CASE STUDY 1. ADHD

Mar 17, 2024

Meet Jen.

Jen came to me to see how hypnotherapy would help relieve the negative symptoms of ADHD. Jen is undertaking the long and arduous journey of a diagnosis in ADHD.
 
Jen has had ongoing symptoms of depression and anxiety, chronic headaches, bruxism, feelings of lack of control and focus, and some suicidal ideation. Sometimes falls asleep while driving and disrupted sleeping patterns.
 
Jen has started the pathway for ADHD diagnosis as this will help to gain awareness and understanding of how Jen’s brain is wired and be able to live in a world where Jen can then navigate with full disclosure of ADHD.
 
Goals – to wake up with no headache, focus on work, have higher energy levels, more enjoyment of life, more control, and more motivation.

Meet Jen:
Jen had packed in her old career in the corporate world because it was damaging her health, causing migraines, exhaustion, and anxiety, and decided instead to run her own business. She was also going through the beginning stages of getting a diagnosis for ADHD, which has it challenges, and finding that living and life itself was a struggle at that time. Her symptoms included chronic headaches, chronic pain from bruxism, feelings of lack of control and focus, some suicidal ideations, and poor & disrupted sleep patterns. This was all clearly difficult to navigate especially while running a business and trying to keep on top of all that that entails, alongside the ADHD symptoms and waiting for some outcome from the laborious process of the NHS’s ADHD pathway.
 
We started with 5 consecutive sessions over 7 weeks, then took a 3-week break, followed by 3 weekly sessions. From there on we had approximately one session a month. After this we discussed moving forwards and Jen decided to have one session a month booked in as a safety net. This was optional for Jen but as of today she keeps up with her one monthly sessions.
 
Jen’s goals where initially to stop the headaches, which would mean better sleep and less stress, resulting in having more control, more focus, and more enjoyment. Over the weeks I noted how Jen’s resilience to the knocks of life were building more and more steadily. She was able to ignore things she used to find irritating or debilitating and on identifying ‘negative’ occurrences, she was ending the story with: “but I don’t really care about that now.” Resilience! And the space to be able to act, not react.
 
The feedback from Jen and her progression has been a joy to hear. Many of the negative symptoms of ADHD, i.e. the anxiety, the constant busy, overloaded brain-chatter, the lack of focus, the not being able to communicate fully with those close to her, the not hyper-focusing on the negatives. So much of the fear surrounding these things, have just upped, and left. The sleep is improved, headaches have at times disappeared as has the bruxism, and on an enjoyment level, life is so much better. In her words “I enjoy the self-reflection, feel more in control and am able to be in the now.” Jen has built up the ability to take a breath, use her rational brain, and feel calm, all because she has created space in her busy brain.
 
Jen’s feedback and her watching her progression has been a joy to hear and see. The physical pain in her jaw and head is so much better; the awareness of the changes that have occurred, and the physical aspects of how she is feeling, the ability to think herself out of negative thoughts. She has the space now to act, not react. However, it has not been a nice smooth linear so-called recovery. Jen has had her bad days where sleep has been worse at times or she hasn’t been able to talk herself down, she has forgotten to do things, or even at times not felt bothered to do stuff. But there are 2 things I would like to add here. 1 is that the resilience Jen has built up to all these ‘negatives’ has meant that the bounce back has been more available. If you can get over the negatives because, let’s face it, we all have bad days, but being able to bounce back and not go down that slippery slope is all about the win.   2. recognising all this is so important as it helps to subconsciously sort things out. At the following session, Jen reflected on how much further she had moved forwards from all the negatives. It was as if the negative week had shown her how far she had come and how she was able to bounce even further forwards! So negative is not just negative. It can be vital in showing us the error of our ways and in lighting up how far we have come and how good life can actually be.
 
Jen’s thoughts on hypnotherapy:
 
"I know that to say that hypnotherapy has changed my life sounds cliched and generic, but it has. When I came to Pen I was dealing with a busy, overwhelming, and chronically muddled brain, affected by depression and anxiety, all being swilled around in the mixing pot of suspected ADHD. I was really struggling to cope with just normal life and sometimes wanted to jump ship. Working with Pen through hypnotherapy has systematically organised and cleared my brain of the daily intrusive thoughts that were bogging me down and stopping me from living my life. In particular, I don’t spend all my time ruminating on past events and conversations that I wish had gone differently. This means I can actually be present in the here and now. And I realise it’s the first time I’ve ever experienced that in my adult life. I still have days when I struggle, but I’m developing my self-awareness to be able to work through those struggles in my hypnotherapy sessions.
 
We all see a dentist every 6 months to maintain health teeth. We see an optician every 2 years to keep our eyes healthy and keep on top of our vision. Having regular hypnotherapy sessions just seems so logical and essential to me as it helps me to maintain a healthy mindset and regulate my emotional response to the world around me.
 
The great thing about hypnotherapy is that it is adaptable to the personal needs of the individual. If you feel you only need it short term, then that’s fine, and you can always go back for top-up sessions. If you feel you need it for more deep-rooted issues, then it can also work long-term to provide support and development of the brain’s ability to function correctly when dealing with stress."