Written by Dr. Jennifer Agosta
Every one of us goes through some worry, fear, stress, and tension. This can happen in a wide variety of situations. It is when these feelings color and spill over into our lives all the time, that they can become damaging. We may begin to be at the mercy of ongoing anxiety, and that may interfere with our activities and relationships. Generalized anxiety is common in the US: over 40 million people in this country are affected. That is about 18% of the general population over 18.
The term anxiety includes a few sub-categories. In addition to generalized anxiety, there is panic disorder, social anxiety, and phobias. Many of these are accompanied by physical discomfort, such as shortness of breath, heart palpitations, and trouble with appetite and digestion. While anxiety can have its roots in many issues, stress and trauma are common causes of ongoing anxiety.
Emotional Triggers Treatment (ETT) treats anxiety by finding and addressing the old events that are at the root of the reaction. By getting to the origin of the feelings, and lifting or reducing the effects of that old experience, ETT gives the emotional brain a new experience of old material.
This changed experience of old material allows the brain to reconfigure and close what has happened in the past, so that the old experience no longer generates the unwanted reaction. Free of ongoing anxiety, the client can move through life without the worry, heaviness, and fog that may have been interfering with every-day life.
To relieve anxiety with ETT, it is enough for the client to simply recall or refer to some of the root experiences that are associated with the feelings. ETT does not review those experiences in detail, and does not need to. The ETT guided imagery brain exercises work very effectively with just a simple reference, or a simple “headline” that indicates the root cause.
The brain begins to update and refresh during the ETT session, and these changes are more and more fully integrated over the 4-6 weeks following the session. Anxiety responses that are out of proportion to a situation are reduced or lifted. The brain can finally identify a true cause for concern, and no longer has the anxiety reaction it once did.