Help Over Skype for Mental Illness When You Need It

Today is #WorldMentalHealthDay

These are not statistics; they are young people whose lives are blighted at the time when they should be full of hope. Support services in the UK are woefully inadequate and waiting lists of 3-4 months are totally unacceptable. Anti-depressants take six weeks to have any effect and are often not the answer. Worse still, many become addicted to the anti-depressants or tranquilizers and need treatment to deal with the addiction!  People need people to listen to them and teach coping strategies, not just send them away with a pill.

Depression, anxiety or any of the many diagnozable disorders overtake every aspect of life, far more than many physical ailments which are treated much more quickly. It is time that our government realised that ignoring the mentally ill is inhumane and harsh but also economically stupid as these people may cause more of a burden to the state in benefits, possible unemployment, long term health and care costs when immediate treatment could have prevented this.

Hypnotherapists can often help people with depression, anxiety, eating disorders,  alcohol or other substance abuse and help quickly without dependence on medication.  Learning to relax, changing perspective, encouraging engagement in eg exercise and healthy eating, mindfulness - all of this is much more positive then sending someone away with a piece of paper for a pill that won't have any effect for weeks and the prospect of facing the problem alone for months until an assessment can be made, then another referral.

Antonia Harrison is the English Skype Hypnotist based in Portsmouth, England offering Hypnotherapy over Skype for addictions, behavioural and psychological problems, anxiety and fears/phobias.

Hypnosis Helped Me Overcome My Fear of MRI Scans

I last had an MRI ten years ago simply because I suffered an extreme claustrophobic reaction and started shouting for the process to stop. Problem is, after two brain tumours and ongoing “electrical activity on the scar tissue”, I need an annual brain scan. CT scans offer far less detail but with substantially high radiation; the effective radiation dose of a CT scan is about the same as the average person receives background radiation in 3 to 5 years whilst MRI scans do not emit ionizing radiation. I have always said, “I might have had benign brain tumours but the radiation of CT scans could kill me.”

Both types of scanner look similar but the “tunnel” of a MRI scanner is narrower so closer to the body. My head has to be kept absolutely still in a cradle and I panic when I look out and only see the white wall of the tunnel in front of me. Yes I know, the answer is not to look but like all fears or phobias, we don’t behave rationally. A spider phobic will keep looking at a spider in the corner of the room rather than ignore it or a needle phobic will look while a blood test is being taken.

There are some coping mechanisms for MRI anxiety, called “Scanxiety” by someone I know.

A doctor may prescribe Xanax or Valium to be taken 30-40 minutes before the scan to calm the nerves. It may be a temporary solution but you will need someone to drive you back from the hospital.

If you prefer natural herbal remedies to drugs, you can try passionflower used by North American natives as a sedative or kava, a pepper native to the islands of the South Pacific. Just a moment…..pepper for claustrophobia? Kava also helps with menopausal symptoms, insomnia and to alleviate anxiety. Scullcap and Valerian help the body or mind release themselves from fear. St John’s Wort is said to balance the serotonin level and reduce anxiety but herbal remedies take time to build up so I am not sure how useful they are for a one-off scan.

Some doctors will prescribe a course of CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) to gradually expose you to the object of your fear which always seems very cruel and unnecessary to me plus the process takes weeks and there is a long waiting list.

I chose to listen to a hypnosis recording a couple of hours before my scan. I downloaded a hypnosis MP3 for Fear of MRI Scans and just lay back and relaxed. It took me into a tunnel of light where instead of feeling panic, I just felt calm and totally safe. I was enjoying the relaxation so much that there was no desire to open my eyes and trigger any claustrophobic feelings.

Later, at the scanning unit, I told the staff that I had been claustrophobic about MRI scans in the past so asked to look at the machine first and for them to give me a couple of moments to settle. They gave me a “panic button” to squeeze should I need to. They explained that the first part would take about 20 minutes then they would inject some dye into my bloodstream which gives contrast on the scans and continue scanning for another 10 minutes.

I knew in advance that I could bring a CD but rather than bring classical or relaxing music, I chose a favourite CD from Seal as I am very familiar with each song. Focusing on the words seemed to help.

MRI scans are very noisy with erratic sounds followed by periods of silence. There can be buzzing, knocking, clanging bells, drilling and one very loud part which reminded me of the noisy start to Pink Floyd’s track “Time” on “Dark Side of the Moon”! My CD did not drown out the noise but it helped distract me.

The hypnosis definitely helped me. I was able to calm my breathing, lie still for over 30 minutes of scanning, keep imagining myself in the tunnel of light and most importantly, not open my eyes! Having endured my first MRI scan in 10 years without anxiety, I know I have put scanxiety behind me thanks to hypnosis and I have the MP3 on my laptop to listen to before any future scans to ensure I am relaxed.

Fear of MRI Scans

Hypnosis for Exams and Tests Nerves

The exams period is starting and for some that means nerves, worry, disturbed sleep and eating patterns. If your nerves get the better of you and anxiety takes over, you may actually sit down and find your mind goes blank. You know you know the answer but the anxiety is causing a cloud making it difficult or even impossible to recall. The more you “try” to remember, the more anxiety you suffer.

