Wherever You Go, There You are!

May 1st, 2012

Growing up, I moved every few years, sometimes more often. No, my family was not in the military. It is a rather complicated story, but basically my father worked away from home in an industry that made him move frequently. I bounced between my mom and dad, sometimes several times within the same school year. On one hand, this made it difficult to develop substantial relationships with friends, always being the new kid on the block. I tended to be guarded against becoming too attached to people, because I knew it would not be long before I would leave. However, I eventually adapted by deciding moving would be a chance to start over with a clean slate.

I maintained this pattern of moving even when I became an emancipated minor in my late teens. It became a fairly predictable cycle. Move. Start fresh. Get stale. Move again. At seventeen, I picked up and moved from Maine to Washington State. Today, I would probably be terrified of making such a drastic change on a whim, but I was officially an adult, at least according to the courts, and I was more than ready to start over –again! When I moved to Washington, it took less than two months before my fresh start became stale.
You see, I had already established myself as a revolving door patient, in and out of one eating disorder program to the next. I always had a team of therapists, doctors, dieticians, etc… My friendships started out where I presented myself as a young and intelligent go-getter, and I was. However, I also tried to pretend I did not have any issues. Eventually, I would “purge” out all of my deepest, darkest secrets, usually overwhelming the one or two people who I would allow to know the real me. Once I burned out the friends, treatment providers, and programs in the area, I would start looking for the next place to start fresh. I honestly thought I would eventually move out of the eating disorder and into recovery.

The problem with my theory was this; you cannot run from yourself! “Wherever you go, there you are!” It took a good ten years (and at least ten more moves) before I realized my theory of moving away from my problems was not an effective remedy. For all of those years, I had hoped I would find the magical therapist or treatment center that would cure me. It never occurred to me that I was the one who had to save me. I was never actually taught that I held the key to change. Perhaps I was and I just could not swallow that in my fairy tale version of recovery, where someone was supposed to sweep in to rescue me from myself.
I have had ample opportunity to gather tools, resources, and skills. Treatment centers, such as Mirasol, provide a chance to break free from unhealthy and ineffective patterns while in a safe, supportive environment. Hopefully, you develop a positive relationship with the treatment providers who arm you with recovery tools and skills that you can utilize when you leave treatment. You gain insight, confidence, and an opportunity to exercise your recovery muscles as you experiment with applying your new skills before you graduate and venture back to your life outside of treatment. This is what a great treatment program does best! You are taught how to accept, cope, and thrive in the ebb and flow of life. You learn that when push comes to shove, you are your greatest ally as much as you were your greatest enemy.

Here is where I had a major disconnect. My tool belt looked a little too picture perfect. I had all of the tools in the right places, but I never used them on the job. Basically, I had a really hard time helping myself. I just kept gathering tools and not using them! I thought I would be a whole new person when I found the right treatment program. They were going to take all of my issues, crumble them up, and do away with them completely—you know, like magic! Ta-dah! They were going to transform me! After an effective treatment experience, I realized the magic of recovery is being willing to take what you are given and work it. You have to grab the tools out of your tool belt and continue to build your new identity and lifestyle one brick at a time. If you want to recover, there is no way around this.

There is a lot more to building a home than laying a foundation and framing the structure! There is also a lot more to the process to building your recovery than going into treatment. Starting treatment is a courageous first step, but the journey requires putting one foot in front of the other, over and over and over, especially when you leave treatment.

Chances are that you (or your family member) will not leave treatment cured, completely free of all urges, forever. Recovery presents challenges, especially during periods of transitions. Even if outdated and no longer useful, there is often an urge to retreat to old ways of coping during times of change. Graduating from treatment is one of the first major transitions that will call upon your recovery tenacity and patience. You will have to apply and re-apply your skills, even when no one is watching. You do not have to make the commitment forever. Today is enough. When things are especially difficult, I always seek comfort in the fact that today is the only day I really have. Stubborn and tough as nails, I can get through anything, at least for today.

