When I was 18, I went with my then boyfreind to a hypnosis event and was chosen to get up on stage. Everyone in the line-up (10 people) except for me fell into the required state. He couldn't hypnotise me and i had to go and sit down again. I remember feeling disappointed and a bit silly. It was then i new for sure that my concentration functions were not as they should be. I pinched this excerpt about how hypnosis works.

Hypnosis is one of the most intriguing phenomena in our mental functioning. It is full of seeming paradoxes: It is definitely not sleep, and yet is not really a waking state either; it depends on attention and concentration, and still is most often characterized by letting go and relaxing; it is most easily induced by a skilled person using specific verbal techniques, and yet it is exclusively the product of the hypnotized person's own mental abilities. Hypnosis has been extensively investigated in a scientific manner over a period of sixty years - and yet no generally accepted definition of the phenomenon exists. Fortunately, though, there is agreement among researchers and practitioners about what typically occurs when a person experiences the hypnotic state, and how the hypnotic state can be used to help people with a variety of problems.

Hypnosis involves, more than anything else, changes in a person's attention and concentration. The focus of attention is narrowed, and the things attended to are experienced more intensely than in the ordinary waking state. Hypnosis has therefore been likened to turning out the lights in a windowless room and looking around with a flashlight. What you focus on holds your entire attention under hypnosis, so you tend to experience whatever you think of, imagine or remember, more vividly and clearly than you ordinarily can. At the same time, things which are outside the narrow focus of enhanced attention at any given time may be forgotten. For this reason, people sometimes temporarily become disoriented under hypnosis: Their awareness of where they are, the reality of their life situation, and even occasionally, exactly who they are, becomes clouded.

If Adders have poor/no focus to start with then it can't be narrowed can it.

Has anyone here tried hypnosis?

I couldn't do it, I tried hypnosis to quit smoking, and I wasn't able to be hypnotized.

I don't know. I know that some people can not be hypnotized. I don't know if that "some" includes ADDers as a group or not, but I could sure understand that a lack of attention might be a hinderance to being hypnotized.

Me :D

Hypnosis is a form of Dissociated State (altered level of consciousness). Some people don't go there as easily as others. Some people are easy to hypnotize.

Generally, if you are afraid to be hypnotized and choose to not make yourself open to suggestions of relaxation, you will not be easily hypnotized.

A clinically trained medical hypnotist would have more luck with people than a stage performer, I understand.

It's not an ADD thing. Don't sweat it.

NB For more on altered states of conciousness, read "Myth of Sanity" or "Stranger in the Mirror.

re: 3

Correct. Some people can't be hypnotized. They are simply "people who don't want to be hypnotized." :)

In public and on a stage (for Entertainment Purposes, say, in a Bar) would make me refuse to be hypnotized too.

MSPEN,

I was able to quit smoking with LASER.

(I had LASER for an injury, and it made the cravings go away for about 6 months after treatments stopped.)

I attempted to be hynoptized. It was through a doctor. I would go once a week for about 6 months. I would leave feeling energized, but that's not what I was being hynoptized for. I believed in it and I wanted it to happen. The most that did happen was that I saw a flash for half a second or so of a cartoon cat that I was supposed to be imagining. My husband would go along and fall asleep.

High dopamine = lowered latent inhibition. High dopamine = generally not considered a feature of ADD. Most of the people I've known that were highly suggestible were also highly energetic, focused, bright-eyed individuals. Just a thought.

Count me in, I think you might have something here. Its too bad to because its power has always intrigued me. What if you could treat your add with hypnosis, catch 22 huh?

I can't be hypnotized either. As much as I'm able to meditate and open to suggestion, I'm never fully under hypnosis. I'm not resisting to be hypnotized. I wanted to and did my best to go under hypnosis. Just doesn't work on me.

I wonder if it has to do with the fact that I have ADD. Interesting thread. Would make a good study.

So we're harder to hypnotize than chickens? I used to do this a lot when I was a teenager to the chickens we had out in the country :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M268UccYVCE&feature=related

I don't seem to be able to be hypnotized either. I went to a hypnosis session and bought some tapes (thinking it might work when I was at home and more relaxed). It seemed like listening to the tapes over and over helped some but I never felt "hypnotized" at all. On the other hand I can at times slip into a meditative state pretty easily.

Tried it for quite a few sessions with a therapist, but I never could be hypnotized. I thought it was probably due to my inability to relax or trust. I felt very uncomfortable that I was sitting there with my eyes closed with someone looking at me. And the more I tried to relax, the suppressed chaos of my rushing mind would become louder and louder, and closer to the surface - and I would sweat and feel more anxious than ever. Generally gave me a headache.

