Anyone have experience being hypnotized?

[msdznyduck]

One of the women I work with may be going to a workshop to be hypnotized to stop smoking. There is another workshop following (free with payment of the first workshop) to lose weight. ANyone have any experience, pro or con?
thanks

 

[Shugardrawers]

I was hypnotized once to lose weight. Didn't work. I was also one of the on stage participants in one of those vegas type hypnotist shows. You aren't doing anything you wouldn't normally do, maybe just feel a little more free to do it because you know you are supposed to. I was supposed to think I was a monkey mating with a guy in the audience. I wasn't humping his leg because I thought I was a monkey, I did it because it was funny. Save your money. There are real psychologists who do hypnosis if you really want to try it and I'd be more apt to spend it on that than a group seminar.

 

[Lisa L from MI]

A few years ago my friend and I went to a hypnotist to stop smoking. It was on a Sunday and I lasted until Friday (when I cracked open a beer )....I think if I didn't drink it would have lasted....just something about that beer and cigarette combination

I was actually pulled up front and they did this thing with a cup of ammonia...they hypnotized me into it smelling like flowers.....it was really really weird!!

 

[Mishetta]

I did the weight loss hypnotist thing & it did work (I was so relaxed, I fell asleep!) I left there thinking I could give up eating all the wrong things. When you pay for the seminar, you get a CD or audio tape also & the instructions were to listen to it every day. Well, the days I listened to it, I did really well. The days I didn't listen to it...well...you can guess how my day went. It just got hard to find the time to listen to it daily & then I forgot! So, I think it could work if you're really serious & can take the time to renew your experience on a daily basis. (The CD was exactly how the seminar went.)

Good luck!

 

[arkansas mom]

I had a psychology professor who studied this extensively. He told us that initaily it works. The hypnotic suggestion, however, wears off after about 2 days, and your on your own. Most people don't realize that (and the hypnotist certainly doesn't tell you) and if they have really been affected by the changes they've made in those two days, they are likely to continue on that path. If not, there are just no real results.

 

[barkley]

i worked with an AVID smoker who went to a hypnotist who "encouraged" him to redirect his cigarette cravings to doing work related tasks-he not only quit smoking he became the highest performing person in his division.

i went to a psychologist suffering from among other things ptsd-she advised me that while she initialy thought i would benefit from hypnosis she had decided against it because i would reexperience the situation by virtue of simply discussing it. she did not feel it would be beneficial to utilize hypnosis as a method of treatment.

i would suggest that anyone considering it completly evaluatie the potential provider-if they say "everyone/anyone can benefit from it" RUN DO NOT WALK-to someone who knows what it is capable of providing/capable of inducing.

 

[JerryMoCricketsGal]

I had a psychology professor who studied this extensively. He told us that initaily it works. The hypnotic suggestion, however, wears off after about 2 days, and your on your own. Most people don't realize that (and the hypnotist certainly doesn't tell you) and if they have really been affected by the changes they've made in those two days, they are likely to continue on that path. If not, there are just no real results.

EXCELLENT advice. Hypnosis works for a couple of days, what someone chooses to do in those 1st couple of days to change their habits and redirect their learning (think Pavlov and Skinner, Operant Learning and Classical conditioning) is what is necessary for long term effectiveness.

If quitting something were as easy as being hypnotised, then we would have no drug addicts, murderers, ect.

I wish everyone luck if they choose this route, but, keep in mind it takes more than being hypnotised to change your mindset, you have to also be in the frame of mind to go foreward with the change; as the hypnotism lasts for about 1 hour...after that, it's all up to you.

 

[popeyeohoh]

I have been hypnotized for smoking at least 7 times. It worked for me about the 3rd time. I many years later went back to smoking for about a year. I was hypnotized several more times. I could quit with no problems for about a week. Then I found Zyban. That was the best way for me to quit.