This post is a continuation from May 4.
A client called me asking for some help with her fear of throwing up. She told me a bit about what happened to cause her upset and fear and we were able to track some the the panicky feelings to thoughts she was having. The things she was “telling herself” were increasing her stomach upset as well as her panic.
When I work with someone whose stomach problems lead to panic, there are typically negative thoughts that are triggering the panic. These thoughts move through the mind very swiftly. But, if you stop and ask yourself, what was going on right before I felt panic? You will notice that the thoughts many times start with the words “what if” and the answer is typically a scary and negative thought. These negative thoughts stimulate the flight/ fight reaction.
This client had already hypnotically “anchored” a calming feeling using the scent of peppermint. This “anchor” was set into her unconscious mind so that just even thinking about peppermint would trigger a settling feeling in her stomach.
For the last 2 weeks she had been using the peppermint to “trigger” a settling down feeling, with great success. To increase the effectiveness of the “anchor” whenever she felt queasy she would put a dab of peppermint on the back of her hand and take a deep breath. Noticing the feeling as the mint moved through her body. It had actually worked so well that she had forgotten to take it with her on the day she called me in a panic. Sometimes when people start to feel better they do forget that they needed to use techniques, so because she hadn’t been having problems for 2 weeks she actually forgot her peppermint. This was a great sign, sort of a glimpse of what it would be like when this problem is no longer with her.
Until she could come in for a session to get the the deeper root of this fear of throwing up I gave her a few more tips she could use to help. There are different parts of the mind and each part will respond to different techniques. The techniques I will be talking about in this post are to help with the thinking or cognitive (conscious) part of her mind. When using shills that work with the conscious mind it does take effort. But these skills are important when a person if first learning to get control of thoughts and the feelings.
Tips I gave my client to hold her till our next session. These will help her to deal with fear of throwing up and lead to less feelings of panic.
1. First it is important that she remind herself how successful she was at using her unconscious mind. She had two really great weeks. People with panic are really good at blaming themselves. It is important to recognize success as well.
2. The second thing is to continue to use the peppermint. Putting some on the back of her hand and smelling it will continue to reinforce the calming down “anchor.”
3. While she is smelling the peppermint, and this is very important, I asked her to say to herself, “THAT FEELS BETTER”. It’s not important that she believe this statement yet, the unconscious mind hears the message “that feels better” and begins to follow the suggestion. Sending the chemicals through the body to actually feel better.
4. The next positive thought she would add was, “Peppermint soothes the stomach.” Just hearing herself say this helps to turn her thinking from the “what if’s” to more empowering and helpful thoughts.
5. The last statement she will add whenever she feels queasy is: “Yes, this feels terrible, and it’s awful, but nothing happened the last time I felt this way”. This is a true statement, even though she thought she’d throw up, nothing did happen. And her stomach did settle down.
6. The best way to remember new positive messages is to put them on index cards. You can just take the statements out and read them. When you are in the middle of “what if” thoughts or having a panic attack the mind typically isn’t working at its best. So these index cards really come in handy.
I reminded her to do the tapping and breathing exercises she had learned. When she used these she had 2 great weeks. They really helped to begin to change reactions and to calm her mind.
Then next time she comes in for an appointment, we’ll continue to do hypnotic work to get to the root of her fears. Then we can release whatever emotion is at the root of this problem.
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