Tim Maude Hypnotherapy

Tag: hypnotherapy

  • Phobias – the most common form of anxiety

    Phobias – the most common form of anxiety

    It is estimated that around 10 million people in the UK has a phobia, that is, more than one person in every seven. Some phobias are simple and some are complex. For some people a phobia is a slight annoyance; for others it dominates every aspect of their lives.

    What is a phobia?

    A phobia is an irrational fear of something. Someone with arachnophobia will feel an uncontrollable fear and anxiety when they see a spider. There is no rational reason for this fear; the spider is almost always harmless, but even so, the fear is real.

    Some phobias are simple. The simple (albeit irrational) fear that comes over them when they see something: spiders, frogs, cows, birds, clowns, lightening and so on. Other phobias are to do with doing something – a fear of flying, having a vaccination, going to a hospital, talking on a phone, vomiting and so on. And then there are the more complex phobias such as fear of going to somewhere new, or fear of social occasions.

    Almost anything can be the subject of phobias. Some unusual ones that have been recorded include a fear of belly buttons, string, mirrors and peanut butter (and almost anything you can think of).

    What is the phobic reaction?

    When someone with a phobia encounters the object of their fear, they experience genuine fear – that is, the same fear that you would have if your life was in danger. It is usually a totally irrational fear, and so many phobics are often embarrassed by their reaction. It is embarrassing because it is irrational and because the people around them are not fearful.

    Where do phobias come from?

    Many people like to know where their phobia comes from. Knowing this helps them rationalise why they have the fear, and it helps them explain it to others.

    Some phobias are picked up in childhood by the young developing brain as it learns by copying reactions from the parents. If one or both of the parents have a phobia of spiders, say, the child may well pick up on that fear (quite unconsciously) and develop a similar phobia themselves.

    Other phobias are developed by a single incident. For example, if a child is by a pond looking at the frogs and falls in, then mother rushes over panicking and drags the child out, then the child picks up on the mother’s fear and associates it with the frog, and so develops a phobia of frogs.

    What happens inside the brain of a phobic?

    Within the brain, fear is created by the fight-flight-freeze centre – the amygdala. The amygdala is a very primitive part of the brain. It is not clever and is incapable of working out what fears are rational and what are not. Nor is it capable of coming up with a different reaction. All the amygdala does is check what it did last time it the person encountered a spider / frog / needle etc and to repeat it.

    The amygdala’s fear response overrides the rational response. The thinking part of the brain (the prefrontal cortex) finds it upsetting that it experiences fear when logically there is nothing to fear – and in some people, the prefrontal cortex starts to make up stories to rationalise the fear, even though the story may also be nonsense. For example, someone with a fear of birds could start to believe that the birds are plotting against them.

    How do you fix a phobia?

    Like all mental health issues, a phobia is only a problem if it’s a problem. Many phobics live quite normal lives except for an occasional hit of anxiety when they see the object of their fear. If this does not happen often; if they can live with it, then it’s not a problem.

    If it’s a small problem, then you could just wait and see if you grow out of it. Older people are less likely to have phobias, telling us that a lot of people with phobias when they were young grew out of them.

    If you have a phobia that really effects your life badly (and believe me, some phobias can be devastating), then you should consider therapy. Two common forms of therapy that treat phobias are Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CPD) and Hypnotherapy.

    Phobias are quite fixable, and you can get treatment that will lead to the fear going away completely or at least reducing by a point where it become tolerable.

    What happens during CPD treatment of phobias?

    The CPD treatment of a phobia is likely to include gradual exposure to the object of fear. For example, the arachnophobic may first be shown a picture of a spider from a long way off for a brief second. Once they can tolerate that, the picture will be shown for longer and a bit nearer. Once that is tolerated, they move on to watching a video of a spider, and so on. Each time getting closer to being able to tolerate a real live spider in close proximity.

    What happens during hypnotherapy treatment of phobias?

    In a hypnotherapy treatment of phobias, the hypnotherapist will spend some time just talking to you – getting to know you and allowing you to get used to them. They may ask you to talk about your phobia, but don’t be surprised if they discuss other things too. Then they will lead you into a relaxing trance and ask you to imagine things. They will ask you to imagine some fantasy – some might say farcical – events involving the object of your fear, in a way that is calm and relaxed – even comical.

    If you have a phobia that is dominating your life and you want help dealing with it, you might like to consider contacting me. My hypnotherapy clinic is in Fleet in Hampshire.

