Fears and hypnonis - did anyone try and does it work?

glitterIsland

I have some fears like a fear of heights and water. I faced these fears on some level over the past few years on my own. I can go into a pool and use a noodle. I can tolerate some heights but not other heights.

This is getting ridiculous. I need to over come these. I am not able to let go of a noodle or the side handles of a pool.

I had tolerate a big wheel reasonably well but I can't tolerate other heights.

I would love to get over these fears and I was wondering would hypnosis work?

I was climbing a structure at the weekend and the fear set in which upset my tummy too and I had to abondon it. It was embarrassing too.

taxAHcruel

Hypnosis absolutely can work. Much like placebo it can also entirely fail to work. The only way to know is to try. In fact I have long suspected that the reasons hypnosis and placebo can both work very powerfully on some people - are very similar and they are both working for much the same reasons. I have seen hypnosis have transformative effects on some people. I have seen it have absolutely no effect on others.

What also works for a lot of people is the incremental approach of exposure therapy. This as you probably know is where you expose yourself slowly to the thing you have a phobia of - or things very similar to what you have a phobia of - over time consistently and mindfully.

So if you were afraid of needles for example and I was treating you for this I would start by talking to you about needles often. What they do - how they work - how they feel - just constant discussion about them. Might even start producing pictures of some for you to look at.

I might then move on to telling you I have one in the drawer beside us. Telling you what it looks like and it's size and form and so on. But it would not yet need to come out of the drawer. Just knowing it's there can be emotive enough at first.

As some point I would see if you are ready for the needle to come out and just be on the table in the room with us. Nothing else. It would simply be in the room with you for a few sessions / days. Maybe you'd start touching it or holding it (ok this is starting to sound like I am talking about something else more kinky now - I probably should have thought of a better example but lets go with it hehehehe). Observing it. Seeing it filled and discharged. (! sorry!).

Then maybe you take it home and have it in a visible place in the house. Pick it up every so often. Maybe even start using it on apples or oranges or something. Until such point as you are able to lie it on your own skin or have me do it.

And so on and so on up to a point where eventually - should the treatment be successful - you would be ok with attempting to actually get an injection.

Water phobia and fear of heights are both quite amenable to this treatment too. Heights maybe a little more so as the effect of looking at pictures taken from or depicting great heights seem to emote a stronger reaction than pictures of swimming pools or bodies of water. There is also a few good netflix and amazon shows about people doing insane rock climbing and tight rope stuff and so on. So you can really overload yourself with imagery and video of heights.

So the pictures stage of the exposure therapy works well with heights better than water I suspect. But with water wadding into the sea up to your knees and standing there letting the waves buffet you is a good step. Then you sit down and let the wave wash over your shoulders and eventually your head. And so on and so on.

But it really does help if it is slow and incremental and constant and consistent. I doubt you should try such for a few weeks or a couple of months and declare its not working. It can take some time. But I have heard it also combines well with hypnotherapy as a combined approach.