MrsS is undergoing her first hypnotherapy session in the next five minutes to try and once and for all get rid of/control her currently medicated anxiety/PTSD/OCD issues. Has anyone else tried it and did it work or fail for you?
I have an open mind on it but was a real struggle to get her to book the appointment as it is not cheap and she’s inherrently tight but was also getting anxious even about giving it a go!

IMO it is a waste of time for serious mental health issues. Try Mindfulness based CBT, ACT or something like Somatic experiencing instead.

Helps relax when stressed or preoccupied but not sure if that is the same as what your Mrs has.

wish her all the best!

She gave CBT a ‘try’ but CBA!!! It’s so frustrating to try and be supportive when the person with the illness cannot be bothered/is reluctant to try different methods/treatments/allows themselves to run out of medication or worse still drops it of their own accord because they feel okay or thinks their problem is not a problem.

She was referred by our new doctor and i have said elsewhere how impressed I have been with his refreshing approach. It doesn’t help that I am wired up very differently from her in terms of how to cope with stress/illness/ bereavement/ general life occurrences. I wish she had had more psychological help after my daughter had had cancer as that’s pretty much what started it all off 22 years ago. Daughter survived and had some counselling but counsellor noticed that the wife needed more so she went back for more sessions but again stopped at her decision.

Feel free to mock but I would suggest that vitamins and minerals are tested, they need to be optimum and not at the bottom of the range. Just a thought that vit C may help as it will assist/support the adrenals which presumably have taken a battering.

Bipolar here so a very different beast. Done hypnotherapy, CBT, Meds, and everything in between. Hypnotherapy was a waste of everyone’s time as was CBT.
Everyone is different though so hopefully it will help Mrs S.

hypnotherapy can work on some patients but it depends on the underlying cause of the mental health issue.

PTSD

There is a method call The Rewind Technique which is hypnotherapy based and can work well for PTSD.

http://www.hgi.org.uk/archive/rewind-technique.htm
http://www.rewindtechnique.com/

The issues with just giving up on treatments is quite possibly a symptom. I’m at the dog-end of a course of cbt for social anxiety, and feel a world different to when I started (I’d previously dropped out of a course, diy group therapy, anti-depressants) It’s odd, at the start I just wanted to be able to continue my reclusive life, but still get the must-do bits of life done. Now I’m in a frenzy of doing all the things I’ve wanted to do but dismissed as “it’ll be shit, or I’ll fail at it”. And love the therapy too, when I hated it at the start. It all feels a bit precarious, so I’ve to keep pushing, but the world hasn’t seemed so full of options since I was a kid.

Tried alot of therapies/techniques over the years but have had best results from Mindfulness.

I think it’s becomming quite popular throughout the NHS as my course was through them. It basically use’s meditation techniques to help you control anxiety/depressive symptoms.

I can highly recommend it given your wifes condition. Check with your local mental health team if they offer any mindfulness courses in your area (mine was a five week course, one afternoon a week with practices to do at home which you then continue once finished.

Hypnosis for me was a waste of time.

PTSD

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_movement_desensitization_and_reprocessing

urther the two most recent meta-analyses conducted in 2013, including the Cochrane review, have indicated that CBT and EMDR therapy are well-supported by research and superior to all other psychotherapies.

I would have a look into this, anything that is supported by a Cochrane review is worth a look.

Im an ex anxiety sufferer – brought on by work stress.

CBT or ACT is good advice.

Important point is to put what you learn into everyday practice, however you feel, and slowly the anxiety will dissipate away. Because it is viewed as a threat, you live in this heightened, constant fear/state. oCD is an anxiety symptom. There is a good saying by Henry Ford i think.. If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.

Four good books to read;

The happiness trap – dr russ harris
Hope and help for nerves – dr claire weekes
Letting go – dr david hawkins
Linden method – charles linden

Important to remember that reading books wont cure, theyll tell you how to cure, it is your actions that cures, and this can be challenging at times.

All the best, i know how she feels.

Medical driven anxiety led me to seek some assistance.

Hypnotherapy did help me relax, but TBH I got a bit cynical about the therapist….in terms of them being able to take advantage of my own mental state.

The first session was great in that I felt I was in that state between being fully with it and being asleep….bit like snoozing at the pool on a sunny day whilst on holiday.

However the next few sessions whilst I was in the ‘trance’ I could hear the therapist bashing her keyboard and almost reading from a script.

First and second sessions I was definitely very, very relaxed to the point I felt like I had taken something. Nice!

See if you can influence to try……but it won’t help unless you want/let it.

I’ve ‘controlled’ a really stupid phobia for 25 years with hypnosis, but I do mean control it.. just.

I’ve seen a counsellor recently who is putting me forward for CBT but in a group scenario, I immediately think talking about it won’t help.

I’ve had CBT and Hypnotherapy. Unfortunately, neither did anything for me. Because of this I couldn’t be arsed with them either.
I have bipolar, ptsd and anger issues.
Mindfulness works really well for me.
The thing that worked best for me was Brain Spotting – concentrating on the end of a telescopic pointer while talking about traumatic experiences. This moved slowly so your brain has to work hard on both things. Some believe it to be mumbo jumbo but personally I think it’s great.
Everyone is different so I’m sure, once you find a treatment that works things will get better for her.

Cochrane has concluded that EMDR and CBT are superior to all other psychotherapies, Cochrane reviews are the gold standard in terms of working out what the best treatments are. You really should consider both of these first as opposed to some of the others mentioned.

EMDR sounds a lot like brainspotting. Is EMDR available on the NHS? I have spent a lot of money on a private psychologist (100 euros a pop) and if I could get EMDR for free I would be a very happy guy.

I believe it is Iolo. It’s a bit different I believe but does have some similarities.

I’ve found CBT together with yoga (meditation) has made big improvements to my PTSD.
I still get flashbacks after 5 years (although the depressive episodes after are much reduced) and was looking at EMDR just last night so might give it a whirl…