My Experience With EFT Tapping For IBS And Anxiety

By Karina

3 min read

I used to believe that IBS caused my anxiety. But it was actually the other way around. Over the past couple of years, I have learned that my IBS flares are often triggered or worsened by stress, which means that working on my mental health can indeed impact my physical health.

Ever since accepting that stress and anxiety are my major IBS triggers, I’ve been on a mission to improve my stress management and resilience. And since therapy is not currently accessible to me, I’ve been trying different techniques that can be done in the comfort of my own home. In the past, I’ve written about my experience with hypnotherapy. Now, I would like to share another method I recently discovered: EFT tapping.

What is EFT tapping?

EFT, short for emotional freedom technique, is based on Chinese medicine and follows the same principle as acupuncture. The technique is centered around the belief that energy travels along specific pathways within the body. Tapping on meridian points with your fingers while focusing on specific areas of emotional or physical pain is supposed to help rebalance the body and alleviate health issues.

I came across EFT tapping while researching the naturopathic approach to IBS. I had never heard of it and wasn’t initially intrigued. It was only after discussing the release of trauma and how it can help IBS with other community members that I remembered it and decided to look into it more.

In practice, EFT consists of tapping through various pressure points on your head, face and upper body while listening to and repeating affirmations. The goal is to work through memories and emotions to release stress stored within the body.

How can EFT help with IBS?

I can only speak for myself, but so far, EFT has helped me with a couple of issues.

Firstly, my anxiety seems to center around past experiences that were traumatic for me. These include bad flares after eating certain foods and making me afraid to ever go near them again, my recent experiences with stomach bugs and how impossible it felt to care for my kids, which now causes me to panic about anything remotely resembling a stomach virus, and so on. EFT tapping helps me work through this anxiety and understand why it’s there. It also teaches me to realize that I don’t need it to protect me.

Secondly, I really struggle with being pessimistic when it comes to my health. It almost feels as if enjoying a good day and not thinking about the next flare could jinx it. So, I’m using EFT to unlearn that I need my anxiety to keep me safe, as I’m capable of making good decisions without stressing over flares.

And thirdly, I’m using EFT to help me accept my body where it is now, and believe that it’s actually trying to heal. This mindset is completely new to me, but I find it so much nicer than being angry at my body for being sick.

My results with EFT

Not every tapping session I’ve tried so far has worked for me, but there are a couple of free videos on YouTube that I do over and over again. With a successful tapping session, I can almost physically feel my body releasing stress. I also tend to get incredibly tired during a session, but in a peaceful way.

Sometimes, one or two sessions are enough for me to work through minor things. For others, I keep tapping over and over again to slowly release them. Over time, I find myself repeating the affirmations of the videos in my head when I start feeling anxious and panicked, and it really helps.

The key for me is to stop fighting feelings and memories like I’ve been doing all of my life, and instead live through them and accept them. In one of the tapping videos I like, the practitioner mentions that our digestive system can get messed up when we’re unable to digest life, and this really resonates with me. Over time, I’m able to remember past experiences without getting triggered so much, and that’s a big win for me.

Have you ever tried EFT tapping? If yes, did it help with your IBS?

This article represents the opinions, thoughts, and experiences of the author; none of this content has been paid for by any advertiser. The IrritableBowelSyndrome.net team does not recommend or endorse any products or treatments discussed herein. Learn more about how we maintain editorial integrity here.

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hateibs Member
<inline-mention username="Karina" user-id="2303467"/> It's really encouraging to hear that you have had a good deal of help from EFT tapping. I feel I have a bit more understanding of it now, thanks to your article. I couldn't really see the sense in it before, although I did try it a while back, based on a YouTube video with instructions. It didn't help me, but that might have been based on my lack of knowledge and that I didn't keep it up for long enough. The positive affirmations to use while tapping also sounded great, but didn't really "reach me" to make any changes to how I felt and didn't reach my unhappy belly at all. But now it helps me to realise that the tapping points are acupuncture/acupressure points. I haven't yet tried acupuncture for my IBS. Maybe I will at some point. I've had mixed results with acupuncture in the past. Once I was miraculously cured within less than five minutes of a dreadful muscle spasm in my arm, when I couldn't straighten my arm for a week without a ripping pain. I hugged the doctor who did it! At other times acupuncture either didn't work, or made me feel queer. You have inspired me though, to give tapping another try, to believe in it, and to do it properly this time! I have some emotional trauma history, and quite a bit of grief and sorrow mixed in my strong and resilient character who has a sparky sense of humour! However, who hasn't got some grief and trauma that is deep in them? I thought I'd worked through a lot of it and come out the other side, and began to feel good in life, my feelings and my spirit.... and THAT was when IBS began! So obviously I didn't do a proper job. I probably have built defences instead which haven't been worked through. Or maybe it's just a case of "sh** happens" ! (lol!) That's interesting, when you say that those who get digestive problems find it difficult to "digest life". I will give that some thought and contemplation, as I feel it probably does apply to me, particularly as I get older.
1. Karina Moderator & Contributor
 <inline-mention username="hateibs" user-id="4146293"/> I’m glad you found the article interesting! Regarding what you said about the affirmations not reaching you: I find that for me, it’s super important to find the right person and topic that resonates with me at any given moment. I have a couple of favorites, but sometimes I’ll start one and realise that it’s not what I need today, and need to look for something else instead. There are so many extremely specific videos on YouTube (including some great ones about trauma) made by different people. Please let me know if you end up trying EFT again and if it helps you! I think it’s similar to what you said about acupuncture, in that it might help very well in some cases but probably not all. Karina (team member)