    Photo by Ayo Ogunseinde on Unsplash

  • How does Hypnotherapy Help With Anxiety?

    How does Hypnotherapy Help With Anxiety?

    Hypnotherapy is one of several therapies that can help if you suffer from anxiety. I see clients with anxiety, and it usually takes only a few weeks for them to regain control of their lives. So how does hypnotherapy actually work?

    First, you need to put aside any notion of stage hypnosis. Hypnotherapy does not work by me snapping my fingers and suddenly everything has changed. As a hypnotherapist, I cannot make you do things that you don’t want to do. All I can do is lead you down a path – and you can follow if you want to.

    Anxiety and the Brain

    Anxiety comes from a primitive part of your brain – the fight-flight-freeze centre – that you are not consciously aware of until the anxiety hits you. Somehow it has programmed itself incorrectly so that it produces anxiety when there is no need to be anxious. Hypnotherapy is all about encouraging that part of the brain to rewire itself.

    That primitive part of the brain is more active the more stress you carry. When you have big stresses in your life, it takes a while for the brain to deal with it. It’s like you are carrying round a big bucket of stress. Hypnotherapy is also all about emptying that stress bucket.

    We say that the brain is plastic. That is, it constantly reshapes itself and readjusts as we give it new information and new experiences. Some changes happen when the new experience is happening, but a lot of those changes happen afterwards when the brain consolidates its memories. And this consolidation happens when the brain is not busy with doing other things – when we are asleep for example.

    So how does Hypnotherapy Help?

    So … back to the original question … how does hypnotherapy help with anxiety? When you are in a trance, the brain finds itself in a quiet relaxed state and uses the time to sort out some of your memories and experiences. In particular, it will start to rewire itself towards a position that is uppermost in your mind. So if the hypnotherapist has discussed an anxiety-free future, full of hope, then the brain will start to rewire itself towards that goal.

    Hypnotherapy helps people with anxiety in a variety of ways. Some of my clients notice that things have started to change after a couple of sessions. Others are with me for five or ten sessions, and then one day they turn up and they are suddenly a different person. Everyone is different, and I am always interested in how my clients experience the change in their anxiety levels.

    If you need help getting your anxiety under control, then you might like to experience the benefits of hypnotherapy. I operate my hypnotherapy clinic here in Fleet, Hampshire.

    Photo by Oscar Keys on Unsplash

  • Micro-dosing and Anxiety – the Facts

    Micro-dosing and Anxiety – the Facts

    If you follow one of the many online communities of anxiety sufferers, it won’t take you long to find an advert for micro-dosing. It will probably be hidden in the comments – someone will tell you what a great thing micro-dosing is. So what is micro-dosing and does it really help? Is it a great cure for anxiety or over-hyped nonsense?

    What is micro-dosing?

    Micro-dosing, or more strictly “psychedelic micro-dosing”, is the practice of taking regular small quantities of a psychedelic drug such as psilocybin – the psychedelic compound in magic mushrooms (or sometimes Lysergic acid diethylamide – LSD). The quantity taken is small, maybe a tenth of the dose usually taken for recreational purposes, so that any psychedelic effect is so small as not to be noticeable.

    Advocates of micro-dosing say that it has a positive mental effect on anxiety as well as other mental issues. They say, for example, that it will increase your focus and energy, helps you be ‘in the moment’, increases empathy, increases your sense of wellbeing, helps you come off and stay off medications such as anti-depressants, and reduces cravings. As someone who has never tried micro-dosing, I cannot tell you whether or not these benefits are real, but there are many advocates who report positive mental effects anecdotally.

    What is the evidence for micro-dosing having a positive impact on anxiety?

    The studies that have been carried out have mixed results. There is a lot of anecdotal evidence that micro-dosing has a positive effect on mental well-being (that is, people tell you it has had a positive effect, without being part of a controlled experiment). There are many advocates who are convinced that it has a positive impact. The scientific studies do, however, come up with mixed results.

    The gold standard for clinical trials of any drug is known as RCD – a Randomised Control Trial – in which a group of people are randomly split into two groups. One group takes the drug and the other takes a placebo, and no-one know which group they are in. In an RCD it is possible to compare the effects of taking the drug with that of not taking it without any inherent bias to the experiment. I find it difficult to find any reported RCD trials of micro-dosing.

    There have been studies that look at people who have decided to take up micro-dosing that have shown a positive mental impact. But be wary of this result, as it could be that the positive mental impact was simply down to expectation – the subjects believed they were going to feel better, and that belief made them feel better.

