The use of hypnosis in cocaine addiction

An unusual case is presented in which hypnosis was successfully used to overcome a $500 (five grams) per day cocaine addiction. The subject was a female in her twenties. Six months into her addiction, she acquired a commercial weight-control tape that she used successfully to stop smoking cigarettes (mentally substituting the word "smoking"), as well as to bring her down from her cocaine high and allow her to fall asleep. After approximately 8 months of addiction, she decided to use the tape in an attempt to overcome the addiction itself. Over the next 4 months, she listened to the tape three times a day, mentally substituting the word "coke." At the end of this period, her addiction was broken, and she has been drug free for the past 9 years. Her withdrawal and recovery were extraordinary because hypnosis was the only intervention, and no support network of any kind was available.