Has anyone used hypnotherapy in an attempt to cure/combat a problem/condition, and found it successful?

Stopped smoking three packs a day cold turkey. That was after two other sessions with a different hypnotherapist. That was twenty two years ago.

Self-hypnosis is not likely to work (messed with some CD a decade ago myself). Seeing a therapist has more potential to work.

However, the best way to deal with anxiety is CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). Very high success rate and the bonuses of the therapy is that you learn to manage your time better and you’ll need to start a weight-loss/fitness regimen to help reduce anxious feelings.

@Tropical_Willie – Thats fantastic! How does it all work? I’m sure that holding a pendulum in front of your eyes and swinging it back and forward is just a myth…. Are you conscious when they hypnotise you or in an unconscious state?

@drdoombot, I wasn’t really presonally interested in trying self-hypnotherapy just wanted to see if people had had any success with it.

I am actually going to see a CBT therapist and know quite a bit about it after suffering from anxiety for about 3 yrs now. My sis is also and O.T and her boyfriend is a doctor so I’m fortunate to have the support and knowledge around me also. :-)
I’ve been motivated enough to push myself out of my “safe zone” over the past two years (when the anxiety was at its worst) and now can do a lot more than what I could. You make a valid point though- although I do more than I used to, I still haven’t really been provided with the tools to stop the anxiety from occurring.

I currently have a fitness and diet routine where I’m exercising twice a day, eating well and have already lost a lot of weight so it’s not so much a “change of lifestyle” problem.

I guess I wanted to see if anyone had found success from using hypnotherapy, as I strongly believe in the power of the mind. I’m just not sure how to tap into it!!

I don’t know if you’ve heard of Paul McKenna, but I stumbled across his show “I can make you thin” recently and it was very interesting. My mum bought his book and listened to the cd which I guess is used as a type of self-hypnotheraphy. Long story short- she hasn’t really made any changes to her diet/lifestyle and has lost quite a lot of weight simply because she has retrained her thought process e.g not creating negative associations with certain foods etc.

I tried a CD a few years ago for weight loss. I was a little bit disturbed that it tried to replace positive thoughts with negative ones. So I didn’t really buy into it. The smell of a donut shop is no longer a good one to me though.

Not personally. As far as I understand the scientific evaluation of its efficacy it depends on the condition. See for example

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnotherapy#2001_Report

“In 2005 and in 2007, systematic reviews from the Cochrane Collaboration showed no proper evidence that hypnotherapy was useful in the treatment of smoking addiction or in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).”

I’ve wanted to try it in hopes to regain memories. I have hardly any memories before I was a teenager.

@SarasWhimsy – Yikes!! I’ve never heard that before. The one CD i’ve heard tells you that you can eat what you like and rather than associating negative thoughts to the food (e.g a hamburger or donuts) to create positive ones!

My husband has used it in the past to combat a traumatic experience and behaviors following it…it helped him completely

I wonder how much the placebo effect affects hypnotherapy…

@lostinyoureyes- I’m sure in some cases a great deal! I guess unless you are the one conducting a study however, we’ll never really know whether it is a result of tappinging into your subcincious and redirecting thought pathways or just the BELEIF that someone has “tinkered” with your brain that works…

Regardless of the fact that, it’s pretty amazing to consider the power of the mind! I’ve heard of a lot of cases where people lose massive amounts of weight without chaning one single aspect of their life, simply because they’ve told themselves “I will lose weight!”