    Is micro-dosing for anxiety safe?

    Micro-dosing is an unregulated market in the UK. This means that if you order any online, there are no standards to which suppliers have to conform, and no external checks as to what you will receive. You will get different strengths of psilocybin from different suppliers, and there will be no external checks as to their safety. (Which is a concern as psilocybin comes from a fungus, and some other fungii are poisonous.)

    There are no studies on the long-term impact of micro-dosing, so there is no scientific evidence that tells us whether it is safe in the long-term, or that it causes long-term difficulties. It is known that some people take it long-term and appear to be fine doing so, but there is no evidence to help us understand if this is always the case with everyone.

    What is the legal status of micro-dosing?

    In the UK psilocybin – magic mushroom – is classified as a class A drug, and it is illegal to possess, grow or sell it. So, if you do try micro-dosing psilocybin to help your anxiety, you will be breaking the law. Wikipedia provides a handy chart that explains the legal status of magic mushrooms in many countries.

    Conclusion

    The jury is still out. There is no scientific evidence that micro-dosing can help with anxiety. However, there is no scientific evidence to show that is does not help, indeed, there are many advocates who say they have experience of it working well.

    In the UK and many other countries, micro-dosing is illegal and unregulated, so I do not recommend you try it (unless, of course, the local laws where you live permit and regulate it).

    If you are only just coping with anxiety and you want some help, you might consider hypnotherapy. I help people with anxiety and stress to get their lives back on track using hypnotherapy in my clinic here in Fleet in Hampshire.

    A few articles and sources of information

    https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-popularity-of-microdosing-of-psychedelics-what-does-the-science-say-202209192819

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-01811-4

    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41398-022-02039-0

    https://mushies.co.uk/blogs/news/how-to-microdose-magic-mushrooms-in-the-uk-2022-guide

    https://www.microdosing.com/

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_psilocybin_mushrooms

    Photo by Tania Malréchauffé on Unsplash

  • Sleep and Anxiety – the Ongoing Conflict

    Sleep and Anxiety – the Ongoing Conflict

    Increasing anxiety can mean you sleep badly – sleeping badly can increase anxiety. On the other hand lowering your anxiety can improve your sleep – and improving your sleep can help reduce anxiety.

    Many people who have anxiety and stress issues will recognise the experience of waking up in the night and then finding it difficult to get back to sleep – with all those anxious feeling and worries going through their head. And this compounds the real problem, because regular nights of good sleep helps sort out anxiety.

    Sleep Phases

    When we sleep, we go through phases – some of the time we have deep sleep and at other times we are sleeping very lightly. These are important in order to keep your body and mind healthy. One of the stages of sleep is known as REM (rapid eye movement) – the stage when we dream. REM sleep accounts for around a fifth of our sleep patterns, although most people rarely remember much of it.

    During REM sleep, our brain consolidates our memories. It looks at things that have happened recently and processes them, getting rid of unwanted stuff and reconfiguring the rest. You may have heard the expression, “Sleep on it.” If there is something that is worrying you – put it aside and look at it again in the morning and you will view it differently. Why? Because during the night, while you are in your REM sleep, you process that bit of memory and so a lot of the emotion is taken out of it.

    How Sleep Helps with Anxiety

    So a good nights sleep will give you around an hour and a half of REM sleep in which to process all your worries and regrets so that they don’t look so bad the next day. This means that the fight-flight-or-freeze centre of the brain is less likely to be triggered and less likely to generate as much anxiety.

    And I know that it’s all very well telling someone with anxiety, “just get enough sleep,” but that doesn’t help when you wake up in the middle of the night worrying and cannot get back to sleep again.

    Sleep Tips

    There is no one answer that can guarantee a good night’s sleep. What works for one person may not work for another. So the trick is to have a go at different things – just see what works for you. Remember – if what you are doing at the moment doesn’t work, then try something else.

    Let’s start with some “don’t”s

    • Don’t try to go short on sleep and catch up on the weekend
    • Don’t drink alcohol just I order to help you get a good night’s sleep
    • Don’t drink caffeinated drinks before bedtime

    And some “do”s

    • Do have a wind-down routine before bedtime
    • Consciously relax every part of your body as you lie in bed
    • If you have anything that’s worrying you – write it down so that your brain doesn’t have to keep reminding you to deal with it

    Sleep is so important to our lives, and these few tips do not do do it justice. I will come back to fully exploring sleep tips another time.

