Article written by Donna M. Novi
I had the misfortune of having to go to the emergency room for treatment over the Christmas Holiday.
I had been to my primary care doctor about 2 months prior for another condition and due to the wonderful world of computers the ER doctors were able to look up my records and discover the nature of my visit without even talking to me. Amazing. Hopefully there is no other person with my name.
I had seen my primary care for OCD which is actually believed to be anxiety based.There are other theories that it could have been caused by strep throat when one was a child. No one really knows or understands exactly what causes OCD nor is there any real treatment to cure it. Most diseases of the brain are little understood. Having tried old fashion cognitive therapy, and Prozac in the past I can honestly say that neither worked for me. For the most part those are the two therapies that are used the most with really unsuccessful results.
When I found myself in the ER, I found myself categorized as an anxiety ridden patient.This was not the case, and if someone had talked with me I could have explained, but again, this was not the case. I was offered Ativan after being there only a short time like someone was offered coffee at a social gathering. Actually I wasn’t even offered it, the nurse just came and tried to administer it and thankfully I was with it enough to ask what she was trying to give me so I could have the opportunity to refuse, which I did. It was the easiest thing to do I suppose. The doctors had not even figured out what was wrong with me yet. After a while it was evident that these doctors had seen on their computer records that I was treated for my OCD by my primary care and it must have been put in as anxiety. This was over several months ago. I am wondering would these doctors have offered me penicillin for the Flu I had last month as well?
It seems that when a person is categorized and labelled with a psychiatric condition that label sticks like glue because it is believed that most if not all psychiatric conditions are incurable. Well the joke is on the doctors and shrinks because not only are they wrong, I am living proof they are wrong.
Having been labeled as a depressed person nearly all of my adult life and placed on countless antidepressants that never really helped-I finally tried a new way of treating myself after a psychiatric nursed tried unsuccessfully to commit me. This I have discussed in previous newsletters, however to sum it up-I found hypnosis after years and years of therapy and pills. What I have learned and discovered with the help of my hypnotist is the fact that depression is just a label. Same as addict, and the same as alcoholic or smoker or anorexic amongst others. If we tell ourselves we are not depressed we can actually become just that. It sounds too easy to be true.
The fact is that there is something to just saying no to drugs, or telling yourself you aren’t depressed. If it is done in the unconscious mind it sticks. It really changes your thought process and thinking on the conscious level. It has to be done by a trained hypnotist that understands and knows how to help you access your unconscious mind. I didn’t just go home one day and tell myself I was not depressed. I had worked on the work that needed to be done with my hypnotist, however it was done on a different level. Overall though, it came down to the fact that my unconscious mind learned that depression was just a name that someone assigned me based on their observation and that stuck with me where ever I went or whatever I tried to do and I was unable to get free from that label, until I found hypnosis and was able to get to the part of my brain that controlled my thinking. And it seemed as if after working with my hypnotist that one day I went home and told myself I wasn’t depressed and I wasn’t. Years and years of talk therapy and pills only re-enforced my depression label. And I was unable to really do the work needed to free myself from the causes that did result in my depression.
I just don’t understand why doctors and psychiatric doctors have the need to keep people stuck as who they were.They go over and over and rehash the same old scenes never really getting rid of the cause. Only reenforcing it by talking about it over and over. I guess part of the reason is they don’t know how to work with patients. They really for the most part work on the conscious level and changes are easily made on the unconscious level when one knows how to access it as hypnotists do.
One therapist when I asked her if I would always be depressed for the rest of my life and feel the way I did told me yes, I am predisposed to it, it runs in my genes. Just what I needed to hear, so why am I bothering? What I really feel is these doctors and psychiatric workers want you to remain ill. It sounds terrible, but why would a social worker who I pay to help me not be depressed tell any depressed person there is no hope to not be depressed. That in itself is depressing. Tell a person long enough and they will believe it as well. My grandmother used to say if you don’t have something nice to say to someone, don’t say it. I really believe she was ahead of her time. Who we are and what we are changes constantly. Nothing remains the same ever-time moves and we change, even if we don’t think we do. As time changes who we are changes hence the labels we are assigned can also change.
