Anyone tried Hypnotherapy/Hypnoanalysis for HA?

[Munchlet]

Hi

So I posted a few weeks back to say I'm determined to get to grips with this HA as medication is now having limited effects for me (actually think it's making me more anxious) and I feel that I need to get to the bottom of why I am so irrational around my health.

I started CBT on the NHS which is good and I think I've started to uncover where my HA stems from which feels like a starting point but I'm conscious of the fact that NHS therapy is only 6 sessions of 30 minutes and for someone who has had HA the best part of 47 years, I can't see six sessions is going to be enough.

I've recently been looking into hypnotherapy because I know my HA is triggered by a fear of death. I've got in touch with a company who had really good reviews and spoke to a lovely lady who has booked me in for a free assessment.

She said that because I have a phobia as well as anxiety over my health it would be best to look at a combination of hypnoanalysis and hypnotherapy and she said I realistically would probably need between 6 - 12 sessions to get my mind into a better place, although dependent on how responsive I was it could be less.

It felt like in a 10 minute conversation that she understood more than any other therapists I've seen and I didn't feel pressured, she said go for the free consultation and if I don't think it's for me then there's no obligation.

I just wondered if anyone else had any experience with this and if so did it help?

[ankietyjoe]

HA is one form of anxiety where hypnotherapy could be potentially useful.

I have had hypnotherapy in the past, way before I had anxiety. I think it was for quitting smoking. It was effective, but it's more about the power of suggestion into the subconscious and breaking your own mental paradigm.

I would urge caution with the analytical approach, and (again) HA is an almost purely behavioral issue, and analysis has a habit of opening more doors than it closes.

Going back to CBT for a second, your assumption that 6 sessions won't be enough is possibly based on the idea that you are attending the sessions to be cured. That's not really how CBT works. It's really about learning a set of tools that you then take on board and practice yourself.

The key thing here is to realise the habits and behaviours that prolong your HA suffering (checking, Googling, catastrophising etc) and break those behaviours, and that takes time and practice. As you said, practising being anxious about your health for 47 years cannot be reversed overnight, and will take a lot of defined action on your part to get your conscious behaviour to start to unwire your subconscious reactions.