Claustrophobia can be a crippling condition for people who suffer with it. It can severely limit the things they do and the places they go. For others, they may not even realize that they are claustrophobic until something happens to trigger the condition. This was the case for me.

I never liked small, enclosed places, but never really had a problem until I was sent for an MRI last year. Even though the place I was sent did what are called "open MRIs", there is still a very small area enclosed on 3 sides and an open area on the 4th side. I might have been fine if I'd been able to face the open side, but due to the part of my anatomy that was being scanned, I had to face into the giant MRI machine.

I moved into the space without a problem, and even allowed the technician to strap me in (who knew they did that?) without a problem, but as the technician walked away and I started to realize how confined I was, and that I couldn't move, I went into a panic. I noticed first that my lower legs started to shake, and then the shaking moved up my legs and into my trunk. The more constricted I felt, the worse the shaking got. I shook through the entire scan, about 20 minutes, just praying for it to be over quickly.

The technician left me strapped in while he developed the scan pictures, just in case some needed to be redone. He came back into the room a short time later to tell me that none of the pictures was clear enough to send to my doctor, due to all the shaking. He was going to have to completely re-do the MRI.

I knew that I could not possibly make it through another 20 minutes of shaking and terror, so I asked him to release me for a short time, and I started to tap.

* Even though I'm in a really small place and it scares the hell out of me, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

* Even though I feel like I can’t breath because I'm in such a small place, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

* Even though I feel like screaming with fear over being shut in and strapped down, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Three quick rounds, with a lot of tapping on my collar bone point, which is my "sweet spot". At the end of those rounds I was calm and in control and could allow myself to be strapped back into the MRI machine without a problem. This time there was no shaking. The tapping had done it. Another 20 minutes and the scan was done, clear enough to send to my doctor, and I was out the door and on my way home, very glad that I had EFT in my bag of tools.

Author's Bio: 

Pat Burns is an EFT Practitioner in Tallahassee, Florida who specializes in working with those with self esteem issues, inner child issues and adoption related issues. You can contact Pat at pat@seeking-serenity.com or visit her website at http://seeking-serenity.com.