HealthBee

I have dealt with panic attacks for several years. I’ve changed everything from my lifestyle to my diet with few results. I have finally found one thing that works very well for me. It takes only a few minutes each day and the best part of it is that it doesn’t require taking any medication or making drastic lifestyle changes.

Emotional Freedom Technique:  EFT

The technique is called Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT. EFT is a unique version of acupressure that helps to relieve pain, emotional issues or give relief from various diseases. To do it, you stimulate energy meridan points on your body by tapping them with your fingerpoints. By resetting the energy meridans on your body, you experience almost immediate relief.

Now before you say “That can’t be”, please understand, that I was skeptical about this too. Frankly, when I first heard about it, it sounded like a bunch of hippy dippy nonsense. To be honest, I still don’t really understand how it works.

I was first told about the Emotional Freedom Technique by a friend of mine who said she used it for dealing with anger. She suggested it might be a good thing to try for my panic attacks. Finally, after having nearly a month of several extreme panic attacks several times a day, and sick of my friend nagging me, I was desperate for anything. So, I downloaded the free ‘get started’ paper from the EFT web site. “What could it hurt?”, I figured, “I’ll try it and when it doesn’t work, I can honestly tell my friend that it didn’t work and thank you anyway.”

But, it did work. It worked very well, and very quickly and the results of doing it seemed to last. My panic attacks became much less frequent, and now, I have gone several months without having one.

What is the Emotional Freedom Technique Like? 

The technique is very simple and can be done nearly anywhere. The first thing you do is identify the issue that is bothering you. So, if you are having a panic attack, you note that you have a panic attack. (You don’t need to know why you are having a panic attack, just that you are having one.)

Then, while tapping a particular point on your chest, you say three times “Even though I am having a panic attack, I completely love and accept myself.” What this does is remove the Psychological Reversal you may be experiencing in your mind. While I do not completely understand Psychological Reversal, I understand it as that little negative voice in your mind that prevents you from doing what you want to do.

Then, you tap a series of specific points on your body while saying a reminder phrase of what is bothering you. This forces you to focus the EFT to the particular issue you are having. In my case the reminder phrase was ‘panic attack’.

The entire sequence of taps takes only about a minute to perform. Usually, I need to go through it several times, but even still, the whole thing takes no more than 10 minutes at the most.

How does Emotional Freedom Technique Work?

The thing is, I still don’t know why, or how it works. For all I know, maybe this technique takes my mind off the symptoms long enough for my body to settle down. Or, maybe my energy points really are getting reset. I don’t really care why or how it works, other than the fact I know it does work, and it works very well.

Where To Get More Information on the Emotional Freedom Technique 

If you’d like to learn more about Emotional Freedom technique, the web site is http://www.emofree.com. You can download their starter packet for free, and it gives you enough information to get started using the technique as well as many testomonies of people who have used it successfully for everything from Additions to Depression to Post Tramatic Stress Disorder and even Lupus. You will need to submit your e-mail address, which will subscribe you to their newsletter, but so far, I have not had them sell my e-mail address to anyone.

Or, you can look at the numerous books about Emotional Freedom Technique on Amazon.

If it works for you, let me know. I’d love to hear about it.

I had never heard of a panic attack until months after I’d starting having them. And, truth be told, it is really hard to describe it to someone who has never experienced it for themselves. Before I had a panic attack, if someone had told me about it before I experienced it, I would have laughed and figured only people on drugs or people with serious mental issues had them. Normal people don’t have those, and of course, *I’d* never experience anything like that..right?

Panic Attack at the Office

My first panic attack happened while I was working. I worked at a large firm in an office made mostly of cubicles. The company was, and still is, known as being one of the best places to work in the city. The offices/ cubes are clean and well lit, and people actually like going to work there. I liked going to work there.

I had just started working there maybe a few months before, and I was well accepted there. While my work life was going well, my home life was not; my husband and I were having difficulties. I was sitting in my cube, busily typing away with my mind about a thousand miles away from what I was actually doing. And then, I had a thought about divorce and

BAM!!!

I felt the kind of fear you’d feel if you stumbled between a Mama bear and her cubs and were afraid for your life. My body wanted to run as fast it could. My body shook uncontrollably as I tried desperately to stay still and not make a fool out of myself in the middle of a busy office space. I was sweating and breathing like I had just run several miles and my heart felt like a hammer pounding up in my throat. And it was immediate…from 0 to full speed in 2 seconds. It took all I had not to run screaming from the building.

