Home OP-ED Making a Comeback from Smoking Pot While Sitting on a Cliff’s Edge

Making a Comeback from Smoking Pot While Sitting on a Cliff’s Edge

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[img]560|left|Nicholas D. Pollak||no_popup[/img]A new client told me the other day his life was in a shambles, and that he needed hypnotic help to set himself straight.

He talked about his family curse regarding money, how tired he was of having to struggle for every penny every day. He had lots of great ideas for making money.

He never followed through on them, and by the next day, he had forgotten the idea anyway. Money never had come easily to anyone in his family. All worked 12 to 14 hours a day at menial jobs. They could not catch up on the bills that were continually mounting.

He was picturing financial success, good clothes, fast cars, a beautiful woman on his arm and of course a great house with a pool. He saw himself surrounded by famous people whom he was helping.

A Home Shatters

His reality was that his father had been a drunk and his mother, unable to take the drinking or the abuse divorced him.

Unbeknown to his mother, his father had debts to the tune of $90,000 from drinking, womanizing and gambling. Forced to sell the house she had been married in and had raised her son in, she was left penniless.

She and her son moved to the Midwest, where through lack of funds he was raised either sleeping in the family car or in a tent. Uprooted from everything he knew, he grew up in a strange state, with no friends and totally dependent upon his mother who was trying to survive with occasional menial jobs.

Ultimately the son returned to California, where he lived in a guest house at the back of a large property. He was even having trouble paying the minimal rent his landlord/friend charged.

His sad story was compounded by a back problem, and lack of health insurance. All day he smoked pot to alleviate the mental and physical pain.

Fog and Muddle Begin to Vanish

The night before coming to see me he smoked more pot than ever. For the first time, his body relaxed so much that he thought he heard something pop. Suddenly, his back felt better. Shortly, he passed out and awoke in the morning with a bad pot hangover and a still painful back.

It was clear his reality was not matching his mental image.

I explained that if he were to stop smoking pot, he would have more energy and his thinking would clear. He would start to follow through on his ideas.

Pot was an insidious drug, I told him. When he smoked, he always wanted more. If he stopped, he would not miss it. If he thought pot relaxed, him he should see just how much more relaxed he would be after his hypnotherapy session. I challenged him to see if the relaxation offered through hypnosis was greater.

He was a good candidate. While under hypnosis, I gave him suggestions to relax, visualizations of being an ex-pot smoker with increased energy. I had him see himself following through on his ideas. I also gave him techniques to alleviate pain.

When I asked him later how he felt, he was significantly more relaxed than he ever could ever remember and his back pain appeared to be gone (at least for now). He promised to forgo pot for one week and see how he felt.

The difference in him seven days later was noticeable. He had quit smoking. The first night was rough. He slept little. The second night he had almost no trouble sleeping. He awoke feeling energetic and clearer.

He started to act on his new ideas and his business began to pick up.

After his last session with me, he felt he had awakened from a foggy nightmare. A pathway to success was obvious. He learned the meaning of “action not words.”

An idea, acting on the idea, keeping a clear head and gaining quality rest had set him on the path that he had been looking for for so long.

A clinical hypnotherapist, handwriting analyst and expert master hypnotist, Nicholas Pollak may be contacted at nickpollak@hypnotherapy4you.net