An acquaintance of my wife said recently she is becoming more housebound. She loves to be outside and go places.

But she has been suffering from debilitating panic attacks. They worsened to the point of interfering with her life.

When her husband suggests a drive or a weekend away, she used to say yes but now is declining every time because of her panic attacks when she travels.

The woman told my wife she had been seeing a therapist, but to no advantage.  She is trying to figure out how her childhood created the problem she has today. Often a psychiatrist or psychologist will require up to 600 sessions to resolve what a hypnotherapist settles within six to eight.

How can a hypnotherapist be more effective?

A regular therapist talks with your conscious mind, a hypnotherapist to your subconscious. Our minds comprise 10 percent conscious and 90 percent subconscious. For change to occur, it is clear that it is not the conscious but the subconscious that would need to change.

Time to Check in

With my wife’s encouragement the woman called and set an appointment. We had a conversation that showed the source of her issue, unrelated  to do her childhood.

As is so often the case, the issue was settled and within six short sessions. She already had endured more than 10 visits with her therapist,  and came away with advice to w take a valium before she flew or drove.

I have written before about her kind of problem. One day she was driving on to a freeway when suddenly she noticed a rapid heartbeat, breathing, sweating, nervousness, fear. She continued to drive but had to pull off quickly because the feelings were overwhelming.

She suffered a severe drop in blood sugar levels. She had a low sugar related attack. When the brain receives the nutrition it needs, it functions from a high level. When inadequately nourished, the brain looks for nutrition. If it cannot be found,  it does something to create what it needs. In this case, the brain initiated a false fear and responded to it by producing adrenaline. This gave the brain what it required, but further depleted the body of its sugar reserves, draining the body even more and panic attacks worsened. 

The woman had trained her subconscious to react in a negative way whenever she attempted to do what she was doing at the time of her initial panic attack.

This called for hypnotic desensitization as well as a change in her diet. Her diet had been heavy on over-processed, sugary foods with minimal protein. Her blood sugar levels were low, which explained why she was constantly nervous.

This was corrected by using a hypoglycemic diet heavy on protein. The diet asks that you eat three small meals during the day as well as three snacks.

Choosing small protein-rich meals every two to three hours ensured a balanced blood sugar level. This plus strong hypnotic imagery of her seeing herself driving and flying, anxiety and panic free, resolved her problem.

Within 72 hours of following her new diet, her anxiety level had substantially decreased.

Within just nine weeks, this lady has gone from panic to living her life anxiety-free.

Once again she is enjoying her trips outside, long or short, with company or by herself.

Do not hesitate to contact me by telephone, 310.204.3321, or by email at nickpollak@hypnotherapy4you.net. See my website at www.hypnotherapy4you.net