Panic Attacks and EFT (Part 1 of 2)

Nowhere To Turn

A friend recently phoned me in disbelief. He had been to my website, typed Panic Attacks into the Search facility and it came up with nothing, which, considering it was Energy Therapies that finally rid me of them after 15 miserable years, was an appalling situation!

So, to set the record straight, this is how I, and many others I have helped since, have been completely cured of panic/anxiety attacks with EFT.

Looking back, when my panic attacks started I was going through some very stressful changes in my life although at the time nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be happening and the attacks just seemed to be getting in the way of my normal living. I would have given anything to have a pill or something to take to stop my heart palpitating and I did take the drug you could quite easily buy over the counter to try and keep my stomach relaxed but nothing helped and the more anxious I got about experiencing them the more frequently they occurred.

It was all very frightening at a time when panic attacks were not generally recognized and I really did think at one point I was going mad and didn’t even have the support of my doctor who just kept checking my blood pressure and declaring me in perfect health.

I knew I was sick but all I could do was protect myself by limiting my experiences to reduce the likelihood of the attacks. This was manageable and worked quite well until eight years on, when my daughter was 4 and I started having them inside my own home when I was on my own with her, and it was then I really began to pull my hair out.

After that it would go in cycles, just beginning to feel ok again and wham, another series would hit, seemingly out of the blue and set me back to square one again, it was all very depressing and no matter how much I read, how ever many remedies I took or however much I meditated I was never ready for the shock of how they made me feel.

Discovering EFT

So when I first met Silvia Hartmann at an Animal MBS event in 1996 she had organized, and was later introduced to Adventures in EFT she had just written, I wasn’t overly optimistic but simply set about reading yet another book that was supposedly going to set me free.

But by god, after the first few minutes reading I knew this was something different and moments later, having tried the protocol, my overall anxiety levels were down to zero, something only an hour or two of meditation had previously achieved.

I started off, as I think many people do, with a rather too general statement, Even though I am feeling anxious… but the results of that one round of tapping were enough to prove to me how effective it was and I went on to refining my statements.

The real breakthrough occurred when I started listening to my own body, started concentrating on my feelings, it was then I got the right opening statements.

Tapping On Physical Sensations

I first concentrated on the bodily sensations which scared me because I feared they heralded a panic attack.

The description of the physical symptoms became the opening statements.

• Even though when my heart flutters I am scared I will get a full blown attack …
• Even though I am scared when my throat gets dry and tight
• Even though getting dizzy when I am out really scares me
• Even though needing to go to the toilet urgently when I am out freaks me out …
• Even when things go loud all of a sudden …
• Even when everything goes bright …

I then decided to imagine it was time to go out and felt the well known feeling of tightness around my chest which I used to get when I bent down to put my shoes on, so instantly dealt with the tightness, I remember it taking two rounds but got it down to zero before carrying on.

Thinking About Doing It…

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I then imagined putting my coat on, approaching the front door, tapping all the time, just gently on each point one at a time as the pictures of what I was doing were going through my mind and when anything hit me particularly badly I stopped and concentrated on that. Actually opening the door was the next big problem so I did a few rounds of:

• Even though the thought of the front door being open makes me sick...

...until it was down to zero and then I opened the door in my mind and walked down my path. I waited at the gate and looked around, slight anxiety arose but I tapped it down and walked around the block.

I remember when I got almost exactly half way round feeling a tightness again and tapped for:

• Even though I am half way and once I take another step I am committed to going on and can’t turn back …

Well I did complete the journey in my head right down to taking my coat and shoes off and sitting back down in my chair in my study and was also quite surprised to feel the customary feeling of relief and achievement which was encouraging.
Going Out

So there was nothing else for it but to actually do it myself, I put on my coat and shoes, felt a little tightness in my throat which turned out to be ‘suppose none of this works while I am out?’ so I did a round of:

• Even though I don’t believe this is going to work …

… until it reached zero then opened the door, and proceeded to walk around the block.

I didn’t rush but took my time, looking at the front gardens, breathing in the scent of the flowers, noticing where the sun was in the sky and thinking how beautiful the sunset would be tonight.

It wasn’t until I got back inside I realized that I had barely thought of how I was feeling all the way round and actually remembered feeling a bit of a fraud.

Continue Reading: Covering the Bases (Part 2 of 2)

Author: Nicola Quinn
Website: http://nicolaquinn.com/