[img]560|left|Nicholas D. Pollak|remove link|no_popup[/img]After talking with me by telephone, a new client’s wife decided I was the right person to help her husband who has been suffering severe depression, and ongoing panic and anxiety for 10 years.

Her husband has been to several doctors and psychiatrists. He has dieted and been medicated, to no avail. She was desperate. He was desperate.

A hypnotherapist often is the last resort, and that was the route my client had taken.

He was 30 minutes late for his appointment. Got lost, he said. But he had a haunted look, constantly glancing over his shoulder as if someone were following him.

We talked about his depression and attempts to resolve the issue. It still surprises me how medical professionals often miss the most obvious.

We talked about his upbringing. Two elderly parents raised him and his big brothers – one 6 years older, one 8 years older – on a farm in Sweden, socially isolated from his school friends. It took more than an hour to travel him to school or to any of his friends.

Problems Started Multiplying

His diet never had been addressed, and he tended to eat a lot of carbohydrates, bread, pizza, pasta. A carb diet is not a healthy. Carbohydrates quickly break down to sugar, giving you immediate but not sustainable energy. It swiftly dissipates, leaving your blood sugar levels lower than before you had eaten. This results in depression, hyper vigilance, insomnia, the sweats, nervousness, panic, anxiety and irritability.

Basically he was protein deprived. Once a person eats fewer carbohydrates and more protein, within 72 hours he will feel better than in a long time. Eating protein on a regular basis, say, every two hours, the blood sugar levels rise more slowly. They remain longer at the optimum level and drop more slowly. Small meals or protein-rich snacks every two hours create a more stable blood sugar level, more even moods and a and higher functioning ability to think.

In addition, he had been an alcoholic, clean and sober for the last nine years.

More importantly than that, he hated his job and would have great difficulty getting out of bed in the morning.

He and his wife have started a software company. But he must continue his day job until the software is written and sold to several willing clients. Then he can stop his hated job and concentrate 100 percent on his new company.

Starting with a Nudge

I suggested a slight change to his thinking about his current job: Remember it is a stepping stone. His face brightened and he readily accepted this idea.

I urged him to follow the protein-rich diet I had given him, taking in food every two hours. His panic and anxiety eased. He made less emotional, more logical decisions. Depression disappeared.

He lost weight because he was working out every morning. The success he had sought was coming to the fore. Life was getting better. Thoughts of suicide vanished.

Hypnotherapy was able to do for this man what no one else had been able to do. It is clear that with his new well-fed, upbeat attitude that he has not regretted his decisions. As we noted recently, it takes a psychiatrist and psychologist 600 sessions to accomplish what hypnotherapy can do in six. Good for him, his hard work and his willingness to try hypnotherapy so he can be a better person.

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