I recently finished watching Operation Emotional Freedom and after seeing the vets experiencing severe PTSD, I was reminded of the symptoms I've seen displayed in people with mental illness, including my father who's been diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia. I know that anyone can experience PTSD, yet I'm wondering if it could be said that actively mentally ill individuals might be more prone to PTSD and the perception that there is a threat to their survival. Is there anyone out there who has experience working with EFT and the mentally ill and specifically correlations with PTSD symptoms? It seems to me in my experience living in a family with mental illness, that the sympathetic nervous system is in overdrive. Any thoughts on these musings are greatly appreciated.

Warmly,

Karla Johnston, EFT CERT-I
www.InnerConstellation.com

Inner Constellation:

I recently finished watching Operation Emotional Freedom and after seeing the vets experiencing severe PTSD, I was reminded of the symptoms I've seen displayed in people with mental illness, including my father who's been diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia. I know that anyone can experience PTSD, yet I'm wondering if it could be said that actively mentally ill individuals might be more prone to PTSD and the perception that there is a threat to their survival. Is there anyone out there who has experience working with EFT and the mentally ill and specifically correlations with PTSD symptoms? It seems to me in my experience living in a family with mental illness, that the sympathetic nervous system is in overdrive. Any thoughts on these musings are greatly appreciated.

 

Definitely - not just PTSD but also anxiety and phobias, including social anxiety.

People who are neurodiverse may well need way more EFT sessions.  Although I steer clear of schizophrenia unless the psychiatrist thinks it's OK, I attract clients who have ADHD, autism, bipolar, etc.  Some do have a body/brain/whatever you want to call it that gets triggered too easily with fears and lets go very slowly of these fears.

My answer is to make the treatment as gentle as possible, to work with a team of people helping the client together, and to accept that many more sessions than the norm are needed.  And that's OK.  The road to healing is not the same for all of us.

Normal 0 Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Share Genetic Roots

 Chromosomes 6,11,18 and 22 are cited as possible contributors to issues with bipolar and schizophrenia. In addition the 6^th appears to show a connection to immunity functions and the 11^th and 18^th appear to show a connection to thinking and memory deficits.

[Cited Chromosomes: 6,11,18,22]

I often find so many things shift with EFT [described below]  when you are working on the actual cause, that I am trying an experiment. I am intuiting the health of the cited chromozones i.e. the 6,11,18 and the 22 and noting their healthl level on a 10 point scale with 10 being optimal chromosomal health and 1 being extremely low chromosomal health. After noting these separate levels I then start doing EFT

"There was substantial overlap in the genetic risk for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder that was specific to mental disorders," added Sklar. "…

Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder share genetic roots that appear to be specific to serious mental disorders, and are not shared by non-psychiatric illnesses. Bars representing different study samples show that the same genetic variations that account for risk in both mental disorders account for virtually none of the risk for coronary artery disease (CAD), Crohn’s disease (CD), hypertension (HT), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), or Type 1 (T1D) or Type 2 (T2D) diabetes. Source: Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center forHuman Genetic Research, Harvard University.

Reference: US Dept of Health and Human Services

http://www

.nih.gov/news/health/jul2009/nimh-01.htm

EFT Short Course

State emphatically:

Even though problem, I deeply and completely accept myself !

[while tapping the Karate chop point or rubbing the brain button]

To reset/open the memory passageway to correct for healing there are 2 modalities:

Tap the Karate chop point – found on the hand opposite the thumb, on the fleshy part under the little finger.

OR

Rubbing the “Brain Buttons” are the two soft/sore spots under your collarbone

Then while thinking about the problem continue tapping on the EFT Points about 7 taps per point. The points generally descend like they would following gravity:

The eyebrow points at the beginning of the eyebrow, and the top middle of eyebrow. Use the index and middle fingers together, on both hands, to tap the two eyebrow points. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

Following gravity to the outside of the eye point, and under the eye point then tap under the nose  The chin point is not really on the chin; it is mid-way between the bottom of the lower lip and the chin, in that indentation area. Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap.

The collarbone spots are located about one inch down and over towards the outside where you feel an indent in your collarbone. Follow with the under the arm point located about 4 inches below the armpit.

Then  tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap on the following Hand Points:

TN – Thumb Nail, the edge point at the base of the nail.
IF – Index Finger, the edge point at the base of the nail.
MF – Middle Finger, the edge point at the base of the nail.
 LF – Little Finger, the edge point at the base of the nail.

GP – Gamut Point, on back of hand, between the little finger and ring finger.

The 9 gamut
The gamut point is on the back of the hand, in the gap between the bones that run down from the ring finger to the wrist bone and from the little finger to the wrist, close to the knuckles. While tapping on the gamut point, perform the following brain integration exercises:
·    1. Close your eyes
·    2. Open your eyes
·    3. Look hard down to the right
·    4. Look hard down to the left
·    5. Move your eyes in a full circle clockwise
·    6. Move your eyes in a full circle anti-clockwise
·    7. Hum a few bars of a song
·    8. Count from 1 to 5                                                                                                                                                                 .    9. Hum again.
 

Normal 0

Muscle Testing
 

Is mostly learning to trust your bodies innate wisdom. For example,

You can easily test with your thumb and forefinger of your right hand using opposite thumb and forefinger to provide the pressure for the test.

For example using Y/N questions:

If you state my name is “REAL NAME” you should test strong.

