Adventures in Hypnotherapy Part I
On Thursday I am going into my first session of hypnotherapy. No I am not trying to quit smoking, I already did that without difficulty (seriously). I am not trying to loosing weight, I am still doing that the old fashioned way by going to the gym (though not as much as I should be). I am trying to treat a learning disability. Yes, hypnotherapy for a learning disability.
I am sure you are wondering why I would treat a learning disability with hypnotherapy. Well, think of it as rewiring the brain. My brain is not working right..[insert joke here]…and thought I don’t think this will 100% fix it, I think it has the potential to help a lot. But hypnotherapy has been shown to be quite successful for academic issues. I will go into that more in another post.
Ok, you are probably wondering why a grown-ass woman needs to correct a learning disability (LD). Well it has been the bane of my academic life since middle school. So if it were an elephant, I would like to be a Teddy Roosevelt style turn of the century hunter and blast it away! But, as a grown-ass woman, I have returned to school for my Masters in Business. Well, my LD has returned with a vengeance. So what is this LD? Well, I will tell you.
I have Severe Testing Anxiety and not as an anxiety condition. The term is a misnomer. I was diagnosed in High School and since then have met one other person who had been diagnosed and another who was undiagnosed but undeniably had the LD. I want to make sure you understand, this is NOT an anxiety condition. Think of it as intellectual dyslexia. What literally happens is you sit for an exam, you are extremely well prepared, you write your exam, you feel great about it, you think you did really well, and then you fail. How is that possible? Well, that is a question I have asked myself and had everyone else who has witnessed this ask me. I don’t really know. All I know is what I have experienced. I have had classes where I assisted in teaching the subject and then would get a C or a D on the test. Obviously I was not having a problem with the material, something else was going on. What I do know is that essentially something in the brain happens where the information in your head does not pass down to the paper. The bummer part of it is that you don’t generally realize it is happening. Because you don’t know it is happening, you don’t experience anxiety about it.
Now, I don’t mean to imply that anxiety doesn’t factor in. I am sure you can imagine the pressure you put on yourself to succeed if every time you take a test you don’t do well. It can be compounding to a degree, but I have found, for the most part, that you just accept this as your reality and therefore negate any compounding influences.
In the past I have been to stress therapy, to learn how to deal with my stress better. I now have IBS which is like having a physical stress-o-meter. If I get too stressed out, I get sick. It is a pretty accurate gauge. Over the years I have become quite adept at managing my stress. I have meditated, asked for special accommodations, spoken with professors and nothing has been truly successful. Meditating helps because it helps reduce stress. Though this is not a anxiety condition it is stress aggravated. The higher the pressure the higher the likelihood that you will do badly. If you have this LD, generally the only accommodation granted to you is extended time on tests (which is what they give to dyslexics and pretty much any LD). However, with this LD, you generally finish before most people any way. A true accommodation would be to give me an essay instead of a test, but that is neither here nor there because no one will do that.
I have mainly dealt with this by avoiding it. I have a liberal arts background. Throughout college I read and wrote papers, who needs tests? Well, in a business program, they are not so big on paper writing. On top of that, you cannot get C’s. So the pressure to succeed is extremely high and I am buckling under that pressure.
Traditional therapy is too slow, not to mention, not successful. So I am trying a traditional alternative way. I am rewiring my brain, just skipping the frontal lobotomy.
Hypnotherapy |5 Responses to “Adventures in Hypnotherapy Part I”
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1. I see you are having fun with the glow feature in Photo Booth, cool isn’t it? Love the photo. Really captures the, um, joi de stresse?
2. So sorry to hear that you ARE stressing out. Should I bring you a toasted almond? Wait, you have all the ingredients. Ok. Should I come over and ask Dave to make you one?
3. I’ll be interested to hear about your experience with this, neurogeek, armchair psychologist that I am.
4. (HUGS)
I could definitely use a toasted almond. So get over here and kick his butt! I am doing a little better, but am really looking forward to the therapy. Plus, just really intrigued. The photo effects were actually from playing with all the levels, though glow would have captured something very close.
hugs back!
And now you know a 4th person.
It’s funny; I was just talking to an old work colleague this morning who inquired about some certification tests that I was planning to take a couple of years back. I told her what I remember of the tests is what I remember of all the tests I’ve taken; Fact filled brain replaced by blank slate and a loud clock ticking noise.
I never realized it was an LD.
Can you imagine how much easier/better your life would have been if you had known and could have had it treated. Wow, what a difference. If this therapy works then I think my only regret was that I didnt do it much earlier in life.
…nice to know a 4th. Welcome to the club!
Always a pleasure to read this kind of post