Hypnosis for acne - Advice needed - Please

[anon123]

Hi guys,

As a teen I suffered with Acne, luckily it cleared up in my early 20's but even at 26 years old I still suffer the occasional outbreak, I want to use my skills to help others who are in the same situation I was, it can be quite soul destroying.

I'm looking for advice, experiences etc with using hypnosis to help with this condition.

Your help will be much appreciated.

I'm a practicing hypnotherapist but always wanting to learn more and I believe others takes on this could prove very useful.

Thanks in advance.

Anon123

[Merlin]

Hi,

Have the subconscious notice what is changing.
What was the skin like before the acne?
Just have the mind duplicate that time.

Alternative:
There is a reason the mind chose acne.
What was the intent?
Can the mind make a better choice?

[anon123]

Hi,

Have the subconscious notice what is changing.
What was the skin like before the acne?
Just have the mind duplicate that time.

Alternative:
There is a reason the mind chose acne.
What was the intent?
Can the mind make a better choice?

Hey Merlin,

Thanks for the reply, I've thought about the positive intention and I believe it could be that oily skin ages more slowly than normal/dry skin.

I guess I don't even need to know the intention as long as my unconscious mind acknowledges the reason and finds another way to achieve the same result.

I'm also exploring the fact that my immune system could be over reacting to the bacteria which is what would cause the swelling and puss etc.

I guess it may also be good to try a session content free.

[MissPiggy]

It might also be helpful to give suggestions about choosing the right food (especially avoiding sugar, eating fat fish etc). Take a look at this book http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060934360/sr=8-6/qid=1149367471/ref=pd_bbs_6/002-8390481-2789657?%5Fencoding=UTF8 It can be helpful for people with skin problems.

[Merlin]

MissPiggy,


It might also be helpful to give suggestions about choosing the right food
Aren't you making assumptions about foods and acne which may or may not be true?

[MissPiggy]

@Merlin

No assumptions. I know people who had great skin improvements just with changing the food they ate and following the food recommendations of Perricone.

[Poodle]

Merlin you must have never had this nasty little problem or you would know it is possible for many foods to cause acne and it always pops up at the worst possible time. I will still get the occasional "zit" if I do not wash my face well twice a day. Also know of one person that got it from being on birth control pills. Go figure! Hers was the bad kind and left scars. I'm inviting her over for a free session to get rid of them. Almost invisable but they bother her.

[Merlin]

Yes, I am aware of foods being linked to acne.
I question the pre-suppositions and whether the link is truly causal.

[Don]

I take a middle ground, here. Everyone is an individual. Some people break out just walking by some chocolate. Other could bathe in french fry grease and not get a zit.

A good way to discover the individual truth would be to have a person keep a diary for a month--what was eaten each day and the number of break outs counted the following day.

Then, rather than make a blanket statement of forbidden foods, you could find out if there are any foods which effect a particular person.

Also to be recorded in the diary would be "events of the day," so you could see what stressors were involved as stress, in some situations, has also been linked to acne break outs.

Further, in some situations acne may be caused by bacteria. Thus, the techniques used to clean the face or areas where break outs occur should also be scrutinized.

Sometimes, a simple answer is, unfortunately, too simple.

[Poodle]

You are a lot closer to the problem than you know. The dead skin doesn't sluff off correctly, pores become clogged, the sabaceous (sp?) gland goes to work, bacteria starts to grow, the puss is from the white cells trying to knock out the bacteria. Scientifically it is proven to have a lot to do with stress, hormones and some of it just old fashioned genetics. With this scenario, hypnosis can indeed help greatly with acne in keeping the cells sloughing off and the stress level at zero. With teens and early 20's, I don't think we would want to interfer with hormones unless there truly is a hormonal imbalance as proven by a MD with tests and would that not be just "normal" for a person that age??? Old fashioned genetics would be easy to take care of. Dermatologists now say food is not a factor but I believe with certain people it is. One cannot live on pizza, milk chocolate and Coke or Pepsi without consequences. We are what we think but we are also what we eat. Keeping the skin clean will help get rid of the old cells so not to add to a "clog" which will result in a zit.

[Don]

Poodle, as a former zit-face myself, I'm familiar with what you are saying. I would just like to add, that if a person is told repeatedly that "eating X will cause acne," their belief in that will influence the body to create it.

I came to the conclusion that drinking milk after having chocolate would prevent me from getting new zits. Inevitably, if I had chocolate without a milk chaser, I'd get zits.

So I would contend there is are genetic, behavioral, psychological, physiological and bacterial causes of acne, and the relative importance of each as the overall cause can vary from person to person. Doing an interview with a client seeking help with acne by asking questions such as:

Did your mother or father have acne?
Are there any foods you eat that result in acne?
Are you taking any prescription or non-prescription drugs?
Do you break out before you have a test in school or go out on a date?
Are there times of the month when you break out?
How do you wash your face and hair?
etc.

can give an idea. Remember, tho, the person may not have clear information on these questions and there may by unconscious factors they're not aware of.

[Merlin]

Dermatologists now say food is not a factor but I believe with certain people it is. One cannot live on pizza, milk chocolate and Coke or Pepsi without consequences.
Have you considered how much of this might be programming/suggestion?

