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Other Emotional Issues

Panic And Anxiety

Current "in your face" anxiety and stress case

Important Note: This article was written prior to 2010 and is now outdated. Please use my newest advancement, Optimal EFT. It is more efficient, more powerful and clearly explained in my free e-book, The Unseen Therapist™.  Best wishes, Gary

Hi Everyone,

A thank you to Robyn Wood for this anxiety/stress ridden case. I think it is particularly useful because it depicts a client undergoing CURRENTLY stressful inputs (severe enough to cause a complete mental breakdown). I stress the term CURRENTLY here because, in my experience, such a case often unfolds a bit differently than one involving a PAST issue such as a war trauma, death of a loved one, guilt over a past action and so on.

While this case is about "Susie's" reaction to her husband's illness (and many related financial, family and other issues) it has some parallels with the plight of a battered wife. In both cases, the client is faced daily with anxiety and stress ridden inputs. This is not the type of thing that we just "tap away" in a session or two. That's because the problems are current, "in your face," major events that are here today and will still be here tomorrow.

However, great progress can be made with EFT in bringing stability to the client's emotional responses. With remarkable frequency, we can "take the edge off" the intense emotional reactions and thus generate a better level of peace and understanding. This gives the client a sounder, more rational base from which to make decisions.

As Robyn shares this story with us, you will see how she pulls the problem apart into several related aspects. This is meritorious, of course, and I'm sure contributed substantially to the client's increased stability. You will also note that the client's reaction was delayed. I comment on that within Robyn's report.

Hugs, Gary


by Robyn Wood

Dear Gary,

Susie (name change) had a major crisis, diagnosed as a complete mental breakdown, and was hospitalised for stress and depression. This was triggered by multiple stressors all related to her husband of 35 years having Huntingtons - a debilitating progressive disease which effects the brain and nervous system.

She has been his primary caregiver and slowly watched him deteriorate over 20 years. This was a tremendous burden that she carried without sharing it with her children--until it became obvious about 20 years ago. It has only been in recent years that she has also shared with them that they too are possible candidates for the same progressive disease--as are their children.

After a relapse at home, her husband was placed in a rehab. centre and became incontinent. The rehab centre was insistent on him returning home and Susie felt she could no longer cope. Not just because he was incontinent but because of the increasing burden and responsibilities involved. The 4 adult children were extremely upset at the thought of their father not returning home (none remain living at home) and became angry with their mother.

A crisis team came to her aid and prescribed Paraxotine and complete rest. The family was called together for joint counselling. This has likely opened a pandora's box for the children because of their own multiple issues related to their potentiality towards contracting Huntingtons.

At a home visit where Susie was bed ridden (no energy and sobbed constantly), she was unable to even tap for herself. So I began tapping for her.

GC COMMENT: Doing the tapping for someone else is often even more effective than the clients tapping themselves. There appears to be something useful about the human interaction (love) in some cases.

Please note below the many aspects that Robyn addressed. In my opinion, the more the better. You are dealing with a festering emotional boil here and the more drainage you can provide, the less painful the boil. Also note that most of the aspects are somewhat global in nature (e.g. failure as a mother/wife). While it can be effective at this early stage to be global like this, I suggest that getting behind each of them to address specific contributors may take the client to an even better level.

ROBYN CONTINUES: Below are some of the aspects so far...

"Even though...

I feel overwhelmed by this whole issue...I can't stop crying...I'm fearful I can't cope...I don't know what to do...I feel a failure as a wife...I feel a failure as a mother...I fear my children will reject me... (we did them one by one)They (the children) don't understand what it's been like...I don't know how I will manage financially if he goes into a nursing home...I don't know which is the best option... (for husbands care)I'm fearful of (husband) coming home...I feel so alone in this decision...It has been a lonely journey carrying this burden...I'm fearful of driving again..."

In some cases I used Larry Nims' way of working with tapping the 3 areas with the accompanying 4 statements "I'm eliminating all of the (E.B. for sadnesses, UE for fear, LF for anger, and EB again for emotional traumas) and all of the roots and the deepest causes of all of this problem" (but added) "related to feeling a failure as a wife" etc.

I left a printout of the EFT Basic Recipe suggesting she tap daily on anything that created discomfort for her

Needless to say, the potential for EFT is enormous with this whole family.

Gary, what I have found interesting is that initially Susie was unable to give a SUDS [0-10 intensity] score and, on the few occasions she did, it had only reduced from a 10 to an 8. Intuitively I felt it had come down much lower. I suspected the APEX problem and so I gave up completely on the scoring and just did the tapping. Later Susie revealed that it was the next day when she felt so much better but only mildly improved shortly after the tapping. This has been my first experience of this (delayed effect) after working with maybe a 100 or more people. Have others experienced this?

GC COMMENT: Yes, this happens from time to time. Let me also suggest, however, that you give credit to your intuitive sense. On many occasions I intuited that a client was at a different level than they reported. Upon discussion with them we discovered that they were actually much improved but they didn't report it because some other aspect was coming up (of which they were unaware) OR they didn't believe the improvement would last. Thus it is possible that Susie didn't have a delayed reaction. She may have been improved at the moment but didn't report it.

ROBYN CONTINUES: Although the crisis team has been very supportive and visiting her at home daily, she asked me to come and do "the tapping" with her as she felt this was helping her more than anything. Still more to go but progress is outstanding compared to alternatives offered.

Thanks heaps for the ongoing input.

Blessings to you,

Robyn Wood

P.S. Just a further point I forgot to mention. With many of the issues we tapped on, we concluded with tapping on the KC point and saying "I forgive anyone else who's played a part in this including God, I forgive myself for attracting this, I now let it go completely" I really felt this was important given the complexity and longevity of the health problem.

Also, Susie reported in saying she drove the following day and managed to cook for herself. Progress continues.

Many blessings,

Robyn

More articles on Panic Relief and Anxiety Relief

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