Persistence in Coping with MS

Success is failure turned inside out--
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
And you never can tell how close you are,
It may be near when it seems so far,
So stick to the fight when you're hardest hit--
It's when things seem worst that you must not quit.
- Author unknown

I have always loved this “Don’t quit” poem. It’s only recently that I saw this poem unfolding before me when my client called Roshni (name changed) contacted me in December 2009.

Roshni has had MS since 2005. She had met with a freak accident in Dec 2008 when she fell off the train. The doctors had proclaimed that it was a ligament tear and she had to leave her promising job due to that incident. After that, she literally went into hibernation for nearly 2 years. With the support of the doctors, her husband, parents, friends and EFT therapy she was able to come out of the negative cycle of thinking.

She was undergoing homeopathic treatment when she met me and was recommended for EFT therapy by her doctor. She had difficulty in getting up without support, would wobble when she walked and had numbness in her hands and feet. She used a wheel chair when she visited hospitals or doctor's clinics. She had recently undergone a massive MS attack and her doctor had put her on strong allopathic drugs. She was very concerned about the anxiety and fears plaguing her and was determined to regain her former happy self. She would brood about her condition and sometimes felt completely beaten by MS. In her heartwarming voice, she told me that she was convinced that working with me would rid her of all the negative emotional issues.

In the first session over Skype, she said that her fingers were numb. After tapping on the numbness, she reported that it was 20 % less. She could not walk due to the numbness and heaviness in her legs. She tapped on the following affirmations:

Even though I have numbness and heaviness in my legs and they prevent me from walking, I love and forgive myself. I choose to release this numbness and heaviness from my legs and start walking.

She had another 15% improvement.

Even though I still have heaviness in my legs, I love and forgive myself. I choose to release this heaviness.

Now she could get up from her bed and stand. She said that she felt vertigo rise as she stood up.

Even though when I close my eyes I get vertigo, I still deeply and completely accept and love myself.

Even though I wobble when I walk, I love and accept myself.

Her vertigo was much less and numbness had reduced by 80%.

In this first session I was thrilled to see the improvement. However, I felt that the improvement would not necessarily last as it was a chronic condition. Therefore I explained to her about the persistence that is so often required for complex issues.

In the next session she said that she was feeling miserable. She could not get up from her bed and felt very lethargic. Her legs were numb and her body was heavy. She said that since she was taking steroids she felt very low. We tapped on the following:

Even though the steroids have side effects and I don’t like them, and I get irritated easily after taking them, I deeply and completely accept and love myself.

Her numbness disappeared again.

Even though the steroids have side effects and I don’t like them and I believe that I will put on weight because of the medicines, I deeply and completely accept and love myself.

Even though the steroids are causing numbness and heaviness in my calf area, I deeply and completely accept and forgive myself.

Even though I get depressed in the morning when I’m not able to walk, I deeply and completely accept and love myself.

Even though I’m anxious that I will never get rid of MS, I deeply and completely accept and love myself.

Even though I’m anxious that I may never work because of MS, I deeply and completely accept and love myself.

Even though I am anxious that I may never live a normal life because of MS, what everyone calls normal, I deeply and completely accept and love myself.

Even though I’ve been told there is no cure for MS, I choose to be MS free.

Roshni revealed that she had an abusive first marriage and was still haunted by the memories of it. Her second marriage was very good and her husband was very supportive but she felt emotionally handicapped by MS. There were many hidden emotional traumas from her first marriage and we slowly worked on them. She said that she was getting irritated frequently and had lots of anxiety and anger. She kept getting negative thoughts and would get upset very easily.

She once told me in a very low voice that her numbness went after she tapped but it would return after a few hours. She felt very discouraged by this.

Tapping on the emotional issues brought back more repressed memories and she sent me a mail saying that it had made her more irritable and angry and reminded her of the entire trauma she had gone through. In the session following her e-mail, I told her that once all these emotional scars were healed she would feel a lot better about herself. Bravely she accepted my suggestion of clearing emotional issues. We stuck on and applied on more emotional traumas from past. In the meanwhile she kept tapping on her numbness and other MS related affirmations.

Slowly and steadily she started progressing on the emotional front. This changed her perception about MS as well and she was motivated to get over her problems. We also tapped on her difficulty in walking and getting up on her own. She started walking without support for short intervals and would even get up, even though it took quite an effort, by herself. She was able to fight her fears and anxieties with EFT. She was tapping persistently on her physical condition. She decided never to take her anxieties to bed. She made it a point to start clearing the negative thoughts before bedtime daily.

After 8 EFT sessions her friends told her that they could see that the old Roshni was back. She had literally undergone a transformation. She was emotionally stronger, happier, had a more positive outlook, wanted to start working from home and was a lot less irritable.

She decided to meet her neurologist who was based in another city. After her meeting, she sent me an e-mail saying that her neurologist was pleasantly surprised to see her “walking with a smile." He also revealed that in her kind of cases, since her lower limbs were weak, people could not walk at all. Roshni wrote to me saying that “no one can stop me now."

Her tests show that the MS virus has attacked her brain cells and it is at a severe stage. The doctor has advised her to be happy all the time. She is able to walk with the new drugs that have been prescribed by her neurologist. Her treatment approach had been changed and despite the expenses involved she feels more confident and lot calmer. She has decided to work from home and is even sharing her experiences with the MS Society on World MS Day (May 26th).

Her recent e-mail says: “I am much better and feeling fantastic. I had met another senior Neurologist who saw me and told the same thing that the first Neurologist told my husband, 'your wife is walking only with her determination'... I am more positive now, Puja, a special thanks to you as EFT really helped me. I have told my ailment, 'Atithi devo bhava,' which means 'be in my body like a atithi (guest) as long as you want but I will not change.' My motto is: I will live the way I want to and be happy as Life is Beautiful."

I hope people take inspiration from her and do not give up hope even in the most difficult of times.

Puja Kanth
Chennai, India
www.emofreetherapy.com.

From the EFTfree Archives, which are now a part of EFT International .
Originally published on June 6, 2010.