Tap Away the Blues

Unhappiness Is On The Rise…

Most people really come to TFT and try tapping because they want to be happier or improve their quality of life. They believe that if they could reduce their stress, fears, anxiety, pain and many other negative emotions or conditions they could be happier, they could find their ideal mate, get a better job, or attract greater success into their lives.

A quick internet search on Depression shows that the number of cases is growing at an alarming rate. It also shows that areas with higher rates of depression have high rates of other negative health outcomes, such as obesity, heart disease, and stroke. Individuals suffering from depression are more likely to be unemployed or recently divorced than their non-depressed counterparts, and women experience greater risk of depression than men.

Despite these facts, many people suffer symptoms of depression without seeking care, and that undiagnosed depression costs the U.S. millions of dollars each year. Now a global health issue, depression awareness, diagnosis, and treatment are matters of crucial significance in building a healthier, happier world.

What are some of the causes of depression?

A Google search lists a number of factors that may increase the chance of depression, including the following:

• Abuse. Past physical, sexual, or emotional abuse can cause depression later in life.
• Certain medications. Some drugs, such as Accutane (used to treat acne), the antiviral drug interferon-alpha, and corticosteroids, can increase your risk of depression.
• Conflict. Depression in someone who has the biological vulnerability to develop depression may result from personal conflicts or disputes with family members or friends.
• Death or a loss. Sadness or grief from the death or loss of a loved one, though natural, may increase the risk of depression.
• Genetics. A family history of depression may increase the risk. It’s thought that depression is a complex trait that may be inherited across generations, although the genetics of psychiatric disorders are not as simple or straightforward as in purely genetic diseases such as Huntington’s chorea or cystic fibrosis.
• Major events. Even good events such as starting a new job, graduating, or getting married can lead to depression. So can moving, losing a job or income, getting divorced, or retiring.
• Other personal problems. Problems such as social isolation due to other mental illnesses or being cast out of a family or social group can lead to depression.
• Serious illnesses. Sometimes depression co-exists with a major illness or is a reaction to the illness.
• Substance abuse. Nearly 30% of people with substance abuse problems also have major or clinical depression.

In other words, one might say life in the twenty first century can cause depression.

While there are many depression medications on the market, they also have serious side-effects, none of which improve one’s quality of life. These side effects include:

While they say some side effects go away after the first few weeks of drug treatment, others persist and may even get worse. Studies show that in adults over the age of 65, many drugs may increase the risk for falls, fractures, and bone loss. They can also cause serious withdrawal symptoms if you stop taking them abruptly. Always work with your doctor when changing your medications or dosage.

If you suspect that you are depressed, consult with a mental health professional as soon as possible. TFT professionals may be able to offer you some less toxic options to begin with. You can find a TFT practitioner on our directory, www.TFTPractitioners.net. You may find one near you and many of our Adv and VT practitioners work over the telephone.

We also offer free self-help materials that can be used in conjunction with other therapeutic programs. These can address some of the underlying causes such as stress, fear, and trauma.

You can download our free Stress Guide at www.RogerCallahan.com and our free trauma relief procedures, both in video and print and in 14 languages, are available on the TFT Foundation’s trauma site www.TFTTraumaRelief.wordpress.com.

Over the years Roger and many other TFT practitioners have been able to quickly reduce or eliminate depression symptoms. Often, as they helped relieve stress, trauma, pain and other negative conditions, they found that they were able to elevate moods and increase happiness.

The following is an excerpt from Tapping the Body’s Energy Pathways, sharing some of the examples of using tapping for depression symptoms. The book includes a video resource library demonstrating many of the tapping sequences.

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We’ve used Thought Field Therapy for nearly three decades to alleviate feelings of melancholy, hopelessness and despair. But while TFT can relieve the dark and foreboding feeling of depression, we recommend that you also seek the care of a mental health professional if you are depressed—even though you choose to use TFT as part of your treatment.

