When medication is no longer a help
Although it may be true that that the long-term use of anti-anxiety drugs might reduce anxiety symptoms, it might also be true that stopping them might make you worse. However, when the underlying issues of a frightening panic feeling or cold hand nervousness are on the surface and you experience them in full, it might be a red signal that there is in issue that you must deal with.
When to be in a gym is not healthy
Georgina had called me to see if I could help her with her panic attacks. She was an intelligent woman in her late thirties. She was ambitious and self-disciplined in her career. However, recently she had found herself that being publicly exposed and even going on a treadmill had scared her. Gyms in Dubai were full of luxurious equipment that promised safety and comfort. However, it did not help my client to feel any better. Even thinking about being in a gym made her hands sweat. Her breathing got heavy and she felt like she was about to faint. It later became more severe and her hope of getting rid of it declined.
How the clear objective of the therapy can lead to confidence
Growing up with her mother and a little sister, Georgina described herself as an underdog. “I don’t remember any time when my mother actually hugged me. Anytime when I wanted to be close to her, I always felt her push me away,” her lifeless tear drops were describing her sorrow. “I love my mum and I am sure that she loves me. But how come I don’t feel it,” she questioned again and again, hoping to hear the answer that would solve all of her insecurity. “I don’t know much about love. I don’t think anyone knows about it. But I know that the pain you have inside must be left outside and I know how to kill it.” I was soft and gentle with her vulnerability. Having said that, I suggested clearing all of the insecure attachments to the past. In this way, my client could handle unwanted situations (maybe with a bit of nervousness) without getting to the point of panicking and fainting.
Because no one was there to cry to
A newly wed Georgina was seeing me a couple of times a week. It was usually before her office hours. Having a cup of tea as a warmup, we talked about her office work, her infidelity to her husband, and the relationship with her “God knows where he is” father. “He left me and my 12-month old sister, when I was seven years old. I remember when I got home after school, mum was sitting alone in the kitchen, drinking and crying. She did not talk to me, when I asked her what happened. I realised myself, when I saw that none of dad’s clothes were there. That day I felt as if they both (mum and dad) left me and I ended up alone, by myself and with my little sister whom I had to look after. I wanted to cry, but who could see my tears,” Georgina was crying inside and had finally found someone who could listen to them.
No longer hide your tears
We had agreed that when she was crying, she allowed me to use my taping techniques to deal with all of the emotions that she had accumulated during that period of her life. “We will no longer hide your tears, we will deal with them and I will be talking to you and ask you to repeat to what I say, without any questions, unless I ask you,” I explained to her the way that I work, so we could have a mutual agreement about our relationship without misunderstanding each other.
When the happiness of a new born child terrifies a mummy
After two months of therapy including psychoanalysis and hypnosis, counselling and hypnosis, my own method of taping therapy and hypnosis, CBT and all that I know, Georgina made her first trip to a gym. I let her to be by herself so she would be able to deal with the unexpected fears without me. Two years later, she phoned me and asked for the help she thought she would never ask again. She was panicking. She had her first child and was so “on top the world with her little girl, that it made her terrified that she couldn’t bear this horror,” she cried over the phone and I booked her in.
When enough is enough
But this time, Georgina’s story was different. I had been away for a year. Georgina after the birth had experienced panic attacks. As a result, she found a different approach, medication. It did calm her down, but the effect was short and she knew that it was the medication. However, she knows that it did not help her to deal with the problem that she still had inside her. Her confidence level had dropped and the hope for anxiety-free life had become so small that it took us a while to begin to believe that she could be fine again. She was always carrying medication in her bag, “Just in case, you know. I am scared to leave the house without it,” she admitted. “If you can’t confront your fears and you always make excuses for them, which is what you are doing now, you will always feel that you are a half person. I can help you. Throw it in the bin, my bin, now. I don’t order you to do so. I want you to want to get rid of all the unnecessary labels of yourself,” Georgina took a box of the prescribed medication and threw it in the bin. She left my office in an uncertain mood.
How belief can turn your world into the way that you want it
A month later, she still had her fear of “another panic attack,” but it was in the back of her mind, rather than freezing and paralysing her. She had comfortably moved on without having another prescribed drug in her bag but she was still seeing me a few times a month to build her confidence in the family that she had always wanted.