Shaping new behavior and thought patterns are not easy tasks. We are creatures of habit, so it is only natural to require a lot of practice and repetition to unlearn one habit and replace it with a new behavior. For example, I have been using “paper or plastic” at the grocery store for over a decade. I have had reusable tote bags in my car for well over a year now. I want to use less plastic, but only over the last few weeks have I ever remembered to bring the canvas totes into the store with me, so I could actually use less plastic. I would usually only remember my totes while checking out or while loading groceries into my car. I am finally learning to enter the store with tote bags in hand.

As you pack your bags, whether figuratively or metaphorically, remember this…Wherever you go, there you are. Break open your tool box, put on your tool belt, grab the tools you need for the job, and build your life one day at a time.

For my next guest blog contribution, I am going to introduce to you a coping tool that is also always with you wherever you go, so stay tuned!

Heather Purdin, M.Ed., RYT

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Operation Beautiful

April 7th, 2012

I met Heather Purdin on line and I have come to love her writing about eating disorders. She was a volunteer for Operation Beautiful which is a wonderful idea. I told her how much I admired her writing and asked her if she would blog once a week for Mirasol. She said, “Yes.” Her depth of knowledge about eating disorders is remarkable. I know you’ll enjoy her!

Operation Beautiful™: Mission Accomplished!
Heather Purdin, M.Ed., CTRS, RYT

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” —Margaret Mead

Sometimes it is the smallest gestures that have the most profound impact. Who would have thought a post-it note with a short and sweet message such as “You are Beautiful!” would lead to a national trend?

Caitlin Boyle certainly did not, but that did not stop her from sewing the seed that has now become the masterpiece known as, Operation Beautiful™.

Her goal was to combat the societal epidemic of negative self-talk by countering it with a positive message. She first left the messages on mirrors in public restrooms at her work, gym, and local grocery store. She hoped, “Maybe some people read them and just smile, but I bet some people are truly touched by the effort of a random stranger.”

Caitlin eventually created a website and began putting the web address on the notes so people could join the mission as a community. In the battle against toxic self-talk, the Operation Beautiful™ website is a sort of headquarters always recruiting more soldiers to walk the talk!

Glamour Magazine, Women’s Day, Oprah Winfrey Network, and The Today Show have all taken notice. Today, Caitlin’s website receives thousands of hits from across the Globe from others who contribute to the cause. This time featuring inspirational messages geared toward girls 8-14, Caitlin just wrote her second book: Operation Beautiful™ for Best Friends. (Remember, this all started with a simple post-it note and a positive mind.)

I joined the cause two years ago when I discovered an Operation Beautiful™ note. Since, I have helped organize three “Operation Beautiful™” benefits with my band, reaching hundreds of attendees. Hopefully, some of these folks have gone on to spread the positivity. Regardless, the funds raised have been passed onto Project HEAL: Help to Eat, Accept, & Live, a nonprofit organization started by three brilliant teenagers that helps individuals battling eating disorders access the treatment they need.

Prevention + Intervention = REAL HOPE!

YOU can become part of the equation, part of the solution, and here is how:

What supplies do I need? This is the best part! This activity is incredibly accessible because it requires inexpensive items common to most households. Traditional supplies include: post-it notes as well as pens, pencils, gel pens, and/or markers. There are all sorts of shapes, sizes, and colors of post-it notes you can look for if you want to invest a few dollars into the project. You can always incorporate stickers too.

What do I write and where do I post the notes? Get creative and even animated. You can spread around your favorite quotes or make up your own encouraging messages. If you struggle with self-image yourself, just imagine what it is you might really need to hear today and then spread the love! You can embellish your messages by adding doodles, using different color combinations, and even drawing quick sketches to help your message capture one’s attention. It really comes down to how many notes you want to make and how much time you have to devote to the project.

People are now expanding the mission by using chalk on sidewalks and using non-permanent markets to draw directly on mirrors. Just be careful to respect public and private property by using methods that can easily be removed. By the way, if you walk by later and find your message is missing, it may have been picked up and taken home by someone who really needed it!

If you leave the www.operationbeautiful.com website on the post-it, people can learn more about this mission. You can also leave the website of an eating disorder non-profit organization. Regardless of your choice, just keep this to positive propaganda please!

