Spring clean

Have you ever felt the satisfaction of getting rid of a lot of rubbish from your home or do you like to store things up just in case they might one day come in handy?Hoarding things can become an obsession and if taken to an extreme can become a limiting factor in a person's life. Perhaps a distinction can be made between an obsession and a hobby or past-time, especially if it is shared with other people. But when the obsessive behaviour starts cutting the individual off from others it could be regarded as a negative feature of their personality.

Brian found himself becoming increasingly drawn to surfing the internet at every opportunity. He could easily spend several hours doing this each evening, often not getting to bed until the early hours of the morning. Not getting enough sleep began to affect his ability to perform at work and colleagues began to notice his lack of energy and decline in productivity. One friend, who had used hypnotherapy to stop smoking, suggested that he come and see me.

We discussed his problem and began work on helping him to overcome his behaviour and develop a new lifestyle. After several sessions he reported that he had been able to cut down on the amount of time he was spending on the internet and was getting much more sleep and feeling more energetic and able to cope at work.

Procrastination

It's so easy to put things off, even things that may seem relatively important - wills for example. How many people do you know who have not yet made their will? Do they think that they are going to live for ever or that an accident wont happen to them? Putting things off is called procrastination and we all do it, but some do it more than others.

Alex had a particularly bad habit of putting things off and it was beginning to effect his life and especially his work. Even as a child he had delayed doing his homework until the very last minute, but always seemed to get by. This continued at university, but, because he was reasonably intelligent, he always seemed to get by.

He succeeded in getting a good job in advertising, but with promotion came greater responsibility and he could no longer rely on just getting by. A friend recommended hypnotherapy as a way of helping him break his lifelong habit.

After discussing his habit and possible causes I was able to plan a course of treatment and within a very few sessions he was able to break the habit and feel much more in control of his life.