Has anyone had hypnotherapy for anxiety?

[Justthinkin]

Just that really. Won’t go in to my history but I have tried CBT and don’t get on with it, don’t want medication, currently in therapy but I’m desperate and thinking hypnotherapy is not something that I have tried and willing to try anything.

I have read it’s mostly for addiction and fears etc but can be used for anxiety..

Curious so following.

A friend of mine swears hypnotherapy cured her health anxiety.

@Whathefisgoingon thanks for replying. I’m really desperate but the money side of things worries me as it isn’t cheap nor a one treatment thing!

@Justthinkin I’m pretty desperate too. I do think that if it worked then surely that would be the standard treatment. It isn’t, so who knows.

What type of anxiety do you suffer? I’ve got severe health anxiety but just been advised by the mental health team they think I have OCD!

@Whathefisgoingon im not sure..: the NHS don’t offer it so I presume because of that there isn’t a massive following for it? I don’t know? Someone in my area has high success rates for over eating and stopping smoking… I’m going to call them to discuss…

it’s a long story but I wasn’t brought up in a loving environment, then I had an abusive husband… I’m now a ball of anxiety, it affects me everyday with feeling not worthy, not good enough and it is affecting my current relationship so I really really need to overcome it as it’s destroying me.

Have a look at Tim Box's Youtube channel - his Ted X talk is brilliant ("how to stop feeling anxious about anxiety") and he's got masses of free videos on all types of anxiety; it's his specialist subject.

I trained with Tim using the CONTROL system of no trance hypnosis/hypnotherapy/mind coaching (take your pick!) - anxiety is the main issue I work with.

@Eyesopenwideawake thanks will have a look. The person I have now spoken to (and booked!) appears to do RTT… on paper it sounds great….?

Let us know how it goes!

@Eyesopenwideawake bit scared to be honest. Scared it won’t work!

Be careful with hypnotherapy. Little clinical evidence of effectiveness and absolutely no regulation over who offers it. I've seen two week courses for people who want to set up as therapists.
Stop smoking hypnotherapy tends to work via a mix of committed patient, investment of large amounts of money and 'coping strategies' rather than any woo brain training stuff or proven efficacy. That's not to say it doesn't work for some.
CBT and medication combo tends to work best. If you didn't get on with your therapist or CBT I'd suggest you discuss another therapist or therapy with your GP. Indeed any good CBT therapist should be able to help you select another more suitable therapy if it does work for you so don't be scared to ask your previous therapist.

If you have time, do have a look at that Ted X I mentioned up thread. It WILL help you understand your feelings (and why anxiety, as an emotion rather than an illness, is necessary in our lives).

Thanks. I do understand it. I know why I amoke I am, I just can’t put it all in to practice and I’m my own worse enemy with looping thoughts. I feel like I’m on a meeey go round and can’t get off. I have had CBT.I didn’t get on with it. GP only says medication and CBT, iv already tried those. I don’t want medication, I spent on and off 20 years on it and I’m not going back on it.

This is why;

"I wasn’t brought up in a loving environment, then I had an abusive husband… I’m now a ball of anxiety, it affects me everyday with feeling not worthy, not good enough"

Our formative years are the period when we absorb information more intensely than any other time in our lives - especially the core beliefs about who we are and how we fit in the world. These beliefs are all locked into your subconscious mind but they CAN be changed. Happy to have a chat if you'd like (no cost!).

@Eyesopenwideawake honestly I hear everything therapies says, I hear CBT, if my friends come to me for advice I know exactly what to say… I just can not put it in to practise. It’s ruining my new relationship and I can’t let that happen. He’s amazing but I’m being triggered all the time as I’m scared.

it’s the changing that I need. I can repeat at all these phrases until I’m blue in the face, it is not changing how I feel. It’s making me ill but staying single for the rest of my life is not what I want. that’s why I have resorted to hypnotherapy as it’s one thing I haven’t tried…

I absolutely understand. I've copied this from my AMA because it easily explains why - sometimes - working with the conscious mind doesn't work;

"Imagine your subconscious is a nightclub, full of beliefs, thoughts and actions and with a bouncer on the door. He decides if conscious thoughts are suitable to be allowed in, i.e. that they fit with what is aligned to the core beliefs you developed as a child and which are stored in your subconscious. If they are not, they are rejected (which is why we struggle with concepts which we know, as adults, are rational but as a child we believed something different. Spiders are a classic example)."