Below is a list of 15 possible locations, as well as examples of what you might write.

1. Bathroom mirrors (Look in the mirror and repeat after me, “You are beautiful!”)
2. Dressing room mirrors (Objects in the mirror are more beautiful than they appear!)
3. Bathroom stalls (Size does not matter. Love yourself always and forever!)
4. Lockers in the gym or at school (Go out into the world knowing you are loved)
5. Scales at the gym (A mind is a terrible thing to waste and a waist is a terrible thing to mind.)
6. Diet and beauty product aisles at the store (You are magnificent just the way you are.)
7. Diet ads or Photoshopped images on magazine covers (REAL beauty is who you are!)
8. Self-help books at the library or bookstore (Rock Steady!)
9. Ice-cream shops (Life is short; eat dessert first!)
10. Children’s toy packages that encourage unrealistic body image (You are the twinkle in the stars.)
11. Public bulletin boards (You can do anything you set your mind too!)
12. Gas pumps (“Don’t worry about a thing. Every little thing is gonna be alright” –Bob Marley)
13. Random car windows in the parking lot (Smile! It’s beautiful and contagious.)
14. Inside your cabinet doors (You deserve to enjoy your life.)
15. On your refrigerator (Nourish your mind, body, and soul. Breathe deeply & repeat!)

Whether you run a treatment program, suffer from an eating disorder, have a loved one battling an eating disorder, or have recovered from one, you have wisdom to share, so go out and share it! My partner surprised me with a note a few days before we held our first Operation Beautiful™ benefit and I still cherish it!

One you get started, the ideas will start running and you might even have a difficult time keeping up with yourself. Remember, this will benefit you and someone else! It’s like feeding two birds with one seed. Beautiful indeed!

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Interview of David Herzog as Done by Huffington Post

April 3rd, 2012

My guest blog today was another article I found on the Huffington Post. This one is by David Herzog who I’ve always considered as one of the Rock Stars of the Eating Disorder world. David Herzog, M.D., founded the Harris Center for Education and Advocacy in Eating Disorders. He is one of the foremost researchers in the field of eating disorders. He has been a great influence on me in how I view eating disorders. Here is the interview from the Huff Post:

Which of the Harris Center’s recent achievements are you most proud of?

One of the questions that frequently came up [among patients] early on, was, “What is going to happen to my daughter or me in one year or five years or 10 years, whether I get treatment or I don’t. Will I ever recover from this?” In 1987 we were funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the NIMH, to do a prospective follow-up study of 246 women with anorexia and bulimia. We are now in the 25th year of mapping the course of their disorders, what happens over time. So that’s what’s going on currently.
What findings has the study yielded up to this point?

So far we’ve been able to determine, unfortunately, the severity of this illness. In the first 11 years of the study, 10 of the 136 women with anorexia nervosa died. These were young women. And we wouldn’t have known that they had died if we weren’t following them. They weren’t necessarily in treatment — they might have gone for 3 months or been in psychotherapy or stopped and then started — but we were going to record all of it so at least we would know what [care] they had. It gave us a chance to look at who gets better. What are the factors that predict better outcomes or worse outcomes? I’m not sure we know that there’s a specific treatment for the illness — you take this and you do this, and you so-called “get better.” That is an area that we keep working on.”

This year and in previous years, you’ve invited members of the fashion industry, including Anna Wintour, Diane von Furstenberg and several models, to speak at the Harris Center’s annual Public Forum. What’s your thinking there?

There’s obviously an interest in the fashion world because there is concern that [it] is a factor in the rise of eating disorders. So I was able to make contact with Anna Wintour, and she organized the panel [in 2010] with Michael Kors and [supermodel] Natalie Vodianova to come here and talk about that. To [take on] the issues, [ask], “What’s going on here?” [The discussion] partly had to do with the safety of models and partly had to do with impact of all this on the greater public. Though I’m always concerned about individuals and I don’t want models to suffer more than anyone else, my bigger concern truthfully is the [effect] on the whole society idealizing these figures, these models, these images, which fosters this “too thin” ideal.

