Interview with a Hypnotherapist
Last week I was interviewed as part of research for a book that's being written on migraine and it's root cause. Here's how it went...
I was sat at my laptop trying to upload a new blog with no internet (fun!) when I received a message from hypnotherapist, Shijo Chandapillai in the US. He explained he was conducting research for a book he’s writing on people who live with migraine disease, asking if I would be willing to help.
I no longer believe in coincidences and things happening by chance or potluck, I jumped at the chance and suggested speaking the same evening.
I found out that Shijo Chandapillai has a sister who has suffered with migraine for 3 decades and is writing a book called “The Migraine That Grew Up with Me”.
As he took me through his questions and we were talking, we found we both shared the belief that a person can heal themselves fully when they go to the root cause of the disease.
Up until this point it has often felt like I am the only person who believes this to be true of migraine and chronic illness.
We discussed the links between migraine and a dysfunctional childhood from which there are now strong links, and it is becoming increasingly recognised in the medical field.
We both came from a similar background in respect of our own childhoods and even a similar turn of events in adulthood.
Shijo’s book is about taking a holistic (whole body) view and healing approach to migraine, talking about the emotional body, our childhood, and the impact this has on us in adulthood, as well as support around this.
It is his belief that migraine is a protective mechanism learned because of traumatic experiences in childhood.
He aims to reach parents with his book so they might have an awareness of their child’s early years and the impact this has on them later in life. With the outlook that when you understand more about the root cause, you can prevent it from manifesting in the first place.
He shared with me a quote from world renowned speaker and hypnotherapist, Marisa Peer who states, “that feeling that cannot find it’s expression in tears, may cause other organs to weep.” I can see from my own experience how this could prove to be the case.
As part of his own work as a hypnotherapist, he has identified 3 main areas in clients he works with who live with migraine disease:
1. A childhood where there was domestic violence. Both physical and verbal abuse.
2. Emotional breakdown.
3. Sexual abuse.
His own interest in this complex neurological condition stems from having a sister who has suffered the agonising and debilitating effects of migraine for almost 30 years. He has then gone on to dedicate his own work to helping people heal from migraine disease, helping them restore themselves back to what they were born with through transformational hypnotherapy.
Words cannot express what it means to me to know that there are people out there who have lived experience of this crippling and life-limiting disease, doing this work, sharing their findings and spreading the message far and wide that you can heal yourself fully. Spreading the message that there are changes we can make now to avoid the world’s 2nd most disabling condition still being the case for future generations.
Here are the interview questions and answers I shared:
How long have you suffered with migraines?
Since I was 18. I’m now 42.
Tell me more about your journey with migraine…
They started out as absolute agony at the age of 18 and I would think I was dying I was in so much pain. I repeatedly went to the doctors and told them it was migraine, but each time my claims were fobbed off.
It took me 20 years to get diagnosed.
By the time I was diagnosed, I was experiencing agonising and severe pain for 72 hours at a time, every 10 days. No form of pain relief had worked for a couple of years.
By the time I was permitted to see a neurologist under the NHS healthcare system, I was already chronically ill, unable to work and considered disabled.
What was your approach to managing them at this stage?
I quickly realised that all that had happened to me under the care of the NHS was that my health had continued to deteriorate.
Initially I was made to take 4 different types of medication before I was permitted to see a neurologist. By the time I saw one I was beyond desperate for help and support.
When I specifically asked for support, I was told there was none available to me, it was one of the world’s leading causes of disability and that I was considered incurable.
When I asked about making dietary changes, such as cutting out gluten, the neurologist said, “I wouldn’t bother.”
For some reason, I did not believe that migraine was incurable or that this was how my life was supposed to be.
I took what little knowledge I had started building about migraine and started making changes anyway. A couple of things that I knew about migraine at this point were that it was fully expected that migraine attacks would worsen and become more frequent on the back of the launch of the smart phones and all the extra screen time (I was a massive iPhone addict). Another being migraineurs present a higher risk of heart disease, strokes and a shorter life span.