But it does not have to be this way.

There is a well-known phenomenon in psychology - known as state-dependent memory. The state you are in determines what you can remember. If you are in a very different state to when you learned, it is hard to recall things.

If you are very anxious, your brain is simply in the wrong state for thinking!
Hypnosis helps by putting you in the right ‘state’ to learn and teaching you how to recall that state when the exam is about to begin.

In hypnotic trance, many situations seem different somehow. Things that were causing fear or phobic response lose their hold. Situations which caused panic such as speaking in public, attending interviews, giving important sales presentations all seem, well easier. By learning to relax at a very deep mental and physical level, the unconscious mind learns a new way to respond, a new behaviour in response to a trigger. It is the same with looking at exams. It is all too easy to say, “Don’t worry, you’ll do fine” to someone who is anxious. Consciously, we might know we have the ability but it is the unconscious which is sending negative signals. All permanent change has to happen at the unconscious level and that is where hypnosis beats visualizations, affirmations and lots of other techniques. By quickly accessing the unconscious mind, hypnosis brings the desired result.

Mental rehearsal in hypnotic trance of an exam, a test, an interview, giving a presentation or a speech just makes the event seem more manageable without any need for anxiety. Of course, a few butterflies in the stomach or positive stress can actually improve the performance.

Anyone with an IQ over 70 can be hypnotized and children over the age of 7 respond very well to the whole world of imagery and relaxation.

An 11 year old boy came to see me who was under a lot of pressure at one of England’s top public schools where the fees cost many thousands of pounds per year. He was failing in many subjects yet his parents knew he could achieve so much more. He sat in my “magic chair”, listened to my description of a visual journey and in a relaxed state, overcame the exams anxiety.

Last year an 18 year old girl came to see me with restless fidgeting, stress, sleeping and eating disorders, severe anxiety over her upcoming exams and to top it all, she was cutting herself: self-mutilation. This was quite a package of problems but after only three sessions, she sat calmly still, she was sleeping and eating as normal, the self-cutting had stopped and she coped very well with her exams. She passed every subject with even higher grades than her teachers had predicted.

Hypnosis helps people to be calm about exams but also tests such as driving tests and oral interviews.

Remember, “the past does not equal the future”. Just because you have suffered from anxiety in the past does not mean you have to do so in the future. Ask my clients who have overcome severe fear of flying! It is a fairly quick process to reverse the years of negative conditioning and expectation with a positive, calm approach.

© Antonia Harrison 2011. Antonia Harrison is the English Hypnotherapist in Belgium and helps people make positive change in their life through hypnotherapy and NLP.

Can You Speak As Well As 10 Year old Dalton Sherman?

At 10, Dalton Sherman is a speech-making pro. Since winning a big oratory competition in Dallas, he has spoken at numerous churches and events all over Dallas. He was keynote speaker at an educational conference for 20,000 people on 25 August 2008.

“He has the ‘it’ factor,” said Dawn Blair, Dalton’s godmother. “Like Tiger has it, Obama. You can’t put your finger on it.”



Dalton’s speech was directed toward teachers. The applause motivated him, especially when he gestured and gave shout-outs to different neighborhoods, telling teachers to help children no matter where they’re from. “We need you,” he told them.

He was coached all summer focusing on proper diction and pronunciation of words. Ms. Redmond said she immediately recognized his big vocabulary when she began coaching him and he worked hard in response. Mrs. Sherman uses a worn book of her grandfather’s, “Natural Drills in Expression,” published in 1909, to coach her son on pronunciation.

Demonstrating, she reads a sentence. Dalton repeats it— “to dare, to do, to die.” He loves the book.

“I hope that I touch a lot of people,” Dalton added.

In June, he memorized the words. Then he practiced giving the speech up to three times a week at his family’s church, Concord Missionary Baptist. His mother and Ms. Redmond stood in the balcony as he practiced his movements and the built-in pauses to punctuate the text.

Dalton wants to be a news anchor someday, but he’s got even bigger plans. “Maybe after that, I’ll try to be president,” he says. “I want to be the next Obama.”

Visit a detailed Analysis of Dalton Sherman's speech

Full text of Dalton Sherman’s keynote speech “Do you Believe in Me?”


If a 10 year old boy can learn how to give a speech in such a way, you can also learn. A local chapter of Toastmasters International can help you develop public speaking techniques sharing feedback of what was good and points for improvement. Learn from others. Overcome your nerves in a safe environment, learning step by step. The Competent Communicator programme of ten speeches will guide you through different challenges while you speak on topics of your choice. Learn to think and speak on your feet with Table Topics – impromptu speeches of up to two minutes. Toastmasters is challenging but also fun and social. 85 years old, there are nearly 250,000 members in more than 12,500 clubs in 106 countries!

Hypnotherapy can help you to overcome nerves, stage fright, blushing, anxiety or excessive sweating.

Antonia Harrison from Personal Development in the 21st Century , the English Hypnotherapist & NLP Practitioner in Belgium .