#adhd and hypnosis

[secret-subject]

Why are we so convinced ADHD (and other neurodivergent people) can't be hypnotized?

This is something I've thought about a lot lately. So a little context of why:

So I've been doing hypnosis for about 12 years now. Back when I was 18 I joined the irc chat on WMM and started being hypnotized pretty much daily. I did files and I had dominants to play with and that continued for a long time. By the time I was in my mid 20's I was extremely easy, in fact too easy. The culture back then also wasn't the greatest for me and my subject agency was pretty mid (gotta love hindsight) but again, I was known for having a very good and very squishy brain. In 2022, my Mum was diagnosed with ASD but also got a surprise ADHD diagnosis. Now, we are very similar so she insisted I get tested and low and behold I have ADHD, inattentive subtype.

This blew my mind because for the longest time I had the clear signs of undiagnosed ADHD but a lot of these things were assumed came from my history of doing a buttload of conditioning files, my health conditions and just being "like that". By this stage I had stopped being hypnotized myself and focused on my role as a dominant and content creator because that for me was something I just had to focus on. My switching stopped and I didn't go under for about three years.

So now, I took a hiatus to go and try something else and when I came back I was stressed and got back into testing out files again. (Also super lucky in this time some friends of mine became hypnosis creators so that was a great way to dabble with people I can trust). My first few experiences were like getting on a bike after years of not riding. It was a little wobbly but soon with practice I was right back where I left off and now even better than that. I think right now I'm getting some of the literal deepest trance experiences ever. It's hard to describe but all I'll say is "oooof".

So why is this backstory important?

Because this is one very clear narrative of a person who had undiagnosed ADHD and found hypnosis very achievable with time, practice and a buttload of conditioning with the right people. Because my ADHD was not a factor until now, I never got told, "you can't be hypnotized" this self fulfilling proficy that makes people feel like this isn't for them which for me seeing this narrative in online spaces breaks my heart for the people who see this and feel that is their label and that is what sticks.

I think it's not our place to say who can or cannot be hypnotized as a general rule because there are not general rules in hypnosis. You can't look at someone and assess them based on factors you don't know or understand. In this world there are very few people who straight up cannot be hypnotized at all to some degree (far less then even the research people keep quoting says at this point) and this is why I feel so strongly that we need to instead of trying to label entire groups as "not good for play" to instead change the narrative to "let's see what works for more people" because brains are different and hypnosis can not be a one size fits all approach. It's too subjective for that.

This is also the biggest reason I made the ADHD hypnosis kink audio recently. I used my knowledge of hypnosis and some research on presentations of ADHD in combination to make something I felt was quite special. Maybe in the future this is something I can work on again because I want all the ADHDers with a hypnosis kink to be able to harness that hyperfocus and those skills we have to make kinky fun times extra fun.

So like, is it time we gave up generalizations on people like this? I know I'm ready to not hear my brain judged before you've even seen what it can do.

[simon-says-shush]

The Venn diagram between adult women with undiagnosed ADHD and women who love the way hypnosis turns their mind off is just a circle.

[jadedwoman]

Good morning cuties, heres a small hypnotic ramble.

Personally, I don't like suggestions about my body getting heavy and hard to move. Instead I like when they incorporate my jittering into it, talking about how my mind is so fuzzy I can't help but squirm, how I'm beginning to feel nice and needy, even twitching with pleasure as my thoughts slowly leak away, all the energy for thinking draining out as I squirm. Just telling me to relax, to squirm and submit, to just keep those bucks of my hips and jiggles of my thighs~ I'm a good squirming girl and I submit~

[nocturnowlette]

One of my worst mental traits is that I cannot stand "maintaining" something, I always need to push further.

I find a community, become one of the most beloved people, then get bored and leave.

I do hypnosis sessions with people, but can't do the same thing every time so I can't reinforce triggers.

I can't make a low stakes art piece, I always need to do better than last time.

I can't just play a game I like, I always need an objective and it always gets harder and harder.

My enjoyment of things seems to be entirely rested in my ability to keep advancing, and while it isn't this way for literally everything, it's enough to get myself hurt over and over again.

[staries]

i realized i draw a lot of angst on my priv. maybe i should share them

[binaural-histolog]

Hypnotizing ADHD people

I've updated the newbie guide with ADHD advice. There's more online about this, and even a directly applicable video thanks to @sweettist.

