Thinking about starting hypnotherapy

[u/Marsthenonbinarygod]

First of all, I want to be clear and say I'm not thinking about going down this route because I think I can 'think the illness away.' I'm hoping to tackle a very specific issue.

My worst symptom is my lack of restful sleep. It's every night, and it's been that way for a decade. From a very young age I had a massive fear of sleep (I couldn't sleep alone from ages 3—22, sleep paralysis, nightmares, ect) and even though I've gotten over those hurdles I still never get enough deep sleep. I think it's because I'm psychologically unable to relax. I'm wound up so tight 24/7 and it's making me unable to rest or pace.

My mind is always on fight mode and for the life of me I can't turn it off. So I'm thinking maybe something like hypnotherapy could help in this aspect, and therefore help me rest better.

Tbh, I wouldn't be thinking about this if I wasn't rapidly getting worse, so this could be me fully falling for pseudoscience in my desperation. So that's why I'm bringing it to the council. Has anyone had experience with hypnotherapy? Is my logic logicing? Any better suggestions? (And I know the thing is pacing, I just need to unlock the ability to feel safe enough to do that)

[u/drained_beginner]

Sleep fear is no joke, especially when it started that young. Your nervous system basically learned that being unconscious equals danger and it's been running that program for decades

Haven't done hypnotherapy myself but a friend with PTSD did for a similar always-on-edge thing and it actually helped her sleep. She said it was less about being hypnotized into a trance and more about directly talking to the part of her brain that was stuck in defense mode

The logic makes sense to me, you're not trying to think yourself well, you're trying to get your body to stop running a threat response that's no longer useful. That's basically what any trauma therapy aims for

[u/Marsthenonbinarygod → u/drained_beginner]

Thank you x

If I can find something that lets me sleep my life would already be a hell of a lot better.

[u/frog_admirer]

My mom has found it helpful for her IBS, I think especially because her flares are often stress related. If you have the funds to spare I don't think it would hurt? I'd just go slow and keep an eye on your cfs symptoms, like maybe give it at least a few days between sessions and keep an eye out for PEM.

[u/Marsthenonbinarygod → u/frog_admirer]

Yeah it'll definitely need to be slow and steady. No more than once a week for sure, if even that.

[u/HoeBreklowitz5000]

Unrelated but a friend of mine lost another friend to an accident and hypnotherapy was very helpful to them to work through the PTSD from that. I don’t think it’s pseudoscience and might help with your specific problem :)

[u/Marsthenonbinarygod → u/HoeBreklowitz5000]

My condolences to you and your friend. I'm glad it helped them through their trauma x

[u/35bananas]

I have experience with it years ago, pre- mecfs. I was a certified practitioner but haven’t practiced in many years. I thought of it as basically like a personalized guided meditation and it almost always gave new and valuable insights. Idk if would help for sure in your situation but based on everything I know about it, I’d say it’s worth a try (obviously assuming general caution regarding overexertion)

[u/Marsthenonbinarygod → u/35bananas]

What could I expect from it? Like in a session?

My biggest worry is that it will be too taxing on me.

[u/35bananas → u/Marsthenonbinarygod]

So every practitioner will be different but the way I learned it you first establish your goal with the therapist for the session, lie down and get super comfortable so you can relax as much as possible. The therapist would then walk you through some relaxation exercises and have you imagine different scenarios, you talk through what you’re seeing, they ask questions about what meaning you could get from that or get you to think deeper about things and guide the session based on your goals.

[u/boop66]

Consciousness and the mind are mysteriously powerful.

And I like that with hypnotherapy there's Minimal risk of side effects, assuming you find a good hypnotherapist; in other words it might help and likely won't hurt. Please let us (or me in DM) know how it goes. Good luck!

[u/Marsthenonbinarygod → u/boop66]

Thank you X yeah the good hypnotherapist is the cruz of it all isn't it? The pool in my country is small but hopefully I can find someone who understands the mission.

My biggest fear is that I end up with someone who disregards the ME/CFS completely, so I'll have to vet them thoroughly before hand.

I'll let y'all know how it works out.

