Studies have shown that simple finger-tapping techniques can reduce anxiety within minutes.
This method uses the tips of your index and middle fingers to tap on eight specific points on your body for 10 minutes.
These “acupuncture points” are at the end of so-called “meridians,” channels in the body through which traditional Chinese medicine experts believe energy flows.
The tapping method was combined with mental reframing exercises and added to a strategy known as EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique).
Although the researchers did not report individual results for the study volunteers, on average, the 22 students with specific phobias who participated in the study reported less distress about the object of their phobia after treatment. did.
In fact, at this scale, they fell below the threshold level to qualify for participation in the first place.
They also reported, on average, less anxiety about the feared situation and difficulty approaching the feared object.
All three of these measurements improved significantly after performing EFT than after performing deep breathing exercises. No one reported any negative side effects.
Proven to be more effective at reducing anxiety than deep breathing the study,It was published in the magazine explore.
EFT is a non-pharmaceutical approach that incorporates elements of acupressure, exposure therapy, and cognitive restructuring.
Participants with specific phobias, such as cockroaches, snakes, syringes, or heights, were asked to focus on the object of their fear while taking deep diaphragmatic breaths or doing EFT acupressure exercises.
The researchers then assessed their anxiety levels using a standard questionnaire that asked about physical and mental symptoms of anxiety when thinking about a specific fear.
They also assessed participants’ overall distress and anxiety surrounding the phobia, as well as their ability to cope with the phobia without feeling unduly anxious.
Volunteers were divided into two groups, with one trying EFT tapping exercises first and the other trying deep breathing first.
This study design, known as a “crossover,” tested both treatments in both groups, so those who did EFT first tried deep breathing next, and vice versa.
Each group completed each 2-minute treatment five times, so EFT only took a total of 10 minutes.
The study found that people who used EFT for the first time had significantly reduced phobia-related anxiety and were able to more easily approach the objects of their fear, including heights, cockroaches, snakes, syringes, the dark, and cockroaches. It was shown.
The group that started with deep breathing showed a decrease in subjective anxiety (down to 5.7 points on a 12-point scale), but not as much as the EFT group (down to 2.9 points on the same scale).
When the EFT group attempted deep breathing, their already reduced anxiety remained low. And when the deep breathing group tried EFT, their anxiety decreased just as much as the other groups.
Similar effects occurred with the physical and mental effects of anxiety. The deep breathing group’s average score on the 45-point anxiety scale dropped to 27.9, while the EFT group plummeted to 15.9. When Deep Breather tried her EFT, his average score dropped to 15.3.
‘specific phobia According to the Mayo Clinic, it is an extreme fear of objects or situations that present little or no danger but cause intense anxiety.
When a person experiences anxiety, the sympathetic nervous system is activated, leading to a state often known as “fight or flight” mode.
The idea behind EFT is to activate the parasympathetic nervous system, the part of the nervous system that restores a calm and relaxed state.
To perform the simplified version of EFT used in this study, participants used the tips of their index and middle fingers to tap eight specific points on their body.
“These points correspond to the end points of traditional acupuncture meridians,” the study authors wrote. The first point they tapped was on the side of the hand next to the little finger.
“While doing this, they repeated the affirmative statement three times. For example: ‘Although I am afraid of heights, I deeply and completely accept myself.’
Then, as I reviewed the remaining seven points, I tapped each point seven times and repeated a warning phrase like “I’m afraid of heights.”
According to the study, these seven tapping targets include: “the beginning of either eyebrow, the outer corner of the eye, about an inch below either eye, under the nose, in the middle of the upper lip, between the lower lip,” and Your chin, just below the edge of your collarbone next to your sternum, and about 4 inches below the center of either armpit. ”
To increase the sense of realism, the test was conducted in the presence of the volunteer’s feared object.
For example, participants with a fear of heights performed exercises near the bleachers in a tall playground, and participants with a fear of snakes performed exercises near a snake research space.
Although this technique may seem too simple to be effective, there is recent evidence of its effectiveness not only for phobias but also for other forms of anxiety. Nurses involved in the care of patients infected with the new coronavirus took part. EFT research In 2020, it showed a significant positive effect on stress and anxiety among healthcare workers.
and, 2016 review Results from 14 different studies, including over 600 participants in total, showed that this technique was associated with significant reductions in anxiety scores.
Interestingly, while the acupressure component of the treatment has its roots in traditional Chinese medicine, modern neuroscience techniques have shown that some of the benefits come from changing the way different parts of the brain communicate with each other. This suggests that
a 2022 survey Among 24 adults with chronic pain, they found that EFT provided benefits including reduced pain severity, reduced anxiety, and improved quality of life. And when they examined their brains with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), it became clear why this was the case: “fMRI analysis showed that the medial prefrontal cortex (an area that modulates pain) and showed significantly reduced connectivity between bilateral gray matter regions of the posterior and thalamus, both regions associated with pain modulation and intensification. ”
In other words, EFT seems to have far-reaching effects on the brain, reducing not only a person’s anxiety but also the experience of something debilitating like chronic pain.
Anxiety severe enough to significantly interfere with daily life should be discussed with your health care provider, but in the meantime, before giving a public speech or confronting cockroaches in the kitchen, try to avoid mild attacks of fear. It might be worth trying EFT. .
