About Darin
Hypnotherapist
Hi! My name’s Darin. I’m a certified hypnotherapist. You may wonder how someone gets into that. For me it was life or death. You see, years ago I was on top of the world. I had a house, a family, a good career. I was doing triathlons, taekwondo, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. One day in taekwondo we were doing punches in the air and I heard a loud pop. As you may recognize, a pop is never a good thing. After being reluctant for several months, trying physical therapy and other means to heal, I gave in and went to the doctor and got an MRI. I had torn my labrum top and bottom. Surgery was scheduled. If you’ve never had shoulder surgery before, be thankful. The recovery is typically 6-12 months. The first month the arm is kept immobile to allow the wounds to heal. Then flexibility and range of motion is worked on. Finally, strength begins.
For me, being a martial artist and an athlete, I had a high tolerance for pain. Once I started physical therapy, the pain was intense. It was often more than I could take. I kept telling the therapists and even went back to the doctor. I was prescribed narcotics. These did little to help. The pain kept getting worse. Over the next couple years, I tried to resume with my life, but it became increasing difficult. I had several things happen to me where I ended up in the doctor’s office or the hospital: a wolf spider bite, a staph infection, a piece of metal in my eye, and shingles. I found a pain scale that had several of those on there. I brought the scale with me to my orthopedic surgeon and explained I had all of those and that my pain was much worse than any of them. He sent me to a neurologist. That’s when I finally got my diagnosis of what was causing the pain: Complex Region Pain Syndrome, or CRPS for short.
CRPS is the worst pain known to man. On a pain scale, it is at the top. Most people who get CRPS end up committing suicide. If you have ever read descriptions of hell…eternal burning, mashing of teeth, screaming out but having no breath left to make a noise, that’s CRPS. And the pain DOES NOT STOP. At the point when I went to see the neurologist, I had not slept in two months. They say that’s not possible, but I can tell you if you are in enough pain, it’s very much possible. The neurologist prescribed me some new medication which greatly helped. That day my daughter was having surgery. I got the prescriptions filled at the hospital and proceeded to fall asleep. They had to get a wheelchair for me to get me out of the hospital as I was not waking up for anything.
The next five and a half years were spent looking for a cure or anything that could provide some extra relief. I lost my job as my boss became hostile when I was unable to work. My dad would take me to various doctors. I was willing to try anything. I kept telling them to cut my arm off as it would be better to not have my arm than to be like this. They wouldn’t do it. I went through dozens of medications, many experimental. I had dozens of operations, nerve blocks, physical therapy, acupuncture, prolotherapy, PRP, laser treatments, chiropractors, bio-feedback, neurofeedback, etc. I was willing to try anything. During this time, the pain continued to get worse. I could not handle vibrations as they would trigger the pain. I could not take hot showers. I lived in the basement and rarely saw anyone other than my kids. People did not know what to do. During the 2-3 hours of functional time I had a day, I would research new treatments and medications.
As happens with most people with CRPS, I was done. After 6 months, CRPS is considered incurable by the medical community. I had tried everything they had to offer. I had tried every alternative treatment I could find. I was looking for ways to leave my family in the best possible situation when I left as I had gone through all my savings being out of work and trying to get treated for this awful disease. I checked a website one last time that often had new experimental treatments and stories of people’s journeys. It had a new article about someone getting cured. I read the article and called the clinic. I talked to my parents and they agreed to take me as I was not capable of travel on my own. A GoFundMe was setup to raise funds. My parents agreed to lend me any money that I couldn’t raise.
I would be in Arkansas for 3 months getting treatment. The time finally came and my parents and I set out on the two days of travel. I did my best to distract myself while they drove. There are many wonderful things that happened in Arkansas, as well as many ups and downs. There is one thing in particular I want to point out, one thing that I found to be at the root of the horrible pain I had been experiencing. Several of us took a three day weekend class. During the first day of this class, we were taught what pain is and how it is create. It is not what we were taught in school. We were then taught how to change it. I was skeptical, but also 100% committed. That evening, after my parents drove me back to where we were staying, I did this process for the next two hours. What happened next blew my mind. The pain, the horrible pain I had been dealing with 24/7 for the last 7 1/2 years, it was gone! How could this be? Was this real? More than a million dollars in medical expenses, 7 1/2 years of trying everything, and in two hours with this process, it’s gone?
Well, it was true! At least during the day. I would go to sleep and within 30 seconds the intense pain would come back. Why is this? I would do the process again and the pain would go away again. Go back to sleep. Wake up 30 seconds later. Repeat the process. What to do now? The thing is, stuff we do repeatedly, we become very good at. I had been in pain for 7 1/2 years and had become very good at it. So good I could do it in my sleep. A thing called neuroplasticity allows our nerves to rewire for tasks we do repeatedly. You probably don’t need to think how to tie your shoes anymore. You just tell your mind you want to tie them and it does the rest automatically. The same thing happens with chronic pain. So for the next four weeks, I kept repeating the process until finally, one day, it no longer came back at night.
What now? Well, with my life or death situation gone, there were many other issues to deal with. My back was thrown to the point I could not sit up or lie down. My immune system had been shut down and my body was overrun with a virus. My liver and thyroid were non-functional. My arm had severe atrophy. My emotions had been shut down for years and were now back. My memory was coming back. I could think clearly again. The long process of dealing with all of these secondary issues began, but they were all manageable. The root cause was cured and these soon would be too.
I had to find work. Previously I had been a software developer. I had plans to startup a company and needed some sales training, so I flew out to California for a workshop. During this workshop, we were taught about emotions and how to use them, how emotions affect us, and how they affect people around us. As a bonus, there was an extra day for those who could stay, and they taught us hypnosis. During that day I learned several techniques that I recognized from that weekend class in Arkansas. I had learned a form of self-hypnosis that had cured me of my uncurable disease and saved my life. This rabbit trail I must follow.
After the sales training, I signed up for several hypnosis classes. I had to see where this path led. What I found was simply amazing! My main focus was around my continued recovery and how to help others escape the pain that has been controlling their lives. During these classes I have learned several techniques which make the healing process even quicker than what I experienced. Most people I work with are pain free within 5-90 minutes. That’s right. If this is something you are struggling with, there is a solution. If you have been dealing with chronic pain as I was, multiple sessions are recommended to retrain your subconscious to feel good all of the time and let your nerves set feeling good as a default. I am so sure of this process, I will guarantee your results.
Hilton Head Hypnosis 