Here’s a short story about “Nancy” Nancy had type 2 diabetes. She had been taking insulin for 5 years. She had developed some neuropathy (tingling, nerve pain and loss of feeling) in her hands and feet and she “hated” her condition. Every day there was something to do with this diabetic condition and Nancy was really tired of it. Her stress levels were getting worse every day!

She came to me to see if there was anything I could do to help her. We talked at length about her condition, when it showed up, what stressors were in her life, who and what contributed to those stressors and what she had done in the past to overcome it. Nancy was pretty frustrated and lacked confidence that she could do anything about her diabetes. While speaking together I noticed that she was very soft spoken to the point where I had a hard time hearing her. It turned out that, as she was growing up, her dad never let her have an opinion and sternly disciplined her if she was too loud around him. After awhile she developed a coping technique of speaking very quietly and without conviction. She was afraid to use her voice. I asked her about childhood diseases and physical problems and it wasn’t surprising to me that she had many episodes of bronchitis and lung issues. She even had pneumonia a couple of times after she became an adult. This is very common for people who have “lost their voice” to a well-meaning caregiver. Of course, it is very stressful on the body and the psyche, to have to deal with breathing issues.

I surmised that Nancy may have turned her fear of speaking out loud to power (dad) into anger toward herself. After all, we all want to be heard in this life and we all have lots of valid stuff to say.

Turning anger inward has very dangerous side effects. In some cases, it turns into depression, heart disease, cancer and/or autoimmune disease. In Nancy’s case, it seemed to have turned into diabetes which is basically an assault on the pancreas. It took several “Tapping” sessions to help Nancy forgive herself, forgive her dad, forgive her pancreas, her sugar levels, her insulin levels and all elements that corresponded with her “dis-ease”. After every session, she felt better than when she arrived and I noticed that she was calmer every week at the beginning of the session.

We monitored her sugar levels in the weeks between sessions and watched as they slowly but steadily dropped. They got to the point where her Dr. lowered her medication and her sugar levels dropped continually until she no longer required medication.

It has been 3 years since Nancy worked on her diabetes with me. Her sugar/insulin levels are perfect and she feels really healthy. When I asked her how she felt about this she said this in a strong, confident voice: “getting diabetes was the best thing because it forced me to deal with my anger toward my dad and myself”. As an aside, she and her dad have never gotten along so well as they do now. He still sometimes tries to quiet her down but she simply smiles and reminds him that she deserves to have a voice too.