Nervous Cough

Do you find that it feels impossible to stop doing this merely by effort of will?

First, it is very important to check with your medical professional whether there is any physical or medical condition underlying this behavior before considering psychological approaches.

So called 'nervous habits' tend to develop without our noticing them. It's as if our bodies and minds autonomously generate an external 'response' to certain situations. We are most unlikely to notice the very first time we respond in this way. Or the second time. Or even the tenth time. But sooner or later we realize (all too commonly because someone else makes a comment) that this habit has become fixed.

Why it doesn't help to look for the 'cause' of a nervous cough

Many people get anxious when they become aware that they have acquired, without any conscious decision, an unwelcome automatic response like a nervous cough. They start looking for deep psychological explanations and think that, if only they can 'get to the root of it', they will be able to 'sort it out'. This is rarely a useful approach. Even if you know exactly what the initiating 'cause' was, this won't help you stop.

This is because unconscious behavior like this is generated in the 'unconscious' part of the mind. The conscious mind can shout all it likes that 'this must stop', the unconscious mind will continue on stubbornly with its patterns unless a change is made at the unconscious level, where the pattern started.

So how would you do that?

Using hypnosis to deal with unconscious responses

The best way to access, and modify, unconscious patterns is through the state in which they were generated. That is, hypnosis.

You may not have realized you were 'hypnotized' into producing this automatic response, but this is in fact a very good way to understand what happens. Something in the initial situation (it doesn't matter what exactly) created an automatic 'emotional link' between that sort of situation and this response. So now, whenever you unconsciously sense that you are in a similar sort of situation, you produce the response.

And with hypnosis you can successfully 'unlink' this connection again.