Quick summary:

Use fascination

Overload and Confuse

Use fidgeting

Avoid relaxation

Waking Hypnosis

Break up the Session

Take Ritalin

More Passion, More Energy

More Footwork

Engage multiple senses

Interactive visualizations

Watch Sweettist's Video

[hyperactivetransdrone]

Dronification but only to help me out.

Like I procrastinate on everything putting clothes away, cleaning, studying, habits that my parents should have given me

Like just being put into a dronespace then made to like clean my room or put my clothes away... giving me good habits, he'll even made to sleep

Then finally being brought up and just giving me praise after I do everything <3

[sunny-haven]

My experiences with being hypnotized and why I'm trying out self hypnosis

Ever since getting into hypnosis, I've always wanted to be hypnotized but throughout the years that I've been into it, I can count on one hand the amount of files that have actually put me under. Even doing live sessions with other hypnotists didn't really do that much for me, though they were always beginner hypnotists and/or ones I had taught myself. Because of this, I had believed that for me to go under, I would need an experienced hypnotist that I know and trust well, and even then, it would likely take several sessions to go anywhere due to my ADHD (which made it extremely hard for me to focus during a hypnosis session). And because for the longest time, I didn't really know any hypnotists I knew and trusted well and who I wanted to hypnotize me, that belief was left unchanged for years.

The deepest anyone had put me under was my headmate Rayx, we had to do it via text. The constant switching and doing it over text prevented me from going that deep but it was more effective than anything I had ever experienced, although those two or three sessions were so long ago that my memory is fuzzy other than he got to make me chant a mantra, haha. Nowadays though, I'm not interested in Rayx putting me under and I don't think he's interested either.

In 2019, when I was still living with my family and we all stayed in one room, I finally attempted self hypnosis, and the easiest method I found was creating a hypnosis file specifically for myself. I had to be very quiet and had to wait to have the room for myself. It was mostly focused on general relaxation, more aimless than usual when I'm hypnotizing someone. Then, when I was able to have a moment to relax by myself, I laid in bed and listened to the file. None of the suggestions stuck, but it was the most relaxed I had ever been in my entire life.

I then recorded another file, one focused on helping me overcome my anxiety from phone calls (one that I still have to this day, and is currently making me procrastinate from making an important call). For whatever reason though, I avoided listening to this one, despite Rayx's insistence, and stopped making self hypnosis files for myself. I still wanted to be hypnotized and would sometimes complain about how I wished I was easier to hypnotize and that I wished that I knew someone who was experienced with hypnosis, and Rayx would always tell me that I could still go back to doing self hypnosis files since the first one worked so well, especially because I lived on my own and making them would be way easier. And for whatever reason, I wouldn't, and wouldn't have an answer for him.

Fast forward to about five years later, and being in @/nocturnowlette's community has surrounded me with several experienced hypnotists (as well as Owlette herself). It took me a long while to get around to trying out one of Owlette's files, mostly because they were either about things I wasn't interested in or I just felt like wouldn't work as someone who was inexperienced with being hypnotized. And I hadn't had the courage to ask someone to try to put me under, especially because those who I was interested in I had already hypnotized several times and I felt like some part of my brain would have a hard time submitting to them as a result (which has happened before). But then Owlette one day released a file that was supposed to be for those who struggled going under and was supposed to make it easier for them, which peaked my interest. Eventually, I decided to make myself comfortable and give the file a listen. I'll go over what happened in a moment.

Since joining Owlette's community, a deep-rooted fear of mine had been cracked wide open, one I had never even realized was there and something I still struggle to put into words. I had discovered that I had a fear of loss of control. And what "loss" and "control" mean are very nebulous in my head, but essentially when it comes to hypnosis, I want to feel like the one in control. Oftentimes that means being the hypnotist and the dom, but in other scenarios (like with one couple I'm friends with), it could mean that two people have a hypnosis relationship, but they still happily submit to me and I can mess with them easily. Maybe someone is hypnotizing a group of others, but I'm still hypnotizing the tist as well as everyone else if I want to. And this want applies to both in and out of sessions. So if I would see two people who I had hypnotized before enjoying a hypnosis session without anything to do with me, I would feel like I'm "losing control". If I was listening to someone do a public session and I have no part in it and am just a spectator, I feel like I'm "losing control". And a myriad of other things I've found can trigger this, ranging from making me mildly uncomfortable to severely, even making me break down into tears at times, even though consciously I'm trying to be happy for my friends.