    If you have problems coping with your anxiety and stress on your own and are looking for some help, then you may wish to consider hypnotherapy. I work out of my clinic in Fleet, Hampshire helping people get their lives under control and reducing the symptoms of stress and anxiety.

    Photo by Kate Stone Matheson on Unsplash

  • The Perfectionist’s Dilemma

    The Perfectionist’s Dilemma

    Being a perfectionist is a noble ideal, but be warned … it can feed your anxiety. Anxiety comes from too much stress, and too much stress can come from always seeking an unobtainable life.

    A perfectionist wants everything to be perfect; their home has to be perfect; their job has to be done perfectly; their life has to be exactly as they want it to be. And of course, in one way, it’s good to strive for the best. You will never get the best results if you don’t strive for them.

    The problem comes when we don’t get the perfect life we want … and, by the way … we rarely do. We may strive for everything to be just right, but there is always someone who spoils it (not out of malice, it’s just that they don’t have the same longing for perfection). Or maybe you run out of time or money to get it to the perfect state you want it to be in.

    Imagine the couple preparing to get married. They want a perfect wedding. They spend months saving and planning, booking rooms, planning guest lists and all the other things that go to make a great wedding. It is already stressful, trying to get everything ready by a fixed deadline. And when the great day arrives, something goes wrong – maybe it rains during the formal photography session outside in the rose garden, or Uncle Jack turns up late and interrupts the wedding vows. The frustration just adds to the ever increasing stress levels. And the stress can lead to anxiety.

    And so we have the perfectionist’s dilemma: Ever striving to achieve unobtainable perfection leads to stress, disappointment and anxiety, whereas making do with a lesser goal does not achieve what you really want.

    The solution to the perfectionist’s dilemma is to accept the simple fact that:

    Good enough is good enough.

    You can still strive for perfection, but you need to accept that it will not always be achieved. And if you don’t achieve it, is what you have achieved good enough … good enough to work … good enough for you to be satisfied? When you can accept that it is good enough, life becomes calmer and you are less likely to become anxious.

    If you struggle to control you anxiety and want help, you might want to see what hypnotherapy can do. I work from my clinic here in Fleet (or over Zoom if you live further away). Contact me when you need help getting you life back together.

    Photo by Alvaro Reyes on Unsplash

  • The Clinic in the Garden

    The Clinic in the Garden

    I sit at my desk, here in my hypnotherapy clinic, having taken all of 10 seconds to walk over from my house. The sun is shining and I can look out at the garden and see the leaves need clearing from the lawn. They can wait until the weekend because, right now, now I am waiting for my next client.

    My client has not been here before, so I go out to the road to greet him. We shake hands and walk back to the clinic in the garden. The clinic is a purpose-built room, where we can talk confidentially. He gets the nice comfortable chair, while I sit in my office chair. He looks at the pictures on the wall, and the garden through the window, but mostly he looks at me, wondering what will happen next.

    I ask him how I can help and he tells me all his problems. I listen to what he has to say, but what I really want to know comes in the next question … “You have told me about your problems … now what do you want instead?” You see, I am not really interested in where the problem came from; what I am interested in is how he wants to be when it’s all sorted out.

    The Hypnotherapy Clinic in the garden

    I get some more background information, and then start to explain what is actually going on in his head. I get out a diagram of a human brain and show him the different parts and how they interact. I explain what stress does to the brain, and how the brain naturally deals with it. I show him the part of the brain that is probably giving rise to the problems he has. Understanding the mechanics of the brain, even in the simplest terms, is the first step to moving on.

    And then I ask him if he would like to try a bit of hypnotherapy – just for relaxation, you understand; just so you get a feel for what it is. I show him how the seat goes back and he can put his feet up. He lies back and just listens as I start talking. I notice his breathing slows as he relaxes and drifts in and out of a light trance, until at last I come to the end. He sits up with a smile on his face.

    And so ends the initial consultation. He understands a bit more about it all and has an experience of what hypnotherapy is all about. He can now decide if this is right for him, and whether to book in for a series of session. And I have enough information about him to prepare for when he comes next week.

    I shake hands again as he leaves. I sit and type up my hand written notes. As I put the paper notes through the shredder, I go through, in my own head, what to do when he comes back next week.

    The real delight for me at the end of the day, as I make my 10 second commute back to the house, is all the people who thank me for what I have done for them. And maybe I shouldn’t take delight in that – because really, they have done it all themselves – I just went along for the journey.