Emotional Freedom Technique: Emotional Disturbance And The Happy Tappers
Emotional Freedom Technique: Emotional Disturbance And The Happy Tappers.
This is a blog about emotional disturbance and the practice of tapping for relief. After reading an article about the benefits of tapping, I decided to give it a try. Here are some of my happy tappers, who have helped me with my emotional disturbances since then: Josh (5 years old), Emma (6 years old), Olivia (7 years old), and Maddie (9 months old). We've changed our family's life in many ways by utilizing tapping practices because we're not as afraid anymore to talk about our feelings, get help for ourselves and others, ease stressors in our life, cherish each other's company more deeply etc. We're happy people who love to help others.
My original intention for publishing this blog is not specifically to share EC benefits but also to inspire you to keep tapping long after the article you read on the Internet is dated. What I wanted above all else was to create an outlet where I could share our experiences with tapping and encourage everyone who is interested in EFT or EMO (Emotional Freedom Technique) on any level. About six or seven years back, I started learning EFT with a certified practitioner just out of curiosity and it grew into a major part of my life once I discovered how tremendously powerful it really is. I longed to share our experiences and feelings with the world so that everyone who is interested in this technology would have a safe haven to learn, explore, and find it's benefits. Although my journey as a happy tapper has been relatively short compared to some of my fellow EMO practitioners, I would like to believe I have contributed in some way to the EFT community by sharing my personal experiences and observations.
I hope you enjoy reading this blog as much as I did writing it :)
The effects of Emotional Disturbance are powerful and life changing for those who are willing to tap for themselves or for others. This blog is about my own healing journey with my 5-year-old daughter, Emma, who outwardly exhibited symptoms of a severe emotional disturbance (ED). I have decided to publish this piece because it conveys the power of tapping for emotional disturbance in a way that many articles out there do not do.
Emotional Disturbance: A Brief Background on the Trauma Connection
Emotional Disturbance is defined by the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) as "Discontinuance or marked reduction in social or emotional functioning associated with a painful or embarrassing experience, usually during childhood." 1 The root cause of Emotional Disturbance is trauma, which according to Dr. Richard Masters, "is sustained trauma and/or specific traumatic events."2 In this case, the trauma is represented by my daughter's birth and my wife's post-partum depression. I'll expand on how these events led to her ED in future posts.
My daughter, Emma, was born healthy but suffered from PPD (postpartum depression). My wife was in a very vulnerable state because she had recently given birth to our first child and she wasn't sure how to react to that new feeling of motherhood. The experience was overwhelming for her at the time and she felt abandoned by her family and unable to cope with the overwhelming emotion of parenthood. The emotional disturbance that Emma was experiencing can best be described as a feeling of separation or abandonment in the family. The separation she experienced from our family is a result of my wife's depression and her inability to cope with it.
When Emma was 4-months old, she started having disorganized behaviors. As I described it in my previous post, she was crying for no apparent reason; this would eventually lead us to diagnosis her as having an ED and lead to our decision to enroll her into therapy. That's when we first began tapping on our own for her emotional disturbance. Since then, we had been tapping for relief on a regular basis without any issues beyond what we originally had with Emma's ED.
The effect of tapping for Emma's ED was nothing short of amazing. We were able to continue to tap for her even when we learned that her birth caused an emotional disturbance in my wife. Our lives have definitely been enriched as a result of the tapping we've done for our daughter and ourselves.
Emma at 4-months old with her father, Dave.
Now, let me introduce you to Maddie, my new baby girl, who has also been very disturbed since she was born on December 1st, 2012. She is doing much better now than she had at first but I'll write another post about that later because there are many similarities between Emma and Maddie besides their age and birthday.
From the beginning, Maddie was an angry baby. She cried, kicked her legs and tensed up in my wife's arms whenever someone tried to hold her. My brother-in-law, who is a paramedic, commented that she was not neurologically sound when he held her for the first time in our home. Saddly, I didn't give much credit to his observation because she seemed to be fine when she was with me. I assumed that he saw something that I didn't see or couldn't see because I'm not as experienced as a paramedic but eventually I would learn that my niece had been born with neurological issues and I had been too naïve to see it at the time.
Maddie's crying and kicking was more intense when she was born than any of my other babies but it seemed that she had a different energy around her. Her crying would last for hours at a time, always followed by a screaming tantrum that would make my wife cry. This wasn't anything new to us as we had experienced this pattern with Emma since she was 4 months old. It was something unique to Maddie because I don't remember hearing my other babies cry in that way or having tantrums like hers.
My wife, Andrea, holding Maddie on her first day home from the hospital
Sadly, all the symptoms of ED manifested much earlier in my niece's life than Emma did. She was born with inflammatory bowel disease and became very sick from it at birth. The doctors did tests on her and we were told she had a blockage in her intestines and that the condition would most likely require surgery to correct. We were afraid for the first few days because this meant she would have to stay in the hospital for a week or more but we were told that surgery was not necessary for short term relief. In other words, surgery would not extend her life but it might make her happier. I decided to trust my gut feeling that things would be fine so I didn't schedule the operation while she was still in the hospital.
I felt immediate relief from the decision I had made. I knew it was the right thing to do because I was able to tap for her emotional disturbance. While she was in the hospital, Maddie had a lot of pain in her stomach area but she wouldn't tell us where it hurt because she couldn't talk at that time. The nurses would have to stick their fingers down her throat and pull out whatever they could find to clear it out of there. In time, they found that she'd been swallowing the gauze bandages used on her stomach and intestines and passing them in her stool.
Conclusion
My niece's situation made me realize that tapping for people with emotional disturbances requires a lot of skill and is not for everyone. We've been able to tap for her but it seems that she still has some issues to work through. I don't know if she'll ever get "better" but we continue to tap on her daily regardless.
Like Emma, Maddie doesn't seem to be bothered by the fact that she was born with such a serious health problem. She has always been very happy, positive and friendly throughout the experience. The only time when she was upset about her condition was at about 9-months old when one of her digestive issues would make her cry loudly in pain.