all you have to do is type it into YouTube and you'll get tons, these are just my two favorites that I mentioned.
     I hope this post helps someone out there, and please feel free to comment here if you have questions about ASMR, I'll send you links. I have to go now and I think I'll close out this blog post the way Ilse does, (I'm not sure how often she uses this because honestly I'm usually asleep before the end!) but anyway tingle along... :)