Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy

In February 2006 I skidded out of control in my car and crashed violently into a set of railings. My car was written off, but I exited unscathed and felt particularly lucky to only have suffered a bit of whiplash. A week later while styling a client’s hair in my hairdressing salon I collapsed suddenly.  Never before had something of this nature happened to me and it was so strange and frightening.  From that day onward I continued to get worse.  I began fainting once or twice a day which built quickly to five or six.  I suffered head rushes, constant dizziness, severe sweating, intense nausea and an exhaustion I never knew existed.  At its worst I could barely walk, and standing for more than one or two minutes would cause me to collapse.  My life truly fell apart around me.  I went from being a lively stylist and manager of a busy salon who was full of health and fun, to the equivalent of an elderly bedridden woman, and at the age of nineteen it was a transition much faster and more abrupt than I could accept.

I wasn’t willing to go down without a fight.  I saw several different G.P’s up to seven times, I visited every local hospital in the area as both an in and out patient and went through extensive tests, then also at three specialist hospitals in the city.  As you can imagine, even getting out of the car to the doors of the hospital caused considerable difficulty and I eventually gave in to a wheelchair.  In summer 2007 I was finally diagnosed with M.E/ chronic fatigue.  Sadly however, being diagnosed did not mean that I could receive treatment.  There was no treatment available through the NHS and they suggested I might have it all of my life.  I tried everything; a chiropractor, Bowen therapy, herbal supplements, acupuncture, neuro linguistic programming, cognitive behavioural therapy, and mickel therapy amongst others.  Some made little dents in it, others made none but I continued to search, some might say obsessively.  I was very aware that I had my health in my own hands and that if I didn’t do something about it, no one else would.   I did however enjoy the searching; it gave me a sense of hope.  I had always had a real passion for self help techniques and alternative therapies and to be honest reading all those books gave me something to fill those long days.  It kept my mind active and productive and it’s only now that I realise how vital it actually was.

Suddenly I started to notice ‘emotional freedom technique’ was popping up in front of me quite often and I had ignored it for some time because, by my own admission, I thought it might have been new age or religious.  It stuck in my mind and one day I found myself in the familiar spot in my local bookshop – in the mind, body and spirit section – where I was browsing what I hadn’t already read when there it was again, annoyingly protruding in front of all the other books.  I gave in, picked it up and skimmed the back of the book and found myself pleasantly surprised that this was exactly the type of book that would really interest me.

I got home and delved in straight away.  It hooked me so strongly that I could hardly read fast enough.  I didn’t’ want to fool myself and be carried away by something too good to be true – every other therapy has started with great optimism that THIS would be ‘the one’.  There was a sense of exciting recognition.  I raced to the method, read it through a few times, reminded myself not to get too excited and had a rough try at the anxiety that had been plaguing me since long before my illness began.  At first I thought I was crazy.  It had definitely made a difference.  I worried that perhaps I was so incredibly desperate for a cure that I had in some way imagined it.  I checked, and double checked, and triple checked.  It had definitely made a change.

My symptoms began to improve immediately.  Although I was better, but to be honest still ill, I booked myself a month later on an EFT practitioner course in Birmingham with one of only 28 EFT masters in the world, Karl Dawson.  I found myself in my hotel room the night before the course wondering how it all had happened so fast and it seemed, with no effort at all.

The course was mind blowing.  I saw such amazing things that weekend that I never thought I could attribute to an ‘alternative therapy’.  I remember waiting at the airport in the departures area waiting to go home and literally just sitting for about an hour watching everyone around me.  I saw all of the aches and pains in people and I had never been aware of them before.  I felt so empowered.  I wanted to work my way through every single one of them, helping them with this amazing therapy that would give them results like nothing they had ever experienced before.  There was a sense of peace and security within me that day, knowing that I had a resource that could change lives for the better – my own included.

Through the following months I worked both with other practitioners and on my own on gradually getting myself back to full health.  And here I am.  It was in no way an overnight cure, but EFT truly gave results where nothing else did.  Looking back, EFT was a fork in the road for me.  The life that I might still be living if it wasn’t for EFT doesn’t bear thinking about.  That illness was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through, and although there were times I was so sure I was going nowhere, I was still moving forward.  It has given me a compassion that did not exist so deeply within me beforehand.  It has given me a career that truly means something to me, and is of incredible value to those that I treat.  I feel that I am making a difference to this world, and that alone is invaluable to me.

Having a phobia of walking outside your own home and being in a wide open public space can be debilitating and wreck any chance of a normal happy life. Even the thought of this situation can send a sufferer into a terrible panic attack with feelings of anxiety that could soon develop into depression. One of the best things a sufferer can do is to have psychotherapy and give themselves a shot at living again.
The term ‘agoraphobia’ is literally a fear of open spaces and comes from the Greek words meaning “fear of the marketplace”. The phobia is most common in women and occurs in a high number of people aged 25-35. Agoraphobia can also apply to people who find it difficult to be in crowds or struggle with travelling on their own. It’s usual for people to continue with their day-to-day lives when suffering with agoraphobia but it makes for an uncomfortable existence. Others can be completely housebound by it.
The most common symptom of agoraphobia is a panic attack. These attacks can take the form of shaking, sweating, palpitations and chest pain. The sufferer can also develop a headache from tension and have tingling sensations around the body. They will also feel a sense of terror and seek to flee from the situation. If this applies to you when in a public space or social situation, you may well be suffering with agoraphobia.
As with many phobias, the causes are believed to be chemical and also a result of physical and environmental factors. An imbalance in our chemical make-up can disrupt neurotransmitters in the brain that may bring about attacks. Also, emotional factors from past experiences can affect the way we perceive certain situations and therefore we try to avoid placing ourselves in a similar situation again. When these factors cause us to avoid situations for fear of them, it can impair our social, professional and personal life and we should seek help.
Your GP should make a diagnosis of your condition and then recommend a course of treatment. Many doctors choose to treat the condition with medications such as antidepressants, serotonin inhibitors or tranquilizers but psychotherapy is now the non-drug way of overcoming the phobia and your GP can refer you to a trained psychotherapist.
Psychotherapy will use what is known as cognitive behavioural therapy to help agoraphobics overcome their fear. Many psychotherapists use a technique called ‘desensitisation’. They will slowly expose a patient to the situations that cause them anxiety to purposely trigger their fear. When this happens, the psychotherapist will help calm the patient with breathing exercises and relaxation methods and gradually the patient will learn to cope. By breaking the connection the mind makes with the feared situation and the feelings associated with it, the phobia can ease and eventually disappear altogether.
Another technique a psychotherapist may employ is a psychodynamic therapy that tackles the underlying causes of the phobia. By discussing any emotional conflicts a sufferer has, the patient can learn to overcome their fear. Often the causes of agoraphobia are not apparent until the patient starts to talk about them.
Psychotherapy has a high success rate with agoraphobics and by working with a trained psychotherapist you can begin to understand why you are suffering with agoraphobia and start to develop coping strategies to overcome it. Before long you could be enjoying a happy and active social life again.