So, if you leant as a child that you weren't 'good enough' and as that was filed away as being absolute truth (because we don't have the capacity to decide whether these things are objectively correct when we are young) any attempt to disprove that consciously will always fail, because the critical faculty in the mind will accept the earlier belief. Hypnotherapy will allow your, with the help of the therapist, to go into the subconscious and rewrite those beliefs and misconceptions. It's crucial to realise that the subconscious mind is only concerned with keeping you safe and happy but if it's learn (erroneously) that there are things that you shouldn't do or be.

Hope this makes sense!

@Eyesopenwideawake yes it definitely makes sense. I can’t tell how badly I need to sort this out… the hypnotherapist said to me she thinks I’ll only need one session (2.5 hours) and that she will be recording something for me to listen to or something… she did talk about what we think we attract etc and about the most important thing is to go WANTING to change whatever it is, is what is important.. I so desperately want to change. Is there anything that I can do to help the process and not hinder it?

I spent £££ on hypnotherapy for anxiety.
There were a couple of sessions when it was relaxing whilst I was actually there, no long term effects though.
At the end of my block booking he ‘sold’ me a session with his business colleague, a life coach. I was too anxious to get myself out of it so agreed to the booking and then went home in tears so stressed and anxious. DH had to phone and cancel the booking and I felt I’d wasted all that money because, ultimately, the hypnotherapist didn’t want to actually help me, he just wanted to boost sales.

I had hypnotherapy for severe anxiety like you as a result of family upbringing. It did not work. Theres no evidence it does work and certainly not for trauma. CBT is the gold standard for anxiety and if I was you I'd change therapist. Therapy for trauma takes time- you might do 12 months of therapy to see change. Has any therapist spoken to you about EMDR?

@Justthinkin - you'll understand it wouldn't be right for me to comment or speculate on how your hypnotherapist works.

All I would say that is it doesn't work for everyone (through no ones fault), which is why I, and most of my colleagues, offer the initial consultation free and without commitment so that we can assess if it's right for the client.

Have you looked into EMDR?

I'd question whether CBT is the gold-standard for anxiety. There is mounting evidence that psychodynamic psychotherapy is much more effective over time - it works at a deeper level and the effects continue to increase even after the therapy has ended. But CBT is a lot cheaper, and it's easier to measure its outcomes on a superficial level (until recently a problem for psychoanalysis-based therapies)

I actually looked at the reviews online in journals and I stand corrected - hypnosis does have good outcomes but usually connected with other therapies and specifically for ceratn conditions. I was curious enough to read a bit on it. It certainly did not work for me but CBT did so maybe a combination for the OP. Anyway the piece I read is here which is interesting:
www.intechopen.com/chapters/43777

I will look at psychodynamic psychotherapy too for interest. Thanks @WinterDeWinter for the info.

Thanks for the responses. I am aware not everything works for everyone and some people dismiss things but I’m desperate. It’s making me so ill and I need my relationship to work. I agree with the principles of CBT, my kids have had CBT so I’m not remotely anti, it just didn’t work for me. There’s no point someone just telling me I have to think a different way, I KNOW I need to think a different way but I have a constant battle in my head, almost like the good angel and devil, one on each shoulder constantly battling against me…

Therapist here and there's currently no robust evidence to show hypnotherapy is an evidence based therapy for anxiety sorry op that's why the nhs doesn't recommend it. You can obviously try it but you would be better of trying to find a cbt therapist you connect with as that it the best form of treatment for anxiety really.

@Justthinkin just seen your last post above mine, a good therapist wouldn't just tell you to think differently they'd help you to explore and discover patterns. Early life experiences etc and then to look at it all to help offer a different perspective or acceptance. Emdr would also help I'd say if it's early life experience type stuff, x

CBT isn’t for me. I have had it 3 different times at different stages. Iv had therapy, a lot. My current therapist is very good and we get on well. I don’t mean a therapist is telling me what to say and feel I mean that’s basically what CBT is. It isn’t for me.