For me working with the fashion industry is an opportunity to learn. There’s always this fear that you’re going to be seen as a colluder, but to make change in the fashion world is very much [about] chipping away. You can’t go in with a sledgehammer. The fact that Anna was here was a big step. Sometimes working with the industry is more effective than just purely attacking it.

Do we have a way of measuring the impact of media on rates of eating disorders?

I don’t think if we change the media, that suddenly there aren’t going to be eating disorders. But we’re continually gathering data about the rates of eating disorders whether that’s increasing or stabilizing. Individuals who develop eating disorders are not necessarily glued to fashion magazines. So how do you understand the impact of media?

There’s another piece of this that the new Israeli law [banning underweight models from local advertising and requiring disclosure of photoshopping] kind of got into, the digitalizing of images. Are we going to police every image out there? I’m not pushing for federal legislation. I’m pushing for more information.

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Mother Speaks Out After Losing Daughter to Bulimia

April 3rd, 2012

I saw this interview on the Huffington Post and I wanted to pass this on. We always think about anorexics dying and we forget that bulimia is a deadly condition as well!

Mother Speaks Out After Losing Daughter To Bulimia

April 2, 2012
Like many parents, Judy Avrin didn’t fully understand the gravity of bulimia, until she lost her daughter Melissa. To help shed light on the disorder, Avrin helped make a documentary inspired by her daughter’s journal entries. Avrin speaks with guest host Jacki Lyden about the film Someday Melissa.

JACKI LYDEN, HOST:
This is TELL ME MORE, from NPR News. I’m Jacki Lyden. Michel Martin is away. Coming up, he’s walked the runway in both menswear and women’s wear. He’s even modeled as an haute couture bride. We’ll learn the secret to Andrej Pejic’s unconventional beauty and gender-bending in just a moment.
First, we go behind closed doors, as the program often does on Mondays. That’s where we talk about issues people usually keep private, and eating disorders are that kind of issue.
Up to 24 million Americans of all ages and genders suffer from these illnesses, according to the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and associated disorders.

Today, we want to focus specifically on bulimia. It’s when people go through frequent cycles of binge eating, followed by purging. Judy Avrin lost her daughter, Melissa, to this illness in 2009, and she helped make a documentary about her teen daughter’s battle with bulimia to help other families and educators and health care workers understand this disease.

In the movie, Judy Avrin admits that she spent some time in denial about her daughter’s condition.

JUDY AVRIN: And then I found, in her drawer – in her dresser drawers – glasses with chewed up and spit out food in it. Melissa was absolutely and totally resistant to even talking about it.

LYDEN: That was Judy Avrin in her film, “Someday Melissa: The Story of an Eating Disorder, Loss and Hope.” And she recently showed the film about her daughter at the National Institute of Mental Health here in Washington, D.C. It’s also being screened at colleges and community groups.
Judy Avrin joins us in the studio now. Thank you so much for coming in, and we’re very sorry about the loss of Melissa.

AVRIN: Thank you. And I’m proud and happy to be here and share her story.

LYDEN: This film was inspired by many things, by this devastating illness within your family, by the writings you found in your daughter’s journal about the arc of her life. There’s one entry that so gets to the heart of the matter. It’s a poem that she wrote. Judy, would you please read it for us?

AVRIN: Someday, I’ll eat breakfast. I’ll keep a job for more than three weeks. I’ll have a boyfriend for more than 10 days. I’ll love someone. I’ll travel wherever I want. I’ll make my family proud. I’ll make a movie that will change lives.

LYDEN: Which is exactly what you’ve done here. How did it feel to find that poem, and was that the inspiration for the film that you’ve made?

AVRIN: The poem, I actually didn’t see the first time I read through the journal. I had finally gotten up the courage to read it about two months after she died. And after I did, I honestly thought about putting the journal in a drawer and forgetting about what she’d written. And it was sometime later when I was speaking to the director, he mentioned someday, and I went back and read the poem, and I got chills.

LYDEN: It isn’t only this poem, which is so remarkable, but her writings in her journals throughout the arc of her illness really got quite profound, and there’s a lot of recognition there, which sort of goes to show the grip of something that she was in. She died in May of 2009, but you start the film, really, with her childhood.