I really fucking hate it. I'm currently attempting to work on this, but this was and is a thing I'm dealing with. One philosophy I used to have was simple exposure therapy, telling others to just carry on and do what they're gonna do so I can expose myself more to situations where I "lose control" so my brain can understand it's okay. Whether or not it's helping, I'm not entirely sure. But since discovering this and looking for ways to help, I had gotten the idea that hypnotizing myself and showing my subconscious mind that it was okay would probably help a lot, especially in a community who had been very focused on safety and pretalk. I decided that Owlette would probably be good, since they're a very skilled hypnotist and we already had a good hypnosis relationship in the past, and she had already mentioned several times before she was interested in putting me under. Before actually talking with her about it though, I figured I'd listen to one of her files to see what it'd be like, which was perfect when she dropped her more beginner-friendly file.

So with all that in mind, I listened to the file and it was... well... I won't go into detail, as it is not an experience I want to think about for long, but it ended up being the worst experience I've ever had with a file. And I don't mean it simply didn't work, I mean that it was genuinely painful. This isn't at all a slant to Owlette, the actual contents of the file were good and it wasn't that different from any other competent beginner-friendly hypnosis file. This instead was like a massive slap in the face that something was deeply wrong with me and that I needed to work on myself. I dunno why I even listened for long, it felt like I was actively pushing away suggestions at one point. Something in my mind just told me I needed to "see it through" or some bullshit, I don't know why. I have to wonder if my reaction ended up being comparable to a PTSD reaction or something (I am NOT saying I have PTSD btw, I'm just wondering).

Normally when I listen to a hypnosis file in the past (and I actually attempted to listen and be hypnotized), it was always by someone I never knew. That combined with the fact that I know hypnosis files for a general audience - as opposed to one made for a specific person - tend to not work unless the subject listening was particularly suggestible. So from the outset, my mind was already geared towards the file not working on me, no matter how much I tried to keep an open mind. At the same time, my ADHD would go into overdrive. Normally I don't have an easy time focusing on things (and god, I would love to try being medicated but that's unrelated) but it's never that bad, and if I'm particularly invested in something, I can more easily focus or even hyperfocus. But almost as a mental defense to prevent me from being hypnotized, my brain's hyperactivity would flare up a ton and would constantly jump from topic to topic, way more often than it normally does, and it made it virtually impossible to focus on the file for long.

For those who I did trust and let them attempt to hypnotize me, my mind took a different stance. They were inexperienced and sometimes there was even a bit of a language barrier, so my hyperactive mind would focus on tiny details they likely didn't notice and would start constantly mentally critique their methods, what words they said, or even if something was grammatically correct or not.

For this file though, I trust Owlette a lot, and more importantly, they are quite skilled and experienced, and though they've been a hypnotist for less time than me, they are definitely one of the better ones I've seen and are a very experienced subject. That, combined with my newfound knowledge of this fear that had been running in the background for years and years... I suppose it made me feel exposed in a way I never felt before when I listened to the file. The mental defenses were still there, on even more of an overdrive than ever before, but being aware of it all and knowing that Owlette was someone who's experienced and someone who I trust seemingly clashed with whatever the hell is going on deep in my mind.

All this to say, I've given up on attempting to be hypnotized by someone else, at least not until whatever is wrong with me has been solved. Exposure therapy definitely did not help in that instance. But, my mind went back to those self hypnosis files I made before and just how effective they were for me when nothing else really seemed to be. I couldn't really be afraid of losing control if I was the one putting myself under. So earlier this month, I made a self hypnosis file, based on relaxation like before but also trying to slowly get rid of that fear of loss of control. It was a bit aimless like the other self hypnosis files, but that was okay, and editing in sounds of rain while indoors next to a fireplace also helped a bunch. I certainly don't think it can be hypnotized out of me, but I'm hoping that if I keep at it, that fear will fade over time.

And as for that file itself... It again was one of the most comfortable experiences of my life. I honestly don't remember a comfier one, to be honest. And it's hard for me to judge because I'm not at all used to judging to how I respond to hypnosis, but I think I ended up going pretty deep. I nodded along to what I was saying without really thinking. I would imagine myself as my fursona a lot of the time (which is what happened during Owlette's file, though in that instance, it was not at all fun), and it felt like I was drifting off to sleep. In fact, towards the later half of the file, I don't remember any of it - it felt like I had just drifted off to sleep. I didn't even wake up during the awakener, though as soon as the file ended, I started to wake up, then was jolted awake at the realization I didn't even wake up when my voice was counting me up from trance. Like wow. Is that what it's like being hypnotized for you all??? Gosh.

