Hypnosis for treatment of depression

Hi, i am thinking of trying a course of hypnosis to help alleviate symptoms of major depression that has been going on for a long time. I have suffered with depression for many years but usually i have lifts in my depression when it is not as bad. However, this time i have been stuck in a major depressive episode for several months (too be honest i can't remember for how long now, we are talking months but i have lost track of how long exactly). I have tried medication in the past but found the results to be very disappointing. I also am not convinced that medication is the best long term solution.

i have been seeing a MH case-worker once a month but too be honest i think he has just about given up making any effort with me. I have a new counsellor that i am due to start seeing next week so my plan is to start the new sessions with the Counsellor but also try other treatments. This led me to consider hypnosis as one part of the overall treatment program, i am certainly not expecting to go for a few hypnosis sessions and be completely cured once and for all. More likely i was considering it as just one factor along with the counselling and i am also looking into herbal/natural mood lifters as opposed to drugs.

Has anyone tried a course of hypnosis and did they find it useful in combating their depression? I would very much like to hear from anyone who has had any experience in this area, both from patients and practitioners if there are any reading. I am fed up trying to just live with depression, it's worn me down to the point where i hardly have any motivation left for life. There has to be ways to treat depression that do not centre around Prozac and the like.

Any feedback would be gratefully received.

Hi, I have had hypnosis a couple of years ago for my depression. It was honestly the best thing i have ever tried for my depression. in my first session my therapist started by doing relaxation techniques to ease me into it and then put me under and it was strange because it only felt like about 5 minutes but when she brought me out of it, it had been an hour. I felt instantly better, my mood was lifted, i felt happy for the first time in a long time. i saw her once a week for a few months and i also had a CD that she had recorded that i could listen to before bed. the only problem for me was the cost. it was expensive because it was private and I couldn't keep it up unfortunately and afterwards i soon fell back into depression which i still suffer with. If i had the money to go back and do it again i would do it in a heartbeat.
hypnosis doesn't work on everyone, but my hypnotherapist told me that i was so susceptible to it that by my last session i would go under on my own as soon as i sat down.

I would say definitely try it. i really hope that it helps you as much as it helped me back then. i wish i could still go!

millie x

Thank you for the feedback. I am definitely going to try it, i am investigating local hypnotherapists at the moment. I am hopeful that with other things i am trying at the moment that it will have a positive effect.