AVRIN: Melissa was a happy, healthy, creative, funny, very normal child. And it was around the age of 13 that she began struggling with the body image issues that ultimately led to the depression and the eating disorder that took her life. It was even certainly harder for my husband to understand it, but I do talk in the film about my own history with bulimia. I battled with it for many, many years. But my eating disorder was not as severe as Melissa’s, so I think it allowed me to minimize the early warning signs.

LYDEN: In this arc of her life, things start to change, and she’s withdrawing in school and she’s about 14. So what were some of the things you were seeing?

AVRIN: She would start wearing baggy clothes, and that’s a really classic sign of somebody who’s just not comfortable with their body. Large amounts of food would start to disappear, but we were the house that a lot of the kids would come to. So both of my kids had, you know, friends in and out of the house and then the really, really classic sign that I didn’t know until much later was she developed really severe constipation. And if the food is – and if it’s going in and coming out, or if it’s not going in at all, you’re not going to have a normal digestive system. And we had many, many visits to doctors and gastroenterologists before anyone ever uttered the word eating disorder.

LYDEN: And what was your husband’s reaction when that diagnosis was made?

AVRIN: He did not understand, as many people do, that it’s something really serious.

LYDEN: And people also think it’s a choice?

AVRIN: Which is one of the biggest misconceptions there is. It’s not a choice, and as hard as this is to understand, it’s not about the food. It may start as wanting to lose a couple of pounds, but it can transform very quickly into disordered eating and turn into a full-fledged eating disorder. And at that point, it is a mental illness.

LYDEN: I want to talk about that aspect of its being a mental illness, because I don’t know much about bulimia, but I will say here that I grew up very much with – in the presence and with – and love – a mentally ill mother. And there’s a clip in this film that I think really links it to the profundity of mental illness itself and how someone becomes someone else.
And this is where your son, Melissa’s brother, is talking about seeing your daughter out on the sidewalk in front of the house at night.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: In the bitter, freezing cold, she’s going through the garbage out on the curb looking for something to eat. And I went outside, and I yelled her name. Just the way she looked back at me was so empty, vacant. It was a deer in headlights, but that doesn’t explain it.

LYDEN: At this point, even you say she’s in the grip of something that feels like a demon.

AVRIN: She really wanted to get healthy and get well, but it would so control her and she wouldn’t be able to eat moderate amounts of food.

LYDEN: You had to lock up food. You couldn’t leave anything in the house. The cupboard had to be either bare or, you know, have a lot of shots in the film of a lock over a trunk of food. And that made the house – the fact of you locking the food, Judy Avrin, was like it made the house less of a home.

AVRIN: It did. And what I want you to understand, that came years into her illness, and it would be at times when she was, as I said, so in the grip of this eating disorder that she would consume anything. And if she did, it meant she would have to purge it.

LYDEN: If you’re just joining us, this is TELL ME MORE, from NPR News. I’m Jacki Lyden. We’re talking with Judy Avrin about her documentary about her daughter, “Someday Melissa: The Story of an Eating Disorder, Loss and Hope.”

One of the things that you did for Melissa was send her to a kind of self-confidence camp in Idaho, and that becomes kind of a celebration, in the end, for your family. Let’s listen to how that goes for her in Idaho.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as Melissa Avrin) Dear Mom and Dad, I finally made it through my first week here, and so far what I’ve worked on is realizing what I do and why I do it. I’m not going to justify my past actions. They were wrong and dangerous and careless, and I’m so sorry I hurt you.

AVRIN: It’s a wilderness program that works with kids with all kinds of problems, drinking and drugs and eating disorders. And by the end of – I believe it was six weeks – she was so incredibly proud of what she had accomplished. She rediscovered the joy of being healthy.

LYDEN: Which is one of the things you show in this film, and I think that’s so great, Judy Avrin, that we don’t only see her as a collection of symptoms. Did you feel, after the wilderness camp, that you’d turned a corner?