Why? Because depression is a serious illness. It can lead to an increased risk of suicide. Make no mistake: Thoughts of suicide or talk of taking your own life is a medical and psychological emergency.

But this caveat should not add to your worry. In fact, the stories of success in this chapter should provide hope and help if you are suffering.

Let’s take a look:

Eliminating Depression Improves Longevity, Too

In our work over the past 30 years, we’ve not only developed TFT as a therapy for all kinds of illnesses, but we’ve also studied one of the primary indicators of why some people live longer—and others don’t.

It’s called heart rate variability—a measure of the autonomic nervous system, the body’s complicated network of nerve endings and electrical impulses that control involuntary functions such as heartbeat, digestion, perspiration, breathing and so on.

When researchers first discovered that heart rate variability, or HRV, was a good indicator of longevity and an even better measure of overall good health, we immediately began testing whether tapping could improve HRV and bring about an actual physiological change in the body’s efficient functioning.

Our years of testing for changes using HRV tells us that tapping does indeed improve heart rate variability almost within minutes of TFT treatment.

For instance, while quitting smoking or working out at the gym for six months improve HRV by about 20%, a single treatment with TFT typically improves it by as much as 156%! This suggests that TFT is accomplishing something very deep, very powerful, and biologically restorative.

So what does all this have to do with depression?

Researchers believe that severe depression unfortunately causes physiological damage to the patient, and that—because of deep negative and permanent biological change—it’s virtually impossible to improve heart rate variability. Alarmingly, Dr. Robert Carney and his fellow researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine said,“It is possible that heart rate and HRV never return to normal once there has been an episode of major depression.” *

If this were correct, their pessimistic conclusion would be terrible news for anyone who ever suffered from depression. But when we test depressed people for HRV after treating them with Thought Field Therapy, we find unequivocally that not only does TFT rapidly eliminate the depression, but a single tapping session improves heart rate variability, too.

Imagine emerging from depression not only stronger mentally, but stronger physically, as well.

Not only that, but in those cases from our files of people who suffered from severe depression (and from whom we took an HRV reading prior to their tapping treatment), patients’ heart rate variability improved by more than 150%. Such improvements are unprecedented. But in each case, the depression was completely eliminated with TFT—and the improvement was accomplished with just one TFT session, taking only minutes rather than weeks or months as other forms of therapy do.

Although this is not a detailed scientific study, these real-world results negate the pessimistic notion of permanent biological damage caused by depression. When depressed people are treated with TFT, not only is it possible to rapidly eliminate the depression, but it’s also expected that overall health will improve, too.

—Roger J. Callahan, PhD

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Giving a depressed person a new lease on life or even saving a patient from potential suicide is perhaps the most gratifying and rewarding work that our trained TFT practitioners do. Many of them—myself included—admit they were frustrated with their inability to reverse such a debilitating condition with traditional therapy.

In this next story of an emergency mental health crisis, a TFT practitioner talks a depressed and suicidal person through the tapping sequence in the hospital emergency room.

Averting the Second Tragedy of Suicide

“Maryanne” is a TFT miracle. She had lost her only child to a very tragic car accident, and—having struggled with alcoholism for most of her life—when her daughter was decapitated in the accident, Maryanne could not find relief. She had tried other types of therapy and treatment, but nothing helped.

Unexpectedly, I was called to the hospital emergency room where Maryanne was homicidal and suicidal. I had her tap out the TFT sequence for trauma and she was immediately relieved. She went from being unable to say her daughter’s name to telling me the whole story. She no longer saw her daughter lying there without a head, but slowly began to see her lying asleep with the sun shining through her hair.

The potential tragedy of suicide had been averted.

Then, four days after the violent events of September 11th, I called Maryanne to see how she was doing. As she answered the phone, I could hardly understand her. Clearly, she had been crying while watching the aftermath of the terrorist attacks unfold on television. She was unable to do anything. She thought she was going crazy.

