No Interest in Chocolate

Recently, I caught up with a client I had seen for some sessions last year. She had wanted hypnotherapy to change her eating habits. As part of that, she had wanted to stop eating chocolate.

Part of her response to me was that she was still not eating chocolate and indeed, 6 months on from the treatment, had no interest in it either, this despite the fact that many people have found themselves eating more and particularly eating more sweet things during these times. This is the ideal type of scenario; a lack of interest maintained despite unusual pressure.

Anybody who has a chocolate habit knows how difficult it can be to simply stop eating it or even eat less of it. In my client’s case, she had the habit of finishing her evening meal and going to the cupboard where she kept the chocolate, getting out a bar and opening the bar as she sat down to do whatever activity she had planned for the evening. Usually, she would finish the bar. Afterwards, she would have no pangs of regret. It was more of an “oh, well!” feeling.

Habits are simply activities we carry out over and over again. Through repetition, they become automatic and the brain simply reminds us that we carry out that behaviour at a particular time or following a particular trigger. The mechanism driving the behaviour is usually so unconscious that we no longer know exactly why we do it. At some level though, it fulfils a need.

I remember some years ago watching a TV programme that followed a mother and daughter who both wanted to lose weight. They insisted they ate healthily and did not snack so could not understand their excess weight. They were filmed going about their business for a period of time and then the film was played back to them. Both of them were shocked to see how much snacking they did that they appeared not to be aware of. It was the catalyst they needed to change their eating habits.

In my client’s case, we did a number of things. We got clear on the reasons why she wanted to stop the habit. By getting her to take herself imaginatively through the carrying out of the behaviour from beginning to end, we elucidated the mechanism of the habit and what she really felt when eating the chocolate. In this way, we made the unconscious elements conscious. We re-examined an event from the past that seemed connected with the present day behaviour to resolve its emotional content. We also looked at her many resources so that I could weave together a treatment that was specific to her.

Habits can feel permanent, but they are not. The right approach can shift things so that you no longer feel compelled to carry out the behaviour. If you have a habit of eating chocolate for example or indeed any other habit you would prefer to be without, hypnotherapy could be the answer.