Like many first-time parents, Blaire Leahy, who became a new mother at 25, grew anxious of the thought of taking care and raising a baby. Unlike other parents, her condition escalated in a full-blown anxiety disorder. It lead to her development of a severe case of insomnia that affected the state of her health. Thankfully, she got help.
For six years, Blaire could only get at least one hour of sleep at night. As a mother taking care of two young children, the insomnia left her exhausted.
It all started after the birth of her first child, Orla-Rita, five years ago and she developed anxiety problems. "I would get into bed absolutely shattered, but as soon as my head hit the pillow my mind would start whirling. I was so worried, I would just lie there and play all of these different scenarios out until the nth degree," the mom from West Midlands said via Mirror UK. "The next thing I'd know, the alarm was going off and I'd barely dozed off at all."
Soon afterwards, her condition would bring her post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which lead to her insomnia. Her sleeping environment did not improve when she gave birth to her second child, Loen Keegan, only after a year. Her babies suffered from colic attacks constantly. "One would cry from 7pm until 11pm and then the other would start from 12pm until 4am. There was no break," Blaire said.
To cope, she tried to take sleeping pills for four years and also drank tea to help her fall asleep. But these did not bring the desired effects. As much as she was having trouble sleeping, her waking hours were also affected. So, she turned to caffeine, chocolates and sugar to get through the day. It was a vicious cycle.
Upon a friend's suggestion, Blaire decided to explore hypnotherapy, according to Daily Mail. So, in early June, she underwent her first two-hour session with hypnotherapist David Kilmurry to help get her started. Miraculously, Blaire was able to sleep for one full night after that. "I just thought to myself "oh my god, that's the first proper night's sleep I've had for almost six years. It's been that way ever since," Blaire revealed.
Since then, she has been going to Kilmurry and have not only been able to sleep well, she also has more energy to become a better mom and individual. While she admits that she would have never considered hypnotherapy before, she is glad she has taken the chance to explore the option.
The process Kilmurry applied with Blaire, called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), is recognized by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) as a method for helping insomniacs, the Daily Mail stated. Kilmurry also practices Neurological Linguistic Programming (NLP) to help with a different type of sleep problem.