[Henrik]

Hi, this is my first post to this forum after reading here for a few months.

I just thought I would give my 2 cents on this topic. I'm a 32 year old male and have had adult acne since I was 20. Not severe, but enough to dislike the condition a lot. I have tried every diet there is. And everything else for that matter (like fasting 42 days in a row, that was propably the most crazy thing I did...).

My view today, at least when it comes to myself, is that I have been chasing the ghost that is not there when it comes to diet. Be very careful about the foods you choose NOT to eat. At one point I was convinced I only could eat beans and some vegetables. It may sound funny, but it was no fun at all.

On the web you will find people and research saying yes and no to every food there is. And when you really want to get rid of acne, and are into this diet thing, I ended up believing especially in the NOs. And in the process creating a lot of emotional pain, stress and limeting believes about my self.

Today you can get very good blood screening tests if you go to the right doctor. If these tests say you are allergic to this or that food, then fine, avoid that food. If on the other hand they say you are just fine, then one should probably believe them (something I didn't for years).

Today my diet is "eat healthy", that is eat a varied diet to get all the protein, fat, carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins you and your skin need. I stay away from sugar, white bread and most diary products (except kefir). I also make sure to eat enough good fats (omega 3/6/9). This is by far the best "diet" I have had, and the one I think I will stick to. It's really nice to eat good food again (I have been for the last 6 months).

Then how to get rid of acne then? Well, when it comes to me, I'm more and more convinced it's all due to limiting believes I have (had) about myself. Not feeling good enough, not feeling loved and not being able to express love to others, resulting in more or less constant emotional stress. When I "think correctly", I have no acne at all, and nice pink skin. So the clue is to be able to do just that (filling my head with light instead of darkness so to speak). I'm in the process of learning this, and have come quite some way actually. This site is a real inspiration.

Suggestions when it comes to diet, can be very powerful. At least they were for me. Because you really wish to believe in them. If you say to yourself enough times that I'm allergic to this or that food, chances are that you will get an allergic reaction. That is very much my experience at least. It did't help with the acne either.... darn :)

So when it comes to acne, know your demon(s). For me that was not diet (...well, it actually became a demon). As you may read between the lines, I feel quiet strongly about this topic, hoping to maybe help someone else to avoid my dieting mistakes... on the other hand, people like to make their own mistakes ;).

Best wishes,
Henrik

[Merlin]

Henrik,

Nice post.http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c344/Myhrrhleine2/clap.gif
Welcome to the forum.

[Henrik]

Hum, I guess I would like to share a little more about my experience with acne (not just the food/diet thing in another post in this thread).

I believe emotions is a huge part of acne for me (read on...). Believeing I'm not that special, I conjecture that this might apply to others as well. And given the right (or rather wrong thoughts), everyone is a potential acne candidate. Maybe I'm full of sh*t, but then again maybe not...

That emotions is a huge part of acne is probably a very scary thought for most most acne sufferers (it is/was for me at least). Because how do you control or substitute your emotions? If you have had (adult) acne for some period of time, you tend to identify with the acne. It becomes you.

And when trying to escape from the acne, it feels like escaping from yourself. What are you actually going to replace the acne with? And that creates a lot of resistance. And tend to give the acne even more power. You feel stuck. Stuck in your head.

Are there effective techniques then to help eradicate acne? Well, I'm still not all the way there, that is I still have (some) acne thoughts. Nevertheless, here are some techniques/ideas:

1. Emotions are connected to body awareness. When having acne you focus very much on your face, but tend to forget/not feel the rest of your body. Not feeling your body leads to an empty kind of feeling/depression.
2. Knowing/believing this, learn tehniques to regain body awareness. What I do is a form of mental EFT (tapping mentally), while visualizing a kind of gentle jump into a "energy me" (which has the color of red/pink). It is important to feel your joints/muscles (arms/legs), when doing this mental jump. If trying this, you have to test and calibrate what works for you.
3. Be aware of the situations in life where you are especially aware of your acne. Typically it might be facing the opposite sex. Like walking by a beatiful girl believing you are never gonna get someone like that because of your acne. I try to not "run away" from that feeling, because it just doesn't work for me. Again, it feels like running from yourself (or the one you're identifying with at the moment). Instead I try to mix in other feelings, and one method that works for me is pretending I have already (ehem) "done her", while grabbing red dark blood from the air and also pink energy/light, and just let all these different feelings hit me. Again body awareness is important. Very important actually... At least for me.

Experimenting with your thoughts and self hypnosis, can potentially be a very rough ride... I know... Before one attempts to do anything on his/her own, carefully consider getting assistance/help from someone who knows what he/she is doing. But if you are a DIY and are just starting out, and already feeling mentally/emotionally stretched, do these things first...

a) Learn to be brave. You decide what brave is for you. It might be picking up the phone and call a friend, sending an SMS, or maybe talking to a stranger. Being brave gives mental satisfaction.
b) Try to excercise to get physically tired.
c) Learn how to punch holes in the air. Learn how to jump up and down on the floor in your livingroom.
d) Do self-hypnosis/meditation when physically tired. Or when you are walking. Doing it in your chair or bed is for the "advanced student"...
e) Learn how to cry.

Off to meet a beautiful girl.

Best wishes,
Henrik