mitchejw wrote:

These are what we call non-evidence based practices. That doesn’t mean they don’t help. All it means is that no one has ever been able to provide evidence that they make a difference either positively or negatively.

I, too, tried acupuncture but when i push for anyone at all to give me any explanation as to what it does and how it works…i don’t get much in the way that gives me confidence in it. Even the person delivering the treatment cant adequately explain it in a way that even remotely makes sense.

So for me…the fact that there is no evidence of its efficacy, the practitioner not being able to explain what it does and the fact that most health insurance companies won’t cover is enough for me to say ‘this seems like a waste of my time.’

mitchejw wrote:

These are what we call non-evidence based practices. That doesn’t mean they don’t help. All it means is that no one has ever been able to provide evidence that they make a difference either positively or negatively.

I, too, tried acupuncture but when i push for anyone at all to give me any explanation as to what it does and how it works…i don’t get much in the way that gives me confidence in it. Even the person delivering the treatment cant adequately explain it in a way that even remotely makes sense.

So for me…the fact that there is no evidence of its efficacy, the practitioner not being able to explain what it does and the fact that most health insurance companies won’t cover is enough for me to say ‘this seems like a waste of my time.’

Acupuncture is based on traditional Chinese medecine. It's totally different from what we do here in the West. It is not very easy to understand, from our point of view. Yin/yang, male/female, organs, meridians (energy channels), acupoints (that's where they stick the needles!), elements (fire, metal, wood, earth, water) are some of the concepts used in acupuncture. In Chinese medicine each organ represents something - a season, an emotion, a colour, an element, etc. The practitioners  look at your skin colour and can tell what your problem is, in which organ... It seems crazy. I think the main concept is that energy must be able to flow through our bodies in a balanced manner, thanks to invisible channels called meridians. Our energy can get  blocked due to lots of stress, for instance,  and if it remains blocked, we can become very ill. If an organ receives too much energy, it is not good either. It is all about balance.

Hidden Text:

I hope I have explained it better.

My evidence to support that EFT works is that I used it to clear huge levels of anxiety around being in a lift.  I just could not get in one any longer. Not that I ever got stuck in a lift. I think it was that something  happened in an another situation, with feelings of being trapped in a small space, and not being able to breathe, that caused the problem with getting in a lift.

Anyway, this was me just under six months ago:
Feeling very scared just at the thought I would have to use a lift (at work, whilst travelling, at the hospital, etc)
Whenever I felt a bit less of a coward and actually got inside a lift,  the closing doors made me feel terrified. I jumped out and used the staircase instead.
I would gleefully climb up hundreds of stairs if that meant I didn't have to be in a lift!
Whenever I was going to some place where I would have to go from one floor to another, I would ask where the staircase was.
If people pointed the lift to me, I would say "I don't go in that".
The worst incident was in August last year: I had a proper panic attack, I started to shout and cry in public. This was it, I had to do something.

EFT did wonders. I used the lift several times today while at work. It's such a change, in so little time. I found a post from 2014 on my Facebook yesterday, and I know it's about the event that caused the problem. Almost 10 years of leaving in fear... Now I just want to laugh it off.