AVRIN: Absolutely did. And she was about to turn 18. And, generally, kids who come from programs like this need a transition, and it’s better not to come right back home. And we had selected a therapeutic boarding school for her to go to. And while she was there, she truly rediscovered the joy of her brain. She was incredibly bright, an amazing writer. She tutored other kids. So in that sense, that next stage was positive, but the eating disorder came back in full force.

LYDEN: But she would eventually get into even the college she wanted.

AVRIN: Yeah. She wanted to be a filmmaker, and Emerson College was her dream school. And a week before she died, she got a phone call. And then a week after she died, the big envelope came.

LYDEN: Why did you want to make this film? You must think that there are many misconceptions about bulimia.

AVRIN: There are so many misconceptions. The general public, I think – to them, the face of an eating disorder is somebody with anorexia, extremely underweight, malnourished, the bones protruding. A typical bulimic generally will be within normal weight ranges, and that makes the eating disorder invisible.

LYDEN: Melissa was within normal ranges?

AVRIN: Absolutely. You know, her weight varied from time to time, but people would tell her she looked so great, you know, not knowing that she was purging and…

LYDEN: And I think perhaps another thing that’s not known is the devastating toll that it takes on the internal organs. The lack of potassium weakens the muscles. This is really not precisely starvation as we may think of it, but you are doing devastating things to your organs.

AVRIN: Right. And that’s ultimately what took Melissa’s life. She had a heart attack because her body chemistry was so out of whack. And you also don’t have to be sick for a long time. All it takes is one time that you purge and your electrolytes or your potassium are out of whack, and you can have a heart attack.

LYDEN: Had you worried – I want to ask you frankly, Judy Avrin – that she might succumb? That she might die?

AVRIN: Never. Never. I always believed she would recover. Even as difficult as it is to go through this cycle, I always believed she would recover.

LYDEN: So what has been the most helpful thing? She passed away May the 6th, 2009. What do you think – as you’ve had some time now, several years, nearly, to live with this?

AVRIN: Making the film, first of all, was an incredibly therapeutic way for me to channel my grief. And what has come from the film – and I say I would trade it all in a heartbeat to have her back.

LYDEN: Obviously.

AVRIN: But she is so inspiring others around the world, and I get emails, truly, on a daily basis. I got one the other day from a young woman in Texas. I’m 26 and I realized months ago, after hearing Melissa’s story, that I have so many somedays I still want to live, and I’m fighting for my recovery. Or I’ll hear from people – from families who say watching this film made me understand my child’s eating disorder unlike anything else has.
And therapists are using it for treatment and intervention. And she’s giving other people hope.

LYDEN: You’ve really made her live again.

AVRIN: Thank you.

LYDEN: Judy Avrin is the co-executive producer of the documentary about her daughter, “Someday Melissa: The Story of an Eating Disorder, Loss and Hope.”
Thank you so much for making this documentary about your late daughter and for coming in and sharing your story with us.

AVRIN: Thank you. It’s been an honor.

Copyright © 2012 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

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Breakthroughs in Energy Psychology: Healing the Mind and the Body in Eating Disorder Treatment at Mirasol

March 27th, 2012

I was so excited when I found this article on the Huffington Post. We use EFT at Mirasol for anxiety, depression, trauma, even fear around eating. I first trained in EFT with Gary Craig, I think about 10 years ago. I have been quite a proponent of EFT ever since because it works, not for everyone but for most people. I can literally feel my body decompress. I can feel stress and anxiety leave my body. Nick Ortner has been able to verbalize so well exactly what EFT is. Thank you, Nick!

Yoga, meditation, massage, acupuncture, and herbal remedies; these are just some of Eastern medicine’s contributions to our decades-long search for ways to live well with fewer pills and less-invasive health care. Toward that end, I’m excited to report that there are promising new findings in the field of energy psychology, specifically about a practice called Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), or tapping, that is taking our search for holistic solutions to an exciting new level.

What’s unique about EFT is how it combines Eastern wisdom about acupressure, or “meridian points,” in our bodies, with traditional Western psychotherapy. The practice consists of tapping with your fingertips on specific meridian points while talking through traumatic memories and a wide range of emotions. “Acupoint tapping sends signals directly to the stress centers of the mid-brain, not mediated by the frontal lobes (the thinking part, active in talk therapy),” explains Dr. Church, Ph.D., who has been researching and using EFT since 2002. Because EFT simultaneously accesses stress on physical and emotional levels, he adds, “EFT gives you the best of both worlds, body and mind, like getting a massage during a psychotherapy session.”

