(Disclaimer: This transcript uses AI technology. Please excuse any errors.)

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Welcome to the Atheists in Recovery Podcast, where we talk about finding hope in recovery. And now your host, Dr. Adina Silvestri

Adina Silvestri 0:11
Hola Atheists in Recovery and welcome to Episode 85 of the Atheists in Recovery Podcast, where it is my job to take a deep dive into the spiritual and scientific belief systems of people in long term recovery in order to deconstruct limiting thought patterns and introduce new behaviors they can use in order to bring about hope in recovery. But today, you're stuck with me, guys. It's a solo episode. And so today I am outlining five ways hypnotherapy can help you break through emotional rock bottom. And we're going to look through these five ways and then hopefully, you'll stay to the end and I give a bonus, sixth way, I believe that my therapy can help you break through. And I want to start though, before I get to the list, I want to start with a quote and this quote is from Viktor Frankl, he is probably my favorite. It's probably my favorite book, if I had to pick one. I mean, there's there are several, I think I, I devour books, like chocolate chip cookies, and I love chocolate chip cookies, I mean, I just go through a couple of weeks sometimes and so but he is probably still, you know, my, if not my number one, maybe the top five. And so this quote of Viktor Frankl, I think, does a pretty good job of talking about what we're going to address today. And so the quote is those who have a why to live can bear almost any how. And when I think about that, quote, in the context of the podcast, and what we talk about here in the space, I feel like it's so true. I mean, I think, I think that in, it's hard, it's a journey to get to the other side when we're deep in addiction. But just think about, you know, after those withdrawal symptoms go away. Think about how much lighter you're going to be think about how much more free, think about all the things that you had to do in order to keep the addiction going, you know, the lying, stealing the guilt, the shame, maybe there was no lying or stealing, but there definitely was guilt, and there was probably a little shame. And, you know, just just having to have like the shackles on all the time. You know, it's sort of what I picture in my mind sometimes when I think about addiction. And so this quote from Viktor Frankl is one that, that I really love. And so let me know what you think about the quote, let me know what we think about the episode. And let's get started with number one. There is always light in the darkness. I think that when we are in the depths of despair, it's really hard to imagine that life will ever get better. You know, there's this feeling of hopelessness, and definitely comes into my office on a weekly basis. But if you search, if you look hard enough, there's a spot somewhere inside of you, there's a place deep down inside, that wants to get better. Maybe it's more of a quiet voice. We're all the others are pretty loud, you know, like the anxiety or depression. But it's there. It's there. And a lot of those other feelings are just trying to protect you from feeling shame, and worthlessness. And so, you know, I'm a big fan of all feelings, you know, but hypnotherapy can better help you understand what the feelings are trying to tell you. And it's my understanding that every emotion has a job, the good emotions, the not so good emotions. They all have jobs. And I believe that their job is to help keep the self safe self with the capital as safe. And so hypnotherapy will not only help you see the light and the darkness, it'll shine a spotlight on your future self. In this episode, we talk a lot about our future self. So it'll help shine that spotlight on your future self. It'll help you recognize who you are, your gifts, your talents, and remind you that you're not alone. At this moment, right here right now. There are so many others that are struggling just like you. And it's hard to remember that when you're in the depths of despair, which is a perfect segue to number two. Even your loneliest moments you are not alone, even when you are at your lowest, and think no one is going through what you're going through. know that there are people struggling at this exact moment, just like we just talked about you, you haven't maybe crossed paths with them yet. But they're there.

hypnotherapy will help you gain greater clarity and awareness to what's right in front of you, and all around you. And I know connection is the hardest when you're feeling low, but you are never alone. And sometimes all it takes is just a phone call phone call to a friend phone call to a therapist phone call to someone you trust. And just lean into that vulnerability. If they start to share their story, think about sharing yours connect in that way. And then you realize that you never were alone in the first place. Number three, the people who matter will be by your side. I'm a firm believer in sometimes you have to choose your family. Sometimes the family that you decide to stick by is not blood related. This comes up a lot in my practice, you know, if I stopped drinking, I will lose the people I care about. It's just not true. Yeah, maybe you'll lose some of your drinking buddies, or some of the buddies that you would smoke with. But you know, that's a good indication that they weren't going to be around for the long haul anyway, the people that truly care about you, those relationships will remain and they will most likely grow even stronger. Number four, shame is just a feeling. It is it's it's a feeling it's a wet blanket. I mean, it's it's probably the only feeling that will cover up all of the other feelings. But I love that hypnotherapy can go straight to shame. It's just like, I guess it also depends on the hypnotherapist that you're using. But for me, I just, you know, I go right to the source because that's why you're there, you know, you're there to get to know yourself. You're there to get to know your feelings, you're there to figure out why they're coming up where you can feel them in your body, you'll get to the root cause of the addiction, you'll get to figure out where those feelings originated. You know, shame has been there for a while. Perhaps well then looking at why you needed it as a protective mechanism when you were younger. So hypnotherapy will help with that, you'll begin to re wire these memories or therapy will provide a link back to earlier decisions, you'll begin to experience these memories on a very emotional level. And that could be really good if some of the trauma that you experienced was pre verbal. And then you can start to heal. So this is probably a good time to bring in a case study we'll call him Stefan. Stefan came to me initially because of his traumas, plural, you know, again, I feel like none of us escaped childhood. without some traumas, even if they're the little t traumas. Stephen