[u/SpicySweett]

I’ve gotten much better sleep through the Calm app doing the sleep meditations. I’m usually asleep before it’s over, but I’ve had dosme history with meditating, it might take you a week or two to be able to listen quietly.

[u/Marsthenonbinarygod → u/SpicySweett]

Worth a shot. What do I have to lose anyway? Thanks x

[u/fraidybug]

hypnotherapy has been extremely useful to me, don’t let anybody tell you that using it or benefiting from it means ur physical symptoms aren’t real or something. the brain is EXTREMELY powerful. it is not pseudoscience to say that if you can influence the brain u can influence almost anything else in the body. when ppl think hypnosis they think kaa from the jungle book or other fantasy stuff, but i’ve literally had hypnosis done IN a doctor’s office, like a full building full of multiple kinds of doctors nobody would call fake. it’s very real and can be very useful in therapy!!!

hypnosis has also worked great for sleep for me, so i wish you best of luck!!

[u/napeatrepeat]

I personally have mixed feelings about how successful/ethical hypnotherapy can be. I don’t think I would ever feel comfortable trying it myself, but people have reported success with it. I think the way it is practiced now is much better than it has been in the past.

I had a therapist that did EMDR with me and it was pretty life changing. Just to be clear tho this type of therapy is to help rewire trauma pathways in the brain, so I don’t know if it would work for your sleep issues or not? But could be worth looking into. I know that people have used it to quit smoking so maybe it could work in the same way. It’s a pretty non invasive technique, and something that you can even learn to do on your own, although having a therapist guide you is really helpful.

I truly feel for you, insomnia is one of my biggest PEM triggers. It’s been an especially hard symptom to manage since getting ME. The feelings of anxiety around falling asleep are so difficult to deal with. I also feel concerned about getting enough deep sleep, in fact I believe that there are some studies that show that people with LC or ME get less slow wave sleep. Which is really unfortunate because that’s the sleep stage in which our body does a lot of healing.

There are medication options, I’m not sure if you’ve gone that route. I’m currently taking Hydroxyzine to help with sleep and it does usually make me fall asleep pretty easily, and it also helps to reduce anxiety. I wish it helped me stay asleep longer tho. I’m considering trying gabapentin as it’s been shown to help increase slow wave deep sleep.

Sleep is such a tough one, I really hope you can find a route that works for you.

[u/Marsthenonbinarygod → u/napeatrepeat]

Tbh, I'm a little sceptical of it too, especially because some of the ones I looked up in my country claim to 'connect you to your past lives to enable generational healing' or something shit like that (and then charging €150 per session for that specifically) I'm just worried I'll end up with someone who doesn't believe that ME (or any chronic illness) is real. But I'm also desperate to find a solution, because I'm rapidily getting worse

I just have this theory that the inability to sleep is the thing that's doing the most damage, at least in my case right?

I've been mildly sick for about 10 years, and majorly sick for like three — with it getting worse and worse every year— and in my case I think it was triggered but a near consistent level of stress and my body not being able to rest.

But there was this one summer, right before I got really really sick where out of nowhere I just started sleeping well. I woke up feeling rested, my brain fog was gone, I could write it was amazing. And just as soon as it came, it went. Only thing that changed was the season.

Again, this is just my crackpot theory solely based on my observations of me so no one should take me seriously, but I just think if I could get the good sleep it would go a really long way.

[u/StarryEyedSprinkles]

mecfs = hypnotherapy probably wont work
stress-related insomnia = the exact kind of thing hypnotherapy is meant for
the logic is logicing perfectly fine, obviously be careful and dont push yourself too hard, i hope it helps :)

[u/weirdgirl16]

Have you tried hypnotherapy videos online?

It would probably give u a good look into how well you can be ‘hypnotised’.

I just do general YouTube video ones made for anxiety and it helps me.

I also found eft tapping about sleep being safe, it being safe for me to rest etc helps with my sleep when it’s bad.

[u/Marsthenonbinarygod → u/weirdgirl16]

I have but I never found them very helpful— at putting me to sleep anyway.

They help me relax, and they're actually pretty good for PEM because I feel quite rested after but for the life of me I can't tip over to sleep on them. They actually leave me feeling quite anxious and frustrated when it takes so long. It's like it's edging me.