Читать книгу Phobias, Disappointments and Grief: A Fast Remedy - Андрей Ермошин - Страница 25

Finally, in this section I would like to cite the most illustrative example. This is a story of a sniper, Yuri. He was summoned for a compulsory military service and spent 10 months in combat in a war zone. He was 24 when he sought medical attention. His condition could be defined as a post-traumatic stress disorder.

Fig. 10. Fear and anger: a square head with big round eyes; a rounded body.

Booze doesn’t help

After the discharge Yuri started having nightmares; he could barely sleep at night and then during the day he was irritated up to the point of starting a fight. In an attempt to get rid of this curse, he was drinking heavily. When he found out about the renewal of hostilities, his nightmares came back, and this time they had a mix of war and everyday life in them. Then there was another round of insomnia, and then it was alcohol’s turn again. His final binge lasted for four days after that, he began psychotherapy.

The soul is alive

When we started talking I understood that drinking had already done some damage to Yuri. His facial expression seemed distorted. However, one could see that his soul was alive. Yuri really wanted to get better. He is an emotional person, short and plump. His speech is fast and rambling as if he is in a hurry.

At first Yuri performed our standard test and drew a person. In the drawing you can find a typical manifestation: there is a mixture of rage (a round body and a square head) and fear (round eyes) in a person who is longing for comfort (short arms and legs of triangular forms with vertex points attached to the body).

According to the drawing, one can conclude that the body is the zone of energetic overflow and some tension.

You will need your strength

The age of a person in the picture is 24, which corresponds to the age of the patient. I asked my usual questions:

“What feelings are connected with this age?”

“Nightmares,” Yuri responded immediately.

“Where are these sensations located?” I continued. “Are they in your head, in your chest, in your stomach or anywhere else? You can close your eyes.”

“I feel worried in my soul,” the patient said pointing to his chest. “Just like when you’re on a swing, you catch your breath, and your hands start shaking.”

“What do you feel in your chest? Is it something heavy or light?”

“It’s heaviness.”

“How heavy is it?”

“It weighs a lot.”

“Is it gas, liquid or solid?” – I asked.

“It’s liquid. It’s crushing me.”

“How much liquid is there?”

“About three gallons.”

It must have taken a lot of time to gather that much liquid. Yuri agreed with me.

“Are you planning on gathering more of this liquid or is it time to stop?”

“No, that’s enough,” the patient responded.

Then I asked my final question:

“How much of your energy does it take away from you?”

“50%.”

“Would you need this energy?”

“Of course!” – Yuri replied. His eyes were still closed. His internal work was still in progress.

“Observe where your sensations are going.”

“To my arms,” Yuri said. “They are getting hot…”

And then we start observing how drawing attention to these sensations reveals what happened and how this can lead to the needed corrective changes.

Once the evaluation was formed, we can renew the state.

Stepping into a hot bath on a cold winter day

I continued work at this therapeutic stage:

“Try to guide the feeling of calmness deeper into your body.”

“It feels like stepping into a hot bath on a cold winter day.”

“Where are your sensations right now?”

I was trying to focus the attention of the patient to his internal processes.

“My legs are filling in,” Yuri said after a long pause, which was the evidence that he had been observing. “There’s a light feeling, as if everything is coming out.”

“How much of it has already left your body?”

“A lot.”

“What is left in your chest instead of that previous sensation?”

“A pebble, an egg.”

I asked him to show where exactly that pebble was. He pointed to the chest between the nipples, a little bit lower.

The fact that it is the sensation in the chest points to anxiety that has been there for a long time.

Worry usually takes up the forehead, anxiety goes straight to the chest, and fear is in the stomach.

The cold is going away

“Observe what is happening next,” I continued.

“The pebble is melting, and the sensations are moving down. They are filling half of my stomach.”

“What is left instead of that pebble?”

“Jelly,” Yuri said. “Again it feels like stepping into a bath. It’s all going away in a very pleasant way.”

“How is it leaving you?”

“It feels like cold coming out of me,” the patient said.

Some time passes.

“That’s it!” – he said with a sigh. “It feels like there’s nothing left.”

“Let yourself see how you can live your days and nights when you are calm and free.”

Fig. 11. Psychological deterioration and the consequences of alcohol involvement.

Visible signs of the former psychological deterioration (limbs drawn as triangles) and the consequences of alcohol involvement (a head with some elements drawn into it). However, a round head and a rectangular body signal the improvement of the psychological state of the patient with subsequent relaxation.

A normal head

Having completed this part of work, Yuri made another drawing. This time it had a rectangular body and a round head, which is more consistent with a better psychological state.

I scheduled follow-up sessions within the next four weeks. However, the patient didn’t need any additional work with his war-time emotions. After the first session Yuri noted that everything fell back into place. His sleep had improved, and during the day Yuri had become calmer. I started introducing the idea that there was no need in spoiling Yuri’s current calmer state with alcohol:

“There’s no need for that. Every cell is filled with sobriety and tranquillity.”

I was saying these words and saw Yuri’s positive response.

Our follow-up sessions confirmed both normal sleeping patterns and good mood. In a month Yuri said he had some alcohol at his friend’s funeral but not much.

Our work consisted of three stages. Long-term anxiety and anger were concentrated in the chest of the patient. This tension was spreading with warmth and leaving the body as coldness. This coldness must have been absorbed by the skin, and that is why it was leaving the body in the same way, then the tension successfully “evaporated”.