found comfort at the bottom of a bottle from a young age and things progressed to you know, hard drugs like cocaine and other things. And when his wife found him unconscious one afternoon, he knew that it was time to stop. He had gone too far. Mind you, he is a successful entrepreneur. He was very functional. But he knew that in order to live his best life in order to be there in the future for his family. And friends, he needed to change you change these behaviors. But to do that he needed to change his identity. And his current story was filled with shame. I'm not a good husband. I'm not a good son. I'm letting down my employees. And a lot of times unworldliness, the feelings of unworthiness is also tied to shame. And so that makes it really difficult to accept any kind of kindness from self and others. And so after a few sessions to find realize the trauma he suffered early on, still have this incredible impact on his identity in and I believe that personality is a byproduct of identity. So he got to work by reframing his past and he'd gotten really clear on his future self, you know, he wanted to stop drinking, he wanted to, at least for the time being stop using drugs and Hey, that was good enough for me. And, you know, he wanted to give himself what the substances never could You know, there is a part of him that really needed to heal, you know, needed kindness needed, self love, needed all these things that he never gotten from his past. And so he began to create his healing story, he began to look at his past with a more positive lens, give his younger self exactly what he needed, that he never gotten growing up. And the transformation started, he became the hero of his story instead of the victim. And I think that that's another important piece that hypnotherapy can do for you. Number five, rock bottom is an opportunity to recreate your life. I don't want anyone to get to rock bottom, really, I don't. But sometimes, that's when people reach out to me is when they've hit emotional rock bottom, where they feel like they can't go any lower. And so that's why I decided to spend some time on this today. So you may not realize until you hit emotional rock bottom that you want your life to change. But you may gain clarity that you just never could have accessed before. And maybe, that you're at the lowest of lows emotionally. But make sure that you reach out for help, because it will get better. I've seen around 1000 individuals just individually in my practice. And one thing's for certain no one has ever died of emotional pain. Emotions need to come with a message that they are just temporary. They are they're all just temporary. And I think that a lot of times we're so afraid to access them. And even in my practice, I'll get people you know, ask me, is this really necessary? Do I really have to talk about the bad parts? Do I really have to go there? Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes, and more Yes. And the painful emotions, again, are just temporary, it will get better. So please make, make it a priority. If you are at rock

bottom, emotionally make it a priority to reach out to somebody that you trust for help. Okay, number six is the bonus. By changing your identity, you change your behaviors. So you can change your story. And I feel like hypnotherapy does a great job at that I other modalities will also do this in a therapy though I feel like does it really quickly, like after the first session is so so you can change your story of your past and your story of the future, you're going to want to do both who we are and the present is largely shaped by the views of our past and our view of the future. And as you've heard in several of the air podcasts, now your future needs to be so much greater than your past. You know, you need to be living a life that's so much more fulfilled than your past when you were living with addiction because then you really have nothing to look forward to. And your past should be viewed as positive. And hypnotherapy can help you do that it can help you shape the meaning of your past. And you and you alone are the one that creates meaning. So you, the therapist, a script that in a therapy script, all of that can make this meaning making occur. And so once these two things happen, once you start to look at your past more positively, once you start to get really clear on your future self and making sure that it's a future self that is worthy, you know, you know that that's exciting to you, your identity will start to shift, and you realize that you're stronger and more capable than your former self. You live up to your future self. We all do we all live up to our future self. So make sure that it's a good one, make sure that the story you tell. And the meaning that you give is just the best version you can think of. And that's what's gonna change the behavior. That's what's gonna change your routine of wanting to drink when the you know when you're triggered or wanting to use substances or wanting to look for those external validations or being addicted to worry or whatever the things are. You know, that's what's going to change your behavior is making sure that the meaning you give to your future self is just amazing. Because we all live up to our identities, we make sure that the behaviors That we engage in our in congruence with our identities. Okay. So, I hope you enjoyed the five ways plus one bonus way of how hypnotherapy can help you break through emotional rock bottom. And remember, if you're not happy with yourself make a plan to change it. This takes daily attention and practice to feel better about yourself. If you're interested in learning more, I provide it for therapy individuals in Virginia at my office and worldwide via zoom. Okay, guys, have a great one. Bye.

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