All day today I had a huge amount of fear going into my appointment today with the new psychiatrist. I shook. I imagined getting under the desk at work, and staying there for good. I smelled my lotions again and again and again in attempts to ground myself before my appointment. I was such a wreck that I started talking about the wrong topic during a meeting right before my appointment.
I race over to the new psychiatrist, who is 45 minutes away from work. As I fly into his office he comes out to greet me, and I all I can think of is that he looks exactly like Doc from Back to the Future with the same wild white hair and absent-minded persona. I’m second guessing the choice to come see him as I enter his office. There’s stuff everywhere, and the place has this old, dusty feel to it. I just want to leave, and the moment I think that Doc says to me, “Just breathe. You’re fine.”
He said it not in a condescending manner, but in an empathetic way that got my attention. He turned to me and said, “What brings you to see me?” I started getting that floaty, shaky feeling, and I asked, ” Can I tell you in Cliff Notes version?”
And he responded by saying, “Whatever way that will convey the information to me so that I can help you is fine.”
But, even with Cliff Notes version I immediately ran into trouble with the first few words. He finally stopped me, and asked me to rate my level of stress with 10 being the highest, and 1 being the lowest. I quickly rated myself a 10.
He then stopped me, and had me do the “tapping” technique that I also knew as the Emotional Freedom Technique. I had heard of it, but I was skeptical about it for no good reason. He had me tapping certain acupressure points while I repeated phrases he gave me such as, “I love and accept myself.” I know there was more, but I don’t recall the other phrases.
Believe it or not, I was able to get down to a 4 doing the tapping on myself. I was actually able to start to tell him about the trauma that led me to his office. I didn’t finish the story because we spent so much time tapping. But it was miraculous that I left that office in such a calm state. That has never happened in all the time I’ve ever had to convey that story. And, that my friends, is real progress.
That’s so awesome! Hooray! Amazing how something that seems so simple from first glance can wind up being so huge!
I replied below, apparently I hit the wrong reply button. Lol!
Yeah, I just gotta learn the EFT technique. Still, it’s promising …