How do I know when I have finished with an issue?

Q: How can I know that I have reduced a problem to zero? When I tap, I feel that the problem has gone away, but when I face the situation again, the bad feelings return.
Darc1,

A: What you are noticing is that new aspects of the problem you thought had been tapped away are coming back.

In my own case, I first had cancer when I was 15, but before this I had radiation, a high dose of x-rays to my neck and ear, when I was only 7 years old. It turned out that the treatment I had at age 7 was responsible for the cancer at age 15.

Naturally, I had some grief over this, even though the cancer is gone now. I would tap for this, but then another day I would be telling the story and I might think about how alone I felt at age 7 to be left by my parents with a bunch of strangers- so I would tap for this. I would be fine for awhile, but then the next time, I would remember the bad feeling that the x-ray machine had given me and how I had really known even back then that it was a bad thing for me, but I had had no choice in the matter- I had done what my mom and the doctors wanted. (More tapping.)

Now I can write about this and feel at peace, but it did take me awhile to unravel all of the different aspects involved. I do not know if I have dealt with everything to do with my getting cancer (3 times in total), with my treatments, my diagnoses, and my recoveries, but if something comes up again, I will take note and spend a bit more time tapping.

Gary Craig makes this analogy. Sometimes we think we have cut down the tree or the forest of our issues, but sometimes another shoot springs up to be dealt with. Eventually the tree, or the whole forest, is gone for good.

As time passes, fewer things come up… be patient and be persistent.

Mildred