Earlier today, as an attempt to calm myself before making an important call, I decided to listen to the file again. And I pretty much had the exact same experience. The only difference was that my consciousness started becoming aware as the file was waking me up, though I chose to stay in trance until the file ended, then I woke up quickly and easily the moment it ended. And then for whatever reason, I decided to listen to the file a third time while I was still in bed, and though it wasn't as effective, I still had that moment of going deep enough it felt like sleep (and thus I don't know what happened). I woke up from trance as I was saying the number 5, as I thought I was done counting then, lmao.

Needless to say, I'm definitely making more hypnosis files, though I'm unsure of what I should do next. I feel like I should make a file to help with my nervousness for phone calls, though I'm afraid I will not listen to it like I did in 2019. But I'm unsure what else I would do right now, especially since a file like that would definitely be helpful as there's an important call I need to do soon. So I might just make that particular file.

My end goal is to make me see myself as my fursona, as I have done with some people, as that has been my dream with hypnosis for years and years. I have hope now, I realize I'm a more suggestible subject than I thought. I also hope I'll be able to overcome this fear someday, because it's really getting in the way of me being able to be happy for my friends.

[neuroticboyfriend]

i know a lot of us knock meditation because we're constantly told to use it in a very dismissive way, but seriously, it can help - if you do it right. i didn't do it for the longest time, because i'd tried it before and it didn't really work out. but i didn't realize, i just wasn't doing the right kind of meditation for me.

imagination-heavy meditations tended to just make my mind run; i'd get caught up on every detail and think too hard about it. ones that focus a lot on breathing just distressed me. but i found Progressive Muscle Relaxation - and a specific hyponsis-style one by Sleep Cove is what's helped me most (check other platforms for it if you dont use spotify.

with this one, there are still imaginative elements (simple ones), and a few deep breaths. but the majority of it is well - you literally can just lay there and listen to his voice. don't think too hard about it - and as he says, "don't worry about getting it right." all you need to do is be open to what he's saying, as he guides you through relaxing your body.

there's no thinking involved, and for someone as anxious and mentally hyperactive as me, having someone to literally do the thinking for me is immensely calming. i never realized how much anxious tension my body holds, and even when it doesn't get me sleeping, i'm still calm - for once.

so yeah. it's okay to do what helps you, it's okay to be open to things. what ableist assholes say shouldn't have bearing on you finding coping mechanisms that work, and obviously, it's completely okay if meditation doesn't help you. we're all different, and sometimes figuring out what's best for us is trial and error. that's ok. just do your best, and be kind to yourself.

[sex-obsessed-lesbian]

Hypnovember Day 12: Hyperfocus

We're catching up, gang. (Reminder that I love to be perceived, and that comments and feedback help motivate me to make more stuff, so—tell me how you liked it?)

My-friend-John ramble about hyperfocusing on a task. I really get a kick out of not-quite-inductions, just musing about trancy ideas in a trancy voice until the listener maybe drops 😊

[froggirltits]

btw while i was gone i got about 100 times more into hypnosis than i was before. it’s still yet to work on me but i still love thinking about it

[secret-subject]

Due to your ADHD has it impacted how you do hypnosis/ASMR?

Great question!

The biggest impact it has is:

It effects my output of audios. I find it really hard to put out a consistent stream of audios because when I write scripts, I lose interest pretty quickly if it doesn't get done in one go. So it can take me weeks to make a script if my heart isn't fully in it. I have tried hiring script writers but it's not the same, so many in future I will try again to hire people to help me out but for now, I just make what I can when I can.

Also I am insanely passionate about hypnosis so it means that I get a little perfectionist about how it comes across. This is a blessing and a curse because it means I know a ton about it but some days I get mental blocks over it.

There's also my need for creative freedom. This is how I can make some wild things, but it also means I do need multiple projects to keep me going. Luckily now I also have ParaNorma and my music.

So yes, it does get in my way of work sometimes but it also is the reason I can do as much as I do to the level I do. So it's a win for me.

[marskiiii]

what started as a sketch dump turned into making a hypnosis mic oc w the group name Candy Pills hel p me

[switchthedragon]

Did I unintentionally make u a simp for Fang? 🤨🤨🤨

hhhhgghhmaybe....

[hypnotic-princess]

Trying something new

[lunarhorrors]

i fully believe i could never be successfully hypnotized. ‘clear your mind’ ‘focus on this’ ??? i have adhd. i’m incapable of those things. you’ll never catch me slipping. i’m unhypnotizable.