“I Must Be Crazy…”

I remember I felt like the two sides of my brain were arguing over which side should take control. The right side or emotional half of my brain was dumping adrenaline in my system and screaming “RUN RUN RUN! YOU’RE IN DANGER! RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!!” The left logical side of my brain was saying “OK eyes and ears, look and listen. Find the danger. Where is the danger. I see no danger, I hear no danger. There is no danger. Why do you feel fear when there is no danger to be found?”

And then, I remember it clearly. The left half of my brain logically put it together the only thing that made sense, “OK. There is no danger, yet you are afraid. YOU MUST BE CRAZY.”

And then, I really freaked out.

I thought I was losing my mind. I thought “Oh dear God, I don’t know what reality is.” I looked around the office like someone who believes the world is out to get them. My mind raced as I tried to figure it out. Did I die? Was I *really* in an office building? What was happening? I couldn’t stand it any longer. I ran out of my cube to the stairs to go outside. Thankfully, I held it together enough not to scream while I did it.

Once outside, I went to a grassy area and fell to my hands and knees. The ground felt good to me, and I started to calm down. My breathing and heart slowed down to almost normal, and I felt like I could think again. My head wasn’t screaming at me to run away or thinking that the world was against me.

Hiding My Fear 

In the months that followed, I experienced this every day and chalked it up to something I just had to deal with. Maybe I was going crazy, but by God, I was going to try to act as normal as I could so others wouldn’t know about it.

A few months later when I was visiting my physician about ADHD, I mentioned that I was having difficulty sleeping — by now I was awakened in the middle of the night by panic attacks. I told him I didn’t know what was going on, that I might be losing my mind, and explained about what happened every day. I told him that maybe I was losing it, but I was really trying to keep it under control, and please don’t send me to an institution.

He didn’t look at me like I had two heads or send the people with white coats to drag me from the building.

He just said,”Oh. That’s a panic attack. Sometimes that happens.”

Panic Attacks Are Not Harmful 
My Doctor changed the medication I was taking to alleviate some of the symptoms, and gave me breathing techniques to deal with a panic attack when it happened. He said most of the time, you just wait them out and breathe deeply, and the worst that could happen from a panic attack is that you faint. He assured me that I wasn’t going to die and no, I wasn’t having a heart attack.

I have never been so relieved in all my life. I’m wasn’t going crazy, I was just having a panic attack. I could actually laugh about it.

Panic Attack Symptoms

To help you determine if you suffer from panic attacks, here are the symptoms:

1. Rapid heart beat, pounding heart or palpitations
2. Sweating
3. Shaking visibly or inside
4. Choking sensations or lump in throat
5. Smothering or shortness of breath sensations
6. Chest pain or discomfort
7. Nausea, bloating, indigestion or abdominal discomfort
8. Dizziness or unsteadiness
9. Feeling light-headed
10. Feeling unreal or dreamy
11. Feeling outside yourself or like you don’t exist
12. Fear of losing control or going crazy
13. Numbness or tingling sensations in face, extremities or body
14. Chills or hot flushes
15. Skin losing colour
16. Blushing or skin blotches
17. Urgently needing to urinate or defecate

If you experience these, see your doctor. Usually, a panic attack is not harmful, and there are medications and/ or lifestyle changes that can help.

Anxiety and Depression may seem like opposites, however, they often occur together. The loneliness and sadness of depression can make you afraid and anxious. In turn, this fear and anxiety may make you exhausted and more depressed. It’s a vicious cycle, and often there’s no way to say which condition came first.

Anxiety takes many different forms. Some people suffer panic attacks, which are sudden bouts of extreme fear along with a racing heart, breathlessness, and even pain. Others have anxiety that causes them to often relive traumatic events from their past. Anxiety can make people terrified of social situations, or give them extreme fears of certain objects or situations, making it seem impossible to swim in a pool or lake, for example.

There are several types of anxiety disorders, and while each has specific symptoms, they all have these things in common:

• Extreme fear and dread, even when there is no real danger
• Emotional distress that interferes with daily life
• Avoidance of situations that bring on anxiety

Anxiety is treatable with therapy, medication, or a combination of both. Antidepressants can affect anxiety that is associated with depression. Some antidepressants also treat full fledged anxiety disorders. Your healthcare provider can discuss further treatments for anxiety with you.