Akathisia is one of those things whose moral significance is lost of people unless they either have felt a strong version of it themselves or have grokked the logarithmic scales of discomfort and know akathisia can get to a 10/10 suffering.
We've done some piloting with body vibration as a therapy, and 30hz to 60hz (depending on the individual) in the chest with a subpac seems to lessen the sense of restlessness for people with mild versions of it. But I interacted with someone with a strong degree of akathisia and the vibrations didn't do anything to ease it. I suspect there is a way to hack it and really lessen the suffering with vibration with a more complex settup, but it's not straightforward - and I also don't want to minimize the condition by making people think "if vibration can help, it surely isn't that bad - you could just hum yourself to sleep?".
I strongly encourage people to monitor akathisia symptoms with any psychiatric substance they try weight it highly, as it can escalate rather quickly and become unbearable for a _long_ while.
We figured out that dad has a psych med induced neurological injury, and has been suffering from akathisia. It’s been 6 years since any psych medications. Last summer his symptoms started, after a flare up likely induced by mold (CIRS) and stress. It was complicated by pneumonia and associated sepsis a month later. It’s been horrible. Neurological injuries from psych meds are far more common than people know. I made this video to explain what they are and what akathisia is because they’re not talked about enough, they’re misdiagnosed, nearly impossible to treat, and hidden by the pharmaceutical industry. I don’t plan on making another update about my dad, it stresses my family out, and myself, and there’s nothing more to say about it until things get better. I will be jumping up and down about psych med injury awareness from now on as it’s impacted my health as well, and is devastating. Prayers are appreciated still.