In fact, it’s EFT’s ability to access the amygdala, an almond-shaped part of your brain that initiates your body’s negative reaction to fear, a process we often refer to as the “fight or flight” response, that makes it so powerful. “By reducing stress,” adds Church, “EFT helps with many problems. There’s a stress component to sports performance, business and financial pressure, and most disease. When you reduce stress in one area of your life, there’s often a beneficial effect in other areas.”

Church estimates that 10 million people worldwide have used tapping, and what’s so exciting is how incredibly quickly it’s alleviating issues like depression, anxiety and insomnia, as well severe PTSD, physical pain, even illness.

At this point you’re probably thinking what most intelligent and sane people are — how is that possible? How can tapping on “meridian points” resolve serious health issues? As an EFT practitioner and the producer of the movie The Tapping Solution, it’s a question I’ve been asked repeatedly over many years. In fact, you’ll often hear me refer to EFT as “this strange tapping thing.” Fortunately, there’s very real science (and results!) behind it.

In partnership with Dr. David Feinstein, Dr. Church has been able to confirm that tapping on specific meridian points has a positive effect on cortisol levels. Cortisol, known as the “stress hormone,” is integral to our body’s “fight or flight” response. Originally designed to help us survive life in the wild, the “fight or flight” response was essential when our ancient ancestors were faced with sudden, brief danger like, let’s say, a tiger. However useful in short bursts, releasing cortisol too frequently, as we seem to be doing in response to the ongoing or “chronic” stress of modern life, may have serious, even scary, impacts on our physical, mental and emotional health. In fact, living in this kind of biological “survival mode” may be making us more vulnerable to everything from cancer to heart disease, and more.

In Dr. Church’s study, 83 participants were separated into three groups. One group was guided through an hour-long EFT session, the second group received an hour of talk therapy, while the third, the control group, received no treatment. The group that did an hour of EFT demonstrated a 24 percent decrease in cortisol levels, while the other two groups showed no real change. The EFT group also exhibited lower levels of psychological symptoms, including anxiety, depression, and others, as measured by the Symptom Assessment-45 (SA-45), a standard psychological assessment tool.

Research suggests that EFT may be so effective because of its perceived ability to balance out the nervous system, leveling off the activity of the parasympathetic and sympathetic regions. Responsible for promoting cell regeneration and relaxation, the parasympathetic region helps to slow your heartbeat, support digestion, and more. The sympathetic system, on the other hand, prepares you for vigorous physical activity by speeding up your heart, constricting your pupils, and so on. As noted in Church’s study, imbalance between these two regions is associated with a long list of health issues, from high blood pressure and heart problems (most often seen in those with an overactive sympathetic region), to depression, fatigue, and weakened immune response (in those with excessive parasympathetic activity).

In his study findings, Church asserts that EFT, which he refers to as “acupoint treatments” produces “a neutral emotional state,” which, biologically speaking, is the gold standard of health and wellness. It’s also the state of well-being people have sought to achieve for millennia through meditation, prayer, yoga, and other mindfulness practices.

Dr. Feinstein, a clinical psychologist who uses EFT in his own practice, adds that EFT is an “unusually precise, rapid, and direct for shifting the neurological underpinnings of a range of psychological problems.” In fact, he adds, “the number of therapists using EFT has been rapidly increasing over the past decade, and now peer-reviewed research is showing that their instincts have been right. Surprisingly rapid outcomes with a variety of disorders are being documented.”

The results of that documentation can (and will!) impact millions of lives in incredibly powerful ways, which is why I’m excited to share a host of new studies with you here, in future posts. In the meantime, I look forward to hearing your feedback. Are you familiar with tapping? Do you use it yourself, or know others who do? Are there specific topics you’d like me to focus on in future posts?

Nick Ornter is the creator and executive producer of the hit documentary film, “The Tapping Solution.”

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