I was 2 years old once and now I am 58. Would those doctors treat me the same when I was 2 as now when I am 58, I would tend to think not. I would hope not. Then why do they treat a person who has been treated for anxiety as a person needing Valium or some other form of tranquillizer all of the time? Or if another person was anorexic and is no longer, why would they not respect that person and believe that they are no longer an eating disorder individual? Or even if a person had asthma suggest that they take an inhaler medication on a daily basis even if they have no symptoms. I had asthma pretty badly for a period and my doctor suggested just that, take the inhaler daily. I declined and eventually my symptoms disappeared and I have not been bothered by my asthma for literally years now.
Because just as depression and addiction are incurable, eating disorders evidently are as well in the medical community. Wake up doctors, nurses and psych workers-these once thought incurable illnesses can be dealt with and eliminated with hypnosis. Depression, addiction, eating disorders, anxiety, OCD and even asthma amongst others are afflictions that are not able to be diagnosed with blood tests or any other diagnostic tool. It is one man or woman’s opinion based on man’s criteria that one is suffering from these illnesses. And just as easy as they can diagnose a person with such, that person can overcome such an illness, should they choose to because it is for the most part in the mind.
Why is it that cancer patients only go into remission? Why is it that a person can not be rid of the disease if they show no symptoms or no indication that they still have the disease by blood or other tests that first confirmed the illness in the first place? Yet, the flu that I had several months ago that I treated with antibiotics is now gone for good?
Whatever we tell ourselves we will believe and whatever others tell us we tend to believe as well to a certain degree. We rely on doctors to treat us and they should be 100% unbiased each visit meaning that they should see us as a person free from any label we may have had previously. If they don’t they may be doing us a great disservice and actually keeping us ill with diseases we may no longer even have!
Why would I want to take a drug for anxiety if I am no longer anxious, or for depression if I am no longer depressed or for asthma if I no longer have any symptoms? Why would I want to support the pharmaceutical companies by taking these drugs I no longer or perhaps never needed in the first place just because someone told me I was what they thought I was and I believed it because I trust my doctors? There is not to say that at times people do need medication, but one needs to evaluate whether they are really being helped and if there is a chance of getting rid of their symptoms for good instead of just managing their symptoms with medications and drugs thereby supporting their labels. All I want to be is who I want to be, free from any labels or diseases or afflictions. It is possible no matter what anyone may tell you. You can be free of any label or affliction you may have if you so desire with the right help.
Learnings From My Journey: Suzannisms For the Mind and Soul
Learnings From My Journey: Suzannisms for the Mind and Soul is a book of essays based on the wisdom gained through those who have touched me through my own journey in life. Purchase an inspiring copy today from the Dawning Visions Hypnosis Store.
Learnings From My Journey: Suzannisms For the Mind and Soul
About Donna
Donna M. Novi's passion for the Life Sciences began at the age of 16 when she became fascinated with Biology and Chemistry. So much so that her teachers allowed her to teach basic genetics to lower class men. After landing a Quality Control position with New England Nuclear, she completed her Associates degree from Middlesex Community College. After which she became the first person in the company to be promoted to Chemist prior to receiving her Bachelors of Chemistry from Almeda University. As of 2012 and 38 years following a Life Sciences career, Donna has worked with everything from Multi-step synthesis of steroids to Bio-safety level 2 work with inactivated HIV virus. Currently, she is employed by PerkinElmer in the processing of radioactive nuclides directly from a live reactor for use in Cancer treatment and research.
Bringing her considerable professional experience to bear, she is a very active contributor to Dawning Visions Hypnosis, Inc. as she believes that many more people should be able to benefit from this method of treatment.