I asked myself the question “what can I do to reduce the risk of this happening to me? What changes can I make now to minimise the risk as much as possible?.” This was despite being given no hope at all that these would work or there was any point in trying.
I was desperate for someone, anyone to understand what I was going through and just how limited my life had become and how much pain I was experiencing. I came across a chronic migraine group on Facebook, but I later had to come off because I could feel everyone’s pain and I knew exactly what they were going through in respect of how much pain they were living with and how limited their life was as a result.
I found enough out from this group to order the book, The Migraine Miracle, check out www.migrainetrust.org and continued making the changes one small change at a time.
I had no road map ahead of me, no testimonial of anyone who had done this before, no guarantee that making changes would help, all with people around me telling me that I didn’t know what I was doing and that the doctors knew best.
From somewhere, I learned of the Migraine World Summit, an annual event in its infancy at the time. Hosting the world’s top neurologists and headache specialists who become experts in migraine disease through experience and research, covering many different topics each day over an 8-day period. I’m in my 5th season of watching, recording notes on and learning from this invaluable resource.
The first event I watched was emphasising how helpful yoga was for migraineurs. I was listening and determined to do what it took it even though yoga really wasn’t my thing. I couldn’t do any other type of exercise at all without triggering attack by this point and I started a weekly class, which subsequently lead me on to having bodywork as a monthly (deep healing) treatment therapy. I’ve kept up and maintained all changes whilst continuing to make more as and when I come across and learn about them.
What did you most fear?
Not being able to pay my mortgage and generate enough income to cover financial outgoings. I had no mortgage insurance, no sick pay and no immediate family to help. This has been a big burden and a heavy weight to carry.
What were your biggest frustrations?
The lack of support and understanding. I was beyond desperate for it.
No one around me; friends, family, work and not even healthcare professionals had any idea what I was living with and going through – mentally, physically, emotionally or financially.
How has your experience affected your life, work and relationships?
My life as I knew it was over. Forever changed.
I knew I would never be returning to full time paid employment.
I split up with my boyfriend and sold my home to rent a room in someone else’s house and now live in a holiday home so that I can keep my outgoings to a minimum.
I still have the same friends, but I don’t feel like many of them fully understand. They couldn’t, unless they experienced this for themselves, and I would never wish this on anyone.
Though support was shown in some small ways, I was told I was committing career suicide, that I was too vulnerable to make the changes I was making, that I didn’t know what I was doing and was being taken advantage of. Also, that I shouldn’t be paying for the help and support I put in place for myself, even though I desperately needed it.
Despite how far I’ve come and how well I am now, friends are still sceptical of changes I’ve made and the approaches I’ve taken towards my health and healing.
What difference has all you’ve put in place made? What happened when you started making the changes and researching your condition?
I broke the chronic pain cycle within 12 months.
I broke the chronic fatigue cycle within a couple of years.
By year 3, I started making giant leaps forward with menstrual migraine – known as the most difficult and challenging of all migraine types to overcome, as well as the most severe and disabling.
Where are you with them now?
It’s been 4 years of making the changes and doing the research, applying it to all areas and aspects of my life, proving that it is possible to heal yourself.
After losing 2.5 weeks each month in total to 2 menstrual migraines alone, they are now both much shorter. The severe and agonising pain element of both is down in both severity and duration, from 72 hours to less than 12 hours each. The 20 odd symptoms I’ve been living with have significantly reduced. I lose only a few days a month now and have managed to avoid full blown attacks in 8 of the last 16 months.
I still do not believe migraine disease to be incurable and this is a message I want to share with people all around the world. In the 4 years of research and making never-ending changes, I am only more certain that the human body is more than capable of self-healing and that a person can heal themselves fully.
Wonderful Q&A session. So glad that self healing is a reachable goal for you.
Incredible! What a warrior path!