The Transparent Hypnotist

Photograph by It’sGreg

With every tissue that I eventually wad up and toss into the garbage; with every eye drop that pings coolly into my eye and eventually runs down my cheek like a tear; with every sneeze; with every dollop of lotion I use to sooth my chapped nose, I think about my childhood allergist. Actually, I am totally exaggerating here, mostly it is with every eye drop that I think about him. I think about the the various torturous testing regimes I was put through. I think about seventeen years of hours spent in doctors offices waiting for and receiving allergy shots. I think about the hard ball that always seemed to painfully form at the injection site. And then I think of my university professor who was totally grossed out by the fact that during his early morning courses, I perpetually had a runny nose.

These were not my salad days - they were my allergy days. When I became of age to make my own medical decisions, I stopped going to this particular doctor. I had come to loath his existence. He was condescending, insensitive and utterly useless. In fact, I gave up on all allergists because of my years of negative experience with this particular one. Then a few years after I had given up but was still suffered (suddenly having allergic skin reactions when anyone touched me), my internist suggested I see a new allergist in town, who apparently was a little less traditional but was getting great results.

I went to see him (I was desperate). I was pretty sure I would discount his advice. Shots were out of the question (my personal choice). But he did not come close to suggesting shots. Instead he put me on a pill regimen and changed some things in my diet. Miraculously so many of the symptoms I described earlier in this post disappeared and for the first time in my life, I felt relief.

I share this story with you in regard to a comment from my friend Nancy over at the Raging Bear blog left during a recent discussion. Her comment was about having experienced hypnosis in the past and finding it scary. I am glad she shared this with me, but it brought to mind my allergy experiences. This is not the first time I have come across comments like Nancy’s or even comments like “Someone tried to hypnotize me and they could not do it. I cannot be hypnotized.”

Here is the thing - all hypnotists are different and your results are going to be different with each one your try. There are hypnotists out there with whom I find no useful results and there are others who have helped me to realize amazing things within myself (easing an asthma bout, headache relief, working through social nervousness and more). It is very much like my allergists experience. One was completely useless. The other seemed like a miracle worker.

My Sunday question is: have you ever sought professional help (be it medical, psychological, hypnosis, counseling, or any type at all) only to find that the said professional was not particularly helpful (or you had a negative experience with them)? If so what did you do? Did you go to another professional or did you discount the profession all together? And why?

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 22nd, 2009 at 7:14 am and is filed under The Sunday Question. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.