Maryanne told me that her brother and nephew were working at the Pentagon, but had not been heard from. She had spoken with her sister and, after watching TV virtually non-stop for four days, was totally out of control. She was angry at God and the world for not taking her life instead. She hadn’t slept since the attacks.

I asked her if she remembered the tapping sequence we did at the hospital and whether she would allow me to walk her through it over the phone. She agreed to try and we started tapping. Immediately, I noticed a change in her voice. I further treated her for anger—after which the bitter emotions and physical distress simply left her. She was calm and at peace.

As she looked at the television, a news program re-ran the footage of planes flying into the World Trade Center, but Maryanne felt no anxiety. I suggested that she not watch the news more than 10 to 15 minutes an hour—and to get some sleep.

The next morning when I called, though she was sad about the events, she said she was doing fine. She had finally been able to take care of her own needs—which she had not done for the past four days. She had slept the night through without the terrible nightmares that had kept her wakeful for nearly 96 hours.

Since that day, I’ve talked to her again, and she has been doing fine—now a true believer in TFT.

—James C. McAninch

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Severe depression and violent suicidal episodes aren’t the only kind of depression that affects everyday people. Sometimes it’s simple melancholy, that feeling of being “down” without one’s usual zest for life. In this next story of a vibrant and successful woman who falls into mild depression, we see many of the symptoms that millions of people experience every day—along with a successful outcome using TFT.

Reviving a “Broken Spirit”

“Beverly,” a beautiful 47-year old client with whom I’ve worked on several psychological issues, simply felt stuck. She was “down” and had none of her normal motivation or zest for life. She was deeply disturbed by the fact that I was unable to provide any sensible explanations or “causes” for her distress by using our usual therapeutic modalities.

Generally an energized, bright, and vivacious super-achiever, for the previous three weeks Beverly had suffered from a vague and stubbornly undefinable “broken spirit.” She was avoiding many of her normally desirable activities, including a much-anticipated vacation and open communication with her husband, which she had worked so diligently to achieve.

Beverly felt as if she were falling into an abyss, with no purpose or meaning in her life. I tried numerous ways of confronting and diagnosing her dilemma, using all of the standard TFT algorithms for anxiety, depression, trauma and more. Using TFT diagnostic procedures I was able to provide some temporary periods of relief lasting for several hours and an intermittent sense of feeling better. However, these treatments were not holding. There had to be more we could do. I was unable to find any toxins through TFT testing.

At this point, I also felt stuck! Then I called Dr. Callahan for help over the phone. Within 18 minutes, he and I were able to completely eliminate the problem of Beverly’s “broken spirit”—with all disturbances gone. Her anxiety lifted, the light and sparkle returned to her eyes, and she suddenly felt life was “incredibly worth living.” She was back to being her dynamic self.

The procedures were lengthy and complicated, and I would never have discovered all of the treatment points required in this case without Roger. Additionally, he was able to discover one toxin—coffee. After agreeing to give it up, she has been happy, full of life and off of coffee for the past two weeks.

—Mona A. Coates

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Occasionally depression, melancholy, hopelessness and despair deteriorate into something far worse—self-inflicted harm to one’s own body. In such cases, immediate psychiatric treatment and intervention is crucial.

In this next story of a young woman whose lifelong battle with multiple-personality disorder brings her to the crisis point, TFT is able to stop the self-harm, eliminate the self-hatred and relieve the suffering.

The Tragedy of Self-Harm

My personal experience with TFT was so powerful that it feels important to share it with others.

My therapist began using TFT on me to help get me through painful memories, traumas and places where I felt “stuck” in my life. In addition to how incredibly it works, one of the best aspects of this therapy for me is that I do not have to go through and get through the painful emotional and physical distress of having to “re-live” the specific memory or trauma.

