What Happens When Childhood Fears Are Sloughed Off

Nicholas PollakOP-ED

I have helped many alcoholics, and a new client asked if I could help her with her excessive drinking.

The primary goal was to quit drinking. She was most vulnerable when home by herself. Drinking alone is a key indicator whether one is alcoholic.

My client suffered severe mood swings, had trouble sleeping and was she was irritable, which was costing her friends. Her work was suffering. 

Desperate is what she was.

Her father was an alcoholic, but his disposition was sunny. He was a functioning alcoholic. Despite drinking daily, he was fine with his job and his family life. Gifted with affection, he was fun to be around.

Unfortunately, his daughter was not. 

Allergic to liquor, she was a Jekyll-and-Hyde. Sober, she was great to be around. Drunk, she was abusive, physically and mentally.

Alcohol quickly breaks down to sugar, spiking your blood sugar levels. They go high so fast. The problem is that the blood sugar level drops as swiftly as it elevates, leaving the person shaky and nervous and in many cases creating a rapid heart beat, sweaty and irritable. This condition leads to panic and anxiety attacks.

Don’t Worry. Now Go Away.

My client’s troubles can be traced her to childhood, when she was about 6 years old. She told her parents she was frightened of a murderer who had not yet been caught. She feared he would harm her.

This involved the infamous Night Stalker case.  Her parents seem to have lightly dismissed her worries. They ignored her continued questions, and that triggered her deep anxiety.

Positive that her parents were not interested in how she felt about anything, she believed she was there to do what she was told and to not challenge.

Thirty years later, their dismissiveness still is causing fearfulness and anxiety.

As we talked, she began to put the pieces together. She saw what had been holding her back while recognizing how helpful hypnotherapy was in resolving issues and restoring confidence.

In these circumstances, her insomnia sprang from her spiking sugar levels. She was not eating the right foods to encourage a stable blood sugar level.

Her brain constantly was searching for a source of good nutrition and was not finding it. So it would create panic and anxiety, bringing an adrenaline rush. Now her brain was hyper aware, hypersensitive, further depriving her body of the sugar it needed. Hyper alert, no wonder she could not sleep.

Quick Turnaround

Given a low sugar, high protein diet, she shortly noticed improvement in her thinking – within 72 hours. She stabilized her blood sugar levels, and her functioning reflected a calm, logical adult frame of mind. On Night Three, she slept through the night for the first time in years.

With her new attitude, she soon stopped drinking. Tasty, healthy, protein-rich meals grew into her new addiction. In a short time, she had lost the desired weight, quit liquor, improved at work, gets along better with friends. For the first time in four years, she is in a strong relationship.

She found there is more to life than sitting at home by yourself, drinking into oblivion every day.

Now she prepares imaginative meals from the allowable food, and her new boyfriend is the beneficiary.

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