It is an unfortunate fact that patients usually feel so well after a few treatments that they often consider themselves completely cured and discontinue treatment before they should. It is wiser to have a few reinforcing treatments, even after apparent cure, to make the condition permanent.

Again, it is remarkable how patients who have suffered for ten or twenty years and tried all sorts of treatment without success expect hypnotism to cure them in one or two treatments.
One of the commonest nervous conditions met with in medical practice is Neurasthenia. This is often applied to any case of ‘nerves’, but the term should really be reserved to describe a condition of abnormal fatigue, accompanied by nervous symptoms. People who suffer from this complaint appear to be mentally and physically exhausted very easily. A slight effort which would not worry other people seems to produce excessive weakness and fatigue. With such people, sleep is never refreshing and they wake up more tired than when they went to bed. Headaches, irritability and depression are usual, while concentration and memory are often seriously impaired. Such patients are usually thin, with low blood pressure and a poor circulation.

A typical patient was a man who complained of great mental and physical exhaustion following a severe illness. Loss of memory and inability to concentrate caused him considerable anxiety, as he felt unable to cope with business affairs. This worry about his inability to do his work merely increased the nervous tension and caused intensified exhaustion. In addition, the patient complained of ‘nerves’ at the base of his spine, with pain in the buttock and a sciatic type of pain down the leg.
He proved to be a fairly good hypnotic subject; and suggestions were made for relaxation, disappearance of nervous tension and increase of vitality. After five hypnotic sessions at weekly intervals, the patient reported himself greatly improved both physically and mentally and expressed his confidence in his ability to carry on.

Another simple nervous condition which is responsible for a great deal of mental ill health and physical suffering is the so called Anxiety State.
As the name suggests, sufferers from this complaint have frequent attacks of panic for no apparent reason. Sometimes these attacks may be associated with definite situations such as travelling in trains or being in closed spaces. The symptoms are those which anybody who has ever been severely frightened will easily recognize. For instance, it is well known that worry can cause a nervous headache, while fright may cause palpitation of the heart or difficulty in breathing. As a result, the sufferer from Anxiety State may be a martyr to frequent and severe headaches, palpitation, difficulty in breathing and digestive upsets. Sometimes there may be bladder frequency or diarrhoea, especially when the patient has to face something important. In addition, there may be giddiness, insomnia and depression.

The following case is typical of this condition. A woman was sent along by her doctor because she suffered severely from Claustrophobia, which caused her to experience intense panic in any situation where she felt unable to escape. As a result, it was impossible for her to enter a church or cinema or to travel by train.
 The patient had had six months’ orthodox psychiatric treatment without any success. When she complained after six months’ psychoanalysis that she felt no better, the specialist informed her that she could not really expect to feel anything as she had hardly started treatment!

Her doctor wrote to say that, in view of the patient’s age and the extreme slowness of psychoanalytical treatment, he thought hypnotism should be tried as a short cut.
Owing to her age and highly nervous condition, she proved to be a poor hypnotic subject, and could develop only a very slight trance. Nevertheless, after six treatments, she was able to return home by train. She wrote to say that she had had a completely placid train trip with no trace of apprehension. The original cause of her trouble had been an unpleasant emotional experience while travelling by train.

Another patient who suffered from this form of nervous trouble explained that several years before she had had convulsions while having a baby. She had been warned that she must never have another as she would probably die if she did. The patient had no knowledge of birth control and went in constant fear of becoming pregnant again. Nobody bothered to give her any advice on this important problem, and as a result of all this anxiety she became depressed and suffered from palpitations. She felt that life was not worth living and had frequent thoughts of suicide. Newspaper reports of unpleasant things and murder films caused her acute distress, so that she was afraid to read a paper or go to a cinema; and further, she feared to be alone with her child as she was terrified she might injure it and commit suicide.

Psychiatric treatment and a Course of electro-shock therapy had failed to cure her. The patient had five sessions of hypnosis and returned home apparently cured, with instructions to attend a birth-control clinic. This she did, and wrote some time later to say how well she was and that she was now completely free from worry.

This condition of abnormal anxiety is by no means confined to women. Many men suffer untold agonies of mind from unreasoning attacks of panic and the condition seems all the worse because they seldom realize what causes them to act so strangely.
 
One man suffered greatly from nervous headaches and extreme shyness, which prevented him mixing in company, and a simple argument would cause him to experience intense panic with nervous trembling, palpitation and sweating. He also had excessive feelings of inferiority and guilt. Claustrophobia was marked, and the patient had a fixed idea that intercourse with his wife was detrimental to his health. This caused him considerable anxiety as he was really in love with his wife.
The patient had been discharged from the Service owing to Anxiety Neurosis, and psychological treatment at a leading nerve hospital had been unable to help him.

He proved to be a good hypnotic subject, and after eight treatments wrote to say that he felt cured and confident enough to discontinue treatment.
A somewhat similar case was that of a young man who complained of severe anxiety attacks accompanied by feelings of acute panic. He suffered from loss of confidence, and had a marked fear of making a mistake. Self-consciousness caused him to blush, and he trembled all over in the presence of the opposite sex. At a dance, for instance, he would tremble violently, particularly if he happened to meet a girl he really liked.
Enquiry revealed that he had gone right through the Second World War and had been wounded. This, however, had not affected him, and he had been pronounced A1 medically on leaving the Service. He found civilian life uncongenial and as he had had no special training, made frequent mistakes in his work, which caused him to worry excessively. His position was aggravated by a woman overseer at work who had what he called a ‘sergeant-major’ complex. Apparently she took a dislike to this patient and, forgetting that she owed her continued existence to men like him who had fought in the war, she took every opportunity to make a fool of him in front of other people.

The patient, of course, felt like killing her, but stifled these feelings and endeavoured to avoid her. It was obvious why he trembled in the presence of women! Any woman reminded him of the overseer and aroused deep feelings of resentment which prompted him to kill her as he would have liked to kill his tormentor. His panic resulted from the fear that he might give way to this impulse. Naturally, if he liked a girl, his panic was greater than ever, as he had no real desire to destroy someone he loved.

He proved to be a good hypnotic subject, and a few sessions enabled him to see things clearly and adjust himself to life, with consequent improvement in his condition.
It would be possible to go on almost indefinitely quoting similar cases, as anxiety is so prevalent. Modern conditions of life predispose towards this unfortunate state, the basis of which is always fear, real or imagined, arising out of highly emotional circumstances.