A 48-year-old woman, married, with no issue, suffering from deep depression, was brought to me in November 2009. Her problem had started as a teenager, and once she had tried to commit suicide. Psychiatric medicines had given her some relief. Then she was married and started living with her husband and parents-in-law. She had problems in adjusting with the husband’s family. She was quarrelsome, fighting with her husband even for small things, and with recurring suicidal thoughts (attempted suicide once after marriage). Since then, she was being treated for depression and was on psychiatric medicines for about 20 years, without which she was not able to sleep. The number of medicines and doses were increased several times, and now she had reached a stage that most of the time she is in a drugged state, sleepy, unable to respond to people, socially isolated, easily prone to tears or bursts of anger, reduced and disturbed sleep, and non-communicative.
She was in tears when she was brought to me, very sad and disappointed that she is not able to be a good wife and fulfill the duties to her husband and other family members.
She was ready for hypnosis. So, I explained the process to her and her husband and told them that it will need a few sessions and they agreed. The treatment started on 30-11-2009. The whole treatment took 16 sessions, spread over a period of about15 months.
The first 2-3 sessions were devoted to relaxation and building up confidence. She became calmer and in control but was not able to sleep well. She also experienced some unknown fear, when she is left alone. During the next few sessions, suggestions were used to build a positive attitude towards life in general, and to release anger and fear. Also, suggestions to improve sleep were given. Her condition improved considerably, and she was able to reduce the medicines. She started taking interest in household work, was feeling more relaxed, drowsiness had gone, and she was sleeping better during the night.
But after a few months, again she came back with a recurrence of her symptoms. Her fear had returned, along with a feeling of helplessness and extreme sadness. So, we decided on regression, as I felt there is some past traumatic experience behind her problem. So, after taking her into very deep state of hypnosis, I guided her, through proper suggestions, to go to the origin of her fear and feeling of helplessness. It took five sessions to reach the origin. In the first two sessions, she went to early childhood, where mother had left her alone in the room and she was afraid and felt helpless. When explaining the experience, she showed extreme emotion on her face and trembling and choking. Inner child desensitization was done, and she got relief from her symptoms but was not completely recovered. So past life regression was done. She saw herself as a 14–15-year-old girl, working as a household help. It is a small village, year 1960 (Client was born in 1961). She is drawing water from the common well and slips down and falls into the well and gets drowned. She is afraid and is feeling helpless, as there is nobody nearby to help her and she dies. While narrating the experience, she showed the same kind of reactions, emotions on face and trembling, as those described earlier. After this session her fear and feeling of helplessness were gone. After one more session, to increase confidence and improve her social interaction, the treatment was stopped.
Her last hypnotherapy session was on February 7, 2011. Since then, she is leading a normal life. Her medicines are almost completely stopped. She is very happy with her family life, has developed good interactions with family members, actively taking part in family functions, sleeping well without help of medicine, revived interest in reading and religious activities.