If you state my name is “WRONG NAME” you should test weak.

To use a 10 point scale test this way.

This again is mostly learning to trust your bodies innate wisdom. For example,

You can easily test with your thumb and forefinger of your right hand using opposite thumb and forefinger to provide the pressure for the test.

 For example using Y/N questions, you can move to a 10 point scale test this way:

 Is [Chromosome 6] a 5 or stronger? Y

Is [Chromosome 6]  a 6 or stronger? Y

Is [Chromosome 6]  a 7 or stronger? Y

Is [Chromosome 6]  a 8 or stronger? Y

Is [Chromosome 6] a 9 or stronger? N

Is [Chromosome 6]  a 8 ¼? 81/2? 5/8? or stronger? Y

 Thanks, Suzanne, I appreciate the reminder to take things slowly, gently, and that more sessions may be helpful and necessary. Just like with PTSD, I see so many similarities.  

If can add my own, non-therapist's perspective on the question of mental "illness" and EFT; part of what I think OPERATION: Emotional Freedom points out is that there is a root cause behind all conditions - physical and emotional, that is addressable on some level through energy work.

The illness tag is a hold over from the medical model itself. In psychology circles there is a trend to drop the "disorder" from post traumatic stress diagnosis because it implies something that might not be true and certainly negatively taints the prospective client's feelings about themselves and their condition. The same might be said for mental health terms and thinking. We are only beginning to learn how the brain and body truly work and if energy is at the root of everything, perhaps energy healing offers mental conditions a route out of illness and into degrees of wellness not thought of previously.  

Words carry their own energy.

Eric

In my experience and opinion many dis-orders, dis-eases, dis-associations are conditions/states in which there is, at the foundation, undischarged traumatic stress. When there is a build up of undischarged traumatic stress and it is not released we can develop the dis-order of PTSD or other dis-orders. But at the end of the day, I believe at their most basic level, these dis-orders are "just" a lack of order in the efficient communication of information (or energy) in our beings which leads to ill health. When our energy systems are in order, at ease and we are fully associated with them and our energy is flowing in, through and out, we are healthy on every level, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Whether these disrupted energies manifest themselves physically or mentally or emotionally depends on a person's unique make-up, but in essence the manifestations are "just" a lack of order, a lack of ease or a lack of association which leads to miscommunication. I think we are unnecessarily afraid when the dis-order, or lack of order, manifests mentally such as in schizophrenia, dissociation etc. It's like treating the symptoms (manifestations) instead of the cause, i.e. disrupted/disordered energy.

My own family background was from one where 'mental illness and PTSD prevailed' with no real help available and very sad consequences.  To avoid a life of mind numbing drugs which looked like my future as a young mother I started to find ways to help myself and to research this subject, which is an ongoing process for me but I have come very far.  There is much evidence to show that people with PTSD from adult experiences were more likely to have had an unstable start in early life, this could be from birth trauma, a depressed or anxious mother, absent father, childhood traumas and due to the nature of this it gets passed down through the generations, parents with disordered personalities result in children with either disordered personalities or some other coping strategy like dissociation, emotional numbing, shattered self esteem etc.

Because so many of the effects of trauma manifest as behaviours which seem difficult for others to understand the fear of mental illness I think is very great.  The stigma in society is great, I heard recently in Britain quite a significant ratio of people would want to move if they thought their neighbour was mentally ill.   

I also attract alot of clients who have bipolar, DID, borderline personality, hear voices, behave in ways they feel they can't control and don't recognise.  The more I understand this is simply their manifestations of disorder, as Noreen so beautifully explained, the more delightful it is to work with them.   In order to do so I had to tap on all my fears, memories of events involving similar behaviours, things I have noticed in myself or experienced myself.

I appreciate this discussion.

Gillian

Inner Constellation:

I recently finished watching Operation Emotional Freedom and after seeing the vets experiencing severe PTSD, I was reminded of the symptoms I've seen displayed in people with mental illness, including my father who's been diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia. I know that anyone can experience PTSD, yet I'm wondering if it could be said that actively mentally ill individuals might be more prone to PTSD and the perception that there is a threat to their survival. Is there anyone out there who has experience working with EFT and the mentally ill and specifically correlations with PTSD symptoms? It seems to me in my experience living in a family with mental illness, that the sympathetic nervous system is in overdrive. Any thoughts on these musings are greatly appreciated.

Yes, I do BUT...

 I suggest you get the EFT book on PTSD.

Amazon. It's cheap.

 EFT for PTSD by Gary Craig.

It is very, very, very well done, with many specifics and incidents of what to do and what NOT to do that are different than you'd expect with normal EFT procedures.

Hi Karla,

This is my foremost and most basic answer to what you asked, and if I am correct, is those with mental illness are more prone to PTSD? I would say a yes, simply due to the matter that they by whom they are, case like some child with a mental illness, due to it, they my like be more prone to be bullied. And the reality too also go on in they they too also, some may be prone to make choices that would are more likely lead to situations that they could incur PTSD. In this case, some may have a deep non fear of some social and life's situation that this too would allow them to put themself in a fix, they be more likely to suffer it. Some mentally ill have no fear of no one, more the case of smaller person, not fearing what a larger person the sheer harm can cause them. I am sure that there are other and better examples that I so far said, that could be use to make the point of what I just said. And further questions on what I said?

Harry