CAUTION!!!! – Nerva: IBS & Gut Hypnotherapy Review

With this app, there is the very real danger of eliciting or evoking acute and distressing mental health dissonance. As a pharmacist for 8 years, and a current student of East Asian Medicine, I would say I am generally quite in tune with my body. I downloaded this app at the recommendation of my primary care physician in an attempt to holistically manage some symptoms of GI discomfort and bloating. I used the app for about three weeks. I slowly began to feel different, but the changes were negative and included insomnia, dizziness, severe anxiety, and a general feeling of unease and over-activity. I called my physician to check in, thinking I was experiencing an acute case of bipolar syndrome (which I have never before had). At my next visit, she recommended stopping all things new because the symptoms were getting worse and I was feeling frantic. I stopped the app that night, and felt IMMEDIATE relief the next day. I was totally exhausted and slept a lot the following week, and felt stability and sanity slowing returning. I write this review not to offend or affront the app or its creators. I am highly supportive of natural methods for controlling disease processes and am so grateful for innovative ideas like Nerva. I write this review as a CAUTION - hypnosis is not necessarily safe and free from harm; like ANY medication there can be side effects. Treatment is ALWAYS about treating the right person, in the right place, at the right time. I would HIGHLY recommend that anyone seriously considering engaging with this app be incredibly mindful and aware of potential negative changes in mental status. Please work closely with a physician and a mental health provider to ensure any side effects can be monitored and any negative psychological changes can be tracked. If you are sensitive or have a history of mental illness, consider going to see a hypnotherapist in person. It would be worth the extra money to have someone guide your mind at the appropriate speed for your own personal integration. NOTE: I did re-attempt using the app after a few months had lapsed under close supervision by my primary care physician. I had immediate adverse reactions within the first day of using Nerva and unfortunately these effects were more pronounced and took longer to resolve than the first time around. The physician who recommended this app to me did reach out to the creators of Nerva. They assured her that the only contraindication for use was active psychosis. While I have certainly struggled with my share of mental health problems, I was in no way in an active state of psychosis when beginning the use of this app. I started Nerva while in a period of baseline normal functioning and the app unquestionably elicited and evoked the onset of an acute mental health crisis.
Review by When the Heart Waits on Nerva: IBS & Gut Hypnotherapy.