> Hi barry
>
> Hope you won't mind a tenuously linked question (there's not much traffic at the moment). Do you have any opinion or other on using hypnosis instead of general anaesthesia during surgical operations?
>
> I will be grateful for any reply.
>
> TD
Hi TD
I have never used hypnosis as a substitute for a general anaesthetic, so only have peripheral experience on which my opinions are based.
Hypnosis is a lot less dependable than a general anaesthetic. There are medical exceptions (obesity, heart problems and so on) that make general anaesthetics unavailable to some people, but aside from that general anaesthetics are known to work for the vast majority of the population. On the other hand, I suspect very few people are good enough hypnotees to be able to use hypnosis in place of a general anaesthetic.
I'd suggest that anyone who has a choice between a general anaesthetic and hypnosis should go with the general anaesthetic.
Sometimes, however, there isn't a choice.
On the very same day I treated the woman for the frog phobia I mentioned previously, I saw another lady for a dental phobia. She had a horror of dentists but had to have a procedure which on the face of it sounded like she was pretty much having the roof of her mouth replaced. She needed three appointments with various specialists, including at the hospital, one after another on the same day and was so distressed she could not make the appointments.
She had a heart condition, so she could not have a general anaesthetic. She had coagulation problems so there was going to be a lot of blood (indeed, I was recommended to her by a coagulent nurse at the hospital). She could have a local anaesthetic so it would't hurt, but she was going to be aware of everything and she was petrified.
And I couldn't hypnotise her.
I did my best but she just wasn't a great hypnotee. In fact, she wasn't any hypnotee at all.
The first session was really disappointing. She played along, and so did I. I taught her to Squirrel (my effective alternative to self-hypnosis) and built in another level which I called hibernation. I'd never done that before. Hibernation was supposed to be the equivalent of the general anaesthetic she couldn't have. But I really didn't think she was hypnotised and she wasn't. I wasn't surprised, therefore, when her attempts to Squirrel after I 'woke her up' produced incomprehension and nothing else.
Occasionally I get someone in the second session that I didn't get in the first, so I agreed to see her again. She told me she'd tried to squirrel many times but, nothing. She didn't get hypnotised in S2 either but begged me to see her a third time. You see, she had decided I was her only hope. Either I made her cool about the dental surgery, and she had it, or her mouth was going to disintegrate.
She arrived at the third session, depressed. She didn't get hypnotised then either. At the end of S3 I said I was sorry I hadn't been able to make it easier for her but she had to make the appointments and have the surgery anyway because, as she had told me, her mouth was going to fall apart in any case.
Two weeks later she called me on a Thursday and asked me to go over squirreling again with her. I talker her through squirreling and hibernation, and then asked why she wanted to know.
"I'm having the operation tomorrow," she said. Apparently she had made the appointments after she left S3. I asked her how she was. "Well, it's funny, but since I made the appointments I've really been very relaxed about it, and sleeping so much better." I wished her good luck.
I thought about calling her on the Monday, but I thought she might not be able to speak, so I didn't. And that was that. Until a week ago.
She phoned me last Friday and left a message (I was busy) saying she wanted to tell me about her experience and would call me on Monday as she was going away for the weekend. On Monday, I called her.
She told me she had slept well and gone to the hospital quite relaxed, which surprised her. Once in the dentist's chair she'd tried to squirrel, but nothing happened. Once she'd been prepared and the dentist started work, however, she drifted off into lala-land. She said she knew what was going on but it didn't matter. And then she 'blacked-out'. She 'came-to' again as she was being transported from the first to the second appointment and was 'vaguely aware of all the blood' and then she 'blacked-out' again. And so it went on.
After that day there were lots of complications which meant return visits to A&E, and more surgery which made the whole procedure 'horrendous'. "But," she said "Everything you did worked perfectly."
I still haven't quite figured out how, or why.
Best wishes
Barry
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