THE NATURAL BIODESTRESSING TECHNIQUE: AN ANTIDOTE FOR THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF TERRORISM

Copyright 2001 Judith A. Swack, Ph.D.

November 2001 Judith A. Swack and Associates, Inc. Newsletter

Since September 11, 2001, have you noticed any of the following symptoms:

• When you think of the terrorist attacks you can’t believe it; it seems like a bad movie
• You can’t bear to think about it or you can’t stop watching the news on TV
• You can’t believe that anybody could do such evil (particularly in the name of God) and you’ve lost your faith in mankind
• You feel betrayed by God, the President, or the US government for not protecting us
• You feel guilty that we were attacked for something we did or did not do
• The world seems dark and sinister even on sunny days
• You feel that life will never be the same again; the world as we know it has come to an end
• You are scared about anthrax or what might come next
• You have trouble sleeping or you have nightmares
• You feel numb
• You cry more easily or frequently
• You feel like crying when you hear the national anthem or other patriotic songs
• You feel crabbier than usual or you feel extraordinarily angry
• You are afraid to fly
• You are frightened by airplanes flying overhead
• You don’t want to leave home or go anywhere on vacation
• You don’t want your relatives and friends to go out of town
• You don’t want to go out to restaurants or other entertainment
• You are afraid to spend money
• You feel lethargic. Your life feels meaningless, put on hold, or derailed
• You find it more difficult to deal with your already stressful life
• You feel isolated
• Previous loss or violence traumas now feel worse or reactivated
• You find yourself worrying about a disaster plan for your family

If you have any of these symptoms then you have been traumatized to some degree by the terrorist attack on our country. In addition to the direct attack on our country, many people have been traumatized by additional shocks caused by the ripple effect on our economy such as the loss of jobs and investment money or continued terrorist activity such as the anthrax scare. In one way or another this attack has affected most of us personally.

Since the intention of terrorists is to terrorize us, I think the best way to individually counteract the effects of terrorism is to treat ourselves for trauma and clear it from the mind and body in minutes. To that end, I am sharing a 15 minute natural bio-destressing technique modified from the Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) (1) that removes traumatic reactions from the mind and body and allows us to regain our sense of optimism, strength and enthusiasm for life

Natural bio-destressing.
Have you noticed that when people are stressed they often:

Rub the bridge of their nose by the eye socket
Rub the temples by side of their eyes
Hold their whole hand on their cheek
Put their hand over their mouth, or hold their index finger under the nose, the middle finger under the mouth, and their chin with the rest of their hand
Pound or grab their chest under the collarbone
Hug themselves
Stand with their arms folded, palm of left hand over right ribcage
Chew on the edge of their fingers
Drum their fingertips on a desk or table
Wring their hands
Hold their hands with fingers folded together
Hold the outside edge of one hand within the palm of the other hand?
Why do people do that?
Everyone I’ve asked said it was calming, soothing, comforting, grounding.

Why is that?
It is because stimulating these areas of the body activates the calming reflex . The calming reflex directly inhibits the fight/flight/freeze reflex that is active when we are stressed (2-4).

What happens during a traumatic shock?
A traumatic shock triggers the fight/flight/freeze reflex, and anything that was in the environment at the time (sights, sounds, sensations) becomes associated with the traumatic reaction. Later exposure to the environmental stimuli present during the original reaction can retrigger phobic/traumatic reactions.

How do we clear traumatic reactions from the mind and body in minutes?
People automatically and unconsciously stimulate their calming reflex by touching the areas of the body that I described above. In the EFT technique, a person focuses consciously on the traumatic reaction and systematically stimulates all of these natural bio-destressing points thus inducing the calming reflex and neutralizing the traumatic reaction. From that time forward, the memory of that event is associated with the relaxed state, and the person no longer reacts phobicly. It is my feeling that the genius of this technique is not so much the technique itself which we do naturally and unconsciously all the time. I feel that the genius of this technique is that we can consciously focus on a traumatic memory and clear the upset intentionally. Hence, we have choice about how we feel and react. This probably accounts for the naming of these sorts of techniques such as Emotional Freedom Technique (1) or Thought Field Therapy (5,6).

Here is the Natural Bio-destressing technique that we developed from EFT. Try it. Share it with everyone you know.

(see enclosed instruction sheet)
Start by concentrating on the shock and fear that you felt the moment you first knew something was wrong (the initial shock). Sometimes, anger, shame, or grief feels stronger. If so start with that. Step into the memory as if it were happening now and notice where the negative emotion is located in your body. Note that your head is part of your body, and numb counts as a feeling that indicates shock. Do a round of Natural Bio-destressing, Then check for other symptoms of trauma (7) including the ones at the beginning of this article and treat them. It may take several rounds with a different emotional or belief focus to clear all the symptoms stored in a trauma. At the very least, clear the initial shock and fear.

REFERENCES

1. Craig, Gary at www .emofree.com offers the complete EFT manual as a free download from his website.

2. Guyton, A.C. and Hall, J.E. Textbook of Medical Physiology, 10 edition, W.B. Saunders Co. NY, 2000

3. Ulett, G.A., Beyond Yin and Yang; How Acupuncture Really Works, Warren S. Green and Co., Inc. St. Louis, 1992

4. Stefano, G.B., Fricchione, G.L., Slingsby, B.T., and Benson, H. “The placebo effect and relaxation response: neural processes and their coupling to constitutive nitric oxide” in Brain Research Reviews 35:1-19, 2001

5. Callahan, Roger Ph.D . Stop the Nightmares of Trauma . North Carolina: Professional Press, 2000.

6. Callahan, Roger Ph.D. Tapping the Healer Within . Illinois: Contemporary Books, 2001.

7. Swack, Judith A., Ph.D. “The Basic Structure of Loss and Violence Trauma Imprints.” Anchor Point Magazine March 1994: 3:3-23
 

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