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Simon Wayman Hypnotherapy & HypnoAnalysis
In easy reach of Heathfield, Horam, Hailsham, Mayfield, Polegate, Eastbourne, Uckfield, Crowborough, Lewes, East Sussex, Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

What Causes The Symptoms?

Unknown to most people, we are all suffering from the stresses and traumas of our early life. That is up to the age of about 16 years. The frustrations, fears, guilt, shame, grief etc that everyone endures as a part of growing up, are very often not expressed at the time. We live with them and it is a human trait not to express our feelings; to bottle them up and deny them, because we are too frightened, embarrassed or insecure. We all know what this can feel like – its very unpleasant. If the trauma is very severe then the mind of any person will find it too overwhelmingly horrible to live with and will ‘repress’ it. That means to ‘forget’, to push the experience out of the conscious mind. It then becomes completely unknown to that person. This happens in childhood when the mind and emotions are immature. Things an adult would find very unpleasant, a child can find unbearable and will simply push it out of the mind.

We consciously forget the memory and emotion but it remains inside us and gives rise to anxious, nervous feelings. The subconscious cannot tolerate this unknown, free floating anxiety and gets rid of it by producing a symptom. A phobia is one form. In this case the fear is externalized, directed outwards onto something which is known, such as spiders, heights, enclosed spaces etc. The particular phobia will symbolically represent the underlying repressed fear.

It can also come out as an emotional problem. Depression is common but also panic attacks, low self esteem, lack of confidence, anxiety and eating disorders also rank highly.

Another way out is to produce a physical symptom such as high blood pressure, eczema, cystitis, arthritis, migraine.

Also there are the hysterical symptoms such as paralysis, blindness, tremor. (These are not physically caused)
And lastly hysterical dissociation, with multiple personality being the most well known.

It may be surprising for most people to learn that we each have many major repressions inside us. If you doubt that it is true for you, try asking a parent or an older relative about things from your childhood. You may well hear about a big event in your life which you now have no recollection of at all. Or perhaps you don't remember anything before age eight.

One of the most common emotional problems are feeling out of control and 'social phobia'. This shows itself as a feeling of not being good enough, lack of self confidence and self worth, feelings of being judged, feeling unlovable, unable to express yourself except perhaps to close friends and family, and feeling insecure and frightened in certain conditions.

I'm sure everyone reading this feels some of these feelings but did you realise that there is a specific cause?

As a child we all find ourselves in embarrassing, frightening and humiliating situations. Most of them are not even our fault. Here is a typical example;

A nine year old who is a little slow at reading, is called on to read a piece to the class. She is nervous but tries her best. She makes a few silly mistakes and is pounced on by her teacher. "You stupid child, can't you learn anything." She is made to stand at the back of the class in disgrace. Everyone laughs. (Of course teachers don't do this today)

Can you imagine how you would feel if this happened to you? You would feel stupid, useless, humiliated, unloved, angry... and decide at that moment never to speak out for fear of that ever happening again.

If the child couldn't bear those feelings, over the next few days, she would wish it away, deny it, bury it and finally it would be lost from her consciousness (repressed). She would have no memory of that incident from that time on. The feelings would still be there though. She could find it nearly impossible to read out loud, would not answer any questions in class and would try to avoid any similar situation. She could well become uncooperative and moody, with a sharp deterioration in her work.

And everyone would wonder why.

Years later those same feeling would still be there and if a situation arose which threatened that person in the same way, (a trigger) then there may well be a new symptom of that underlying emotion.

At puberty... feelings of not being acceptable.

Given responsibility at work... panic at not being good enough or having to speak in a meeting.

In a relationship... feeling unlovable.

Becoming a mother... responsibility for the child, can't cope - can manifest as Post Natal Depression.

Being out of control... fear of being stared at, being judged, phobias of enclosed spaces, heights, etc.

This is the basis of our irrational feelings and behaviours. We all have them. Some people learn to cope and some don't do quite so well. There is something that can be done to clear these feelings.