By R. Meyers
My client, “Barb,” called me from work one day with excruciating pain running down the back of her left leg. She had been unable to sleep the night before due to the intensity of the pain. She couldn’t understand why her leg hurt so much because she hadn’t injured or strained it in any way.
I asked her on a SUD scale of 0 to 10 with 10 being the most pain, how bad the pain was. “A 12,” she answered. The pain was making walking difficult and she was having trouble concentrating at work. She knew that if she went to her medical doctor, he would prescribe a pain medication, which, in fact, he did offer.
Although she wanted relief, she did not want to go that route because she had been clean and sober for seven months, in recovery from addiction to prescription pain medications. She chose not to accept the prescription and, instead, left work and scheduled a session with me.
We had worked previously on some of the underlying emotions that contributed to her addiction so I was already familiar with some of her “triggers.” When Barb arrived for her session that afternoon, the pain was still at a 9-10.
We started tapping and I asked her to go back to when she first noticed the pain coming on.
“It was yesterday at work.”
I asked her what she was feeling at the moment she first noticed the pain.
“Overwhelmed, irritated, and tired.”
I asked where she feel this in her body.
“In my heart and my head.”
We then tapped and used the following Setup Statement:
Even though I feel overwhelmed, irritated and tired, I deeply and completely accept myself.
Tapping on the points, we used these reframes:
All this overwhelm.
All this irritation.
I feel it in my head and heart.
I’m so tired.
So overwhelmed.
So irritated.
Her SUD pain intensity number dropped to between a 4 and 5.
I asked her what other times she has felt this exact same feeling of overwhelm and irritation.
“In my previous job before I switched careers, I hated the work. It left me feeling dead inside. When I felt that way, I would just pop pill and I didn’t care.”
We then started tapping using this Setup Statement:
Even though I felt dead inside and I hated it, I deeply and completely accept myself.
We tapped these Reminder Phrases:
I felt dead inside.
I hated the work.
It was irritating doing this unfulfilling work every day.
This irritation.
This dead feeling inside.
Just pop a pill and it goes away.
Her SUD level pain number dropped to a between 1 and 0. The next morning she called to tell me that the pain was completely gone! More important, the insight she gained from our session was significant. She realized that she desperately wanted the pills, but had made a commitment she would not use them. Manifesting physical pain was a way she could legitimately “justify” their use.
Instead of acting on that justification, she had the strength and courage to come in for a session.
Through the use of EFT tapping, she experienced a release from her overwhelm and irritation and had complete relief from the physical pain. She continues to work a program of recovery and is still clean and sober. She also continues to work on the underlying issues of her addiction and, with the help of EFT, experiences freedom and deeper understanding.