Hahahaha man, do people other than us actually know this?
I had a session long ago but it was completely useless.

I tried self hypnosis to undergo dental treatment. I was a dental school in university at the time and had a few self hypnosis training sessions. The self hypnosis helped (the treatment seemed to be very short when in fact it was not, and I was completely relaxed throughout).<o></o>
Many years went by before I was diagnosed with ADD and I have been trying self hypnosis as a means to help with ADD. So far results are mixed, I think mainly because of the difficulty in achieving a hypnotic state. Distraction, of course, is the problem (self hypnosis will not happen unless you are completely focused on achieving that state).
I will continue to try and post any progress.

This is a very good post. Before I was initially diagnosed with ADD I had been with a therapist that also was a hypnotist. I had gone threw multiple sessions with her, and she tried to hypnotize me. I just never really felt like i got to that point of where I was at that altered state of concisenesses. Even though there was the countdown to relaxation and the suggestive talking and commands, my mind kept racing and drifting. It does make sense if you think about it, people with ADD most likely would have a hard time, or possibly can't be hypnotized.

I have been seeing a hypnotist for a couple months. I am able to be hypnotized, the one I'm going to is very good. It took me a month to get an appointment. I originally went for weightloss, I've put on major weight from the anxiety med. He is also a LPC and after the first visit I told him that I really thought that the weight was a symptom of something deeper and that my depression had really hit bottom. He started working on my selfesteam and having tolerance for others. He said that most people come for a specific and find out they have something else that they really need. He said that the subconscience know exactly what you need to heal for you. Since then My depression has lifted about 50%. I also figured out the ADD thing and found this forum, knowing I'm ADD has made me better too. I dont feel alone anymore and also dont have that, Oh my God whats wrong with me, mentality.
The first time it took a long time for him to hypnotize me. He had got to the part where he was saying your eyes are so heavy you can't open them. He then said you can test them, try to open them. I thought bull$&*t, I can open my eyes, "I couldn't"! I think I could have pried them open with my fingers but didnt try that. I now go under deeper and faster.
I see him tommorow again so I'll keep you guys posted.

I am so grateful for this thread. During one of my psychology classes (in college, a few years ago) my instructor asked for volunteers to be hypnotised - for extra points. Out of the about eight of us who volunteered, I was the only one who failed to be hypnotised. I was embarrassed and ever since then I've felt like - ooh, gosh, I don't know how to put it into words. Let me just tell you this: beforehand, there was a conversation in which the instructor pointed out that the more intelligent one was, the easier it was to be hypnotised and basically, dumb people couldn't be hypnotised.

So there, now I know why, and I don't feel bad about it anymore! :) YAY!

Thanks!

I know what you mean. The man who was doing the hypnosis made those of us who couldn't be hypnotized feel like we weren't doing something right.

I have had hypnotherapy many times, with mixed results.

Twice for smoking - worked both times, once for a year and once for six months. The first time I stayed off cigarettes very easily with no cravings, but my then partner also gave up on the same day. IMO I wouldn't have lasted if he had been smoking around me.

The second time (with the same hypnotherapist) I still had cravings but managed to hang on, with difficulty, for six months.

Fear of dogs - this seemed to work really well at first, but it didn't eradicate the fear totally, and it seems to still come back in some situations (like walking in the park, which is the main reason I went for hypnosis in the first place).

10 sessions of analytical hypnotherapy - for my general depression, procrastination, self esteem, disorganisation and worry issues: This was very helpful in that it shed some light on the root of a lot of my problems but it did very little to alleviate them. I reckon talking in normal therapy would have produced the same result.

Fear of singing in public (two sessions a few years apart with two therapists) - no effect at all

For motivation & procrastination (twice, a year apart with two different therapists) - no effect at all

Out of all of the sessions I had, I felt wide awake and not hypnotised at all for most of them, my mind would wander to things like what I was making for dinner or a conversation I'd had earlier.

Only in two that I can remember did I go 'under' briefly. In a few others I did feel deeply relaxed but still kept getting distracted by external sounds and found my mind wandering a lot.

(you might be asking why I kept going back if it seemed so ineffective for most things - I underwent most of these sessions after the initial smoking one that worked for a year, so at that point I thought it was more effective than it turned out to be.)

PS. I just checked the website of the guy I went to, and he lists ADHD as one of the issues he treats

Edit: wow, I just remembered another smoking session that I had, a few years before the first one I mentioned - totally ineffective.... I'd forgotten about that one :P)

I went to a show and volunteered, I wanted to be hypnotized and I tryed my best to accept it and let it work and did everything the hypnotist said but it didnt work.