Using TFT, my therapist has helped me through a number of ugly memories as well as some periods of feeling really terrible about myself—to the extent of wanting to actually cause physical harm to myself. But I have come very far with TFT. In fact, some of these past negative, and very traumatic, experiences were so thoroughly resolved that I only remember them now when someone outside of myself brings them up. They simply don’t bother me anymore!

There are two particularly amazing TFT healing experiences I’ve had that I would like to share.

First is from a time when I was overwhelmed by intense feelings of confusion and self-hatred. These feelings got so bad at the time that I was struggling hourly not to hurt myself. I could barely function. Then my therapist worked through the TFT routines with me and the results were incredible! In just one session of TFT, those intense feelings of self-hatred disappeared. My thoughts changed from, I HATE myself, I want to slice myself up—to I don’t hate myself, why on earth would I want to hate myself, there’s no reason for that. By the time we were done I felt wonderful. I felt balanced and at ease, which was a complete turnaround from how I felt when I entered into the session.

The effects have remained stable for some time now. Not for a single moment since the treatment have I been haunted by feelings and thoughts of intense hatred or destructiveness, thoughts and feelings that had consumed me for years before the treatment. I even noticed that young children respond differently to me now, perhaps sensing how at peace I am with myself.

In another amazing experience I had with TFT, I learned that while I can’t change the things that I have done, I now know that I can move past the abusive cycles I would get into in the past, and that I can and will heal. That makes all the difference in the world to me. And, I haven’t had a single relapse of any issues we’ve covered. That’s the highest success rate I’ve had in over five years of therapy. I’m here to say that TFT has really worked for me and made a huge difference in my life.

In contrast to other treatments that I’ve had, I find that TFT treatments instantly elevate my mood and make me feel like a new person, and that I am significantly more energetic and productive—which is a long way away from the ‘barely able to move or think’ feeling I’ve had after other therapy sessions.

I have also found TFT useful in treating my headaches and sleep disturbances. I use a simple treatment sequence taught to me by my therapist. They work as well as any medication I’ve tried, sometimes even better! TFT has had a profound and long lasting effect on my life.

—Elizabeth Neiderer/John H. Diepold, Fr, PhD

As you can see, there are many different symptoms and conditions that fall under the diagnosis of depression. Often TFT can help relieve these symptoms without side-effects. However, when medications are necessary, TFT can also assist in relieving many of the side-effects. This is another area of TFT we expanded and improved upon while I was treating my Stage IV cancer. I know without a doubt, the ability to eliminate the side-effects of necessary medications greatly improved my quality of life.

Now, we have some simple ways for you to learn the tools for helping alleviate feelings of melancholy, hopelessness and despair.

TFT can often relieve the dark and foreboding feeling of depression or the side-effects of the medications necessary.

Our nex teleclass is specifically designed to address depression and the symtoms that lead to it. If you would like change your outlook on life, join me for this special 90 minute class. Our newest teleclass is specifically designed to address depression.

We’ve used Thought Field Therapy for nearly three decades to alleviate feelings of melancholy, hopelessness and despair and will share some of these protocols in this new teleclass. Begin the summer season with a feeling of hope, joy and excitement.

Click Here for the Teleclass Details.

Personal TFT Consultation with the Co-Developer of Thought Field Therapy, Joanne Callahan.

We hear from so many of you wishing to use TFT to find relief from stress, fear, anger, trauma, grief, as well as a multitude of varying negative emotions and health concerns.

Today, we’d like to offer you an easy and affordable way to get private help. We’ve set aside a limited number of sessions to work privately with those who want to get a highly focused 30-minute consultation.

During this intensive consultation session by telephone, Joanne Callahan will go over your problem or challenge, and provide you with your individual tapping sequence for you to begin changing your life and feel relief – that very day.

After you register, Joanne will send you a brief worksheet to review your bio and history ahead of time. Then, in your private call, she will dictate personally relevant tapping sequences, check for self-sabotage and levels of psychological reversals and identify the frequency and the need for repetition of your tapping sequences.

Click Here to Set Up Your Private Consultation.