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[Armok]

( That's why I have it! )

[Ephemeriis]

The big problem with using hypnosis to forget trauma is that your conscious memories are the least of your problems.

There's all sort of emotional scarring, behavioral patterns, belief systems, and thought patterns that develop as a result of your life experiences - both the good and the bad.  Simply suppressing conscious memories does absolutely nothing to address the rest of the mess. 

It's like chopping off the tip of an iceberg so you can't see it anymore, and leaving that deadly mountain of (now invisible) ice floating freely.  It will come back to bite you in the ass.

Believe me, I know.

My wife suffered a lot of childhood trauma - most of which she's completely repressed.  Has no conscious memory of it at all.  And then some random smell or action or something will set her off like an emotional landmine.

She's spent years in therapy trying to work though it. 

No, just accepting something isn't generally enough.  You have to process the hurt, come to terms with what happened, come to terms with what that has meant to you as a person, deal with the assorted problems/baggage that you've picked up along the way, and accept where you are now as a result of all that.

It isn't easy.  Like I said, my wife has been working on it for years now.  But she is making progress.

[eerr]

I might know a few tricks for not remembering.

but for a couple of years?

...

Dilution-
Spread the angst, the sadness, whatever it may be, among other memories, through association.

Said memories don't have to be related.


Destruction-
Memories are destroyable, eraseable. If you focus, you may somehow be able to trigger memory deletion.

If I remember correctly, It feels like a fog washing permenantly over the memory.

It may not be permenant.

[Soadreqm]

How about a frontal lobotomy? From what I hear, that has a pretty decent chance of permanently damaging your ability to feel emotions.

[eerr]

How about a frontal lobotomy? From what I hear, that has a pretty decent chance of permanently damaging your ability to feel emotions.

Quiet you.

[Shades]

How about a frontal lobotomy? From what I hear, that has a pretty decent chance of permanently damaging your ability to feel emotions.

This suggestion is unlike most other suggestions here. It would work.

[lordcooper]

Heroin.

You'll forget everything sooner or later.

[ChairmanPoo]

Herpetic encephalitis. You might get an amnesic syndrome. Then again, I think that was more about getting new memories than erasing the old

[eerr]

you guys sucks.

[lordcooper]

It would help with this specific problem though.

[eerr]

To be clear, what I was talking about, are techniques where I turn my mind upon itself, and search for a solution.

Not much outside help, and especially not hypnotism.

[jnecros]

My advice: use approach and not avoidance coping, and it seems like you want to use hypnosis means by which you can avoid painful memories or thoughts. Approach would require you dealing with unwanted thoughts and feelings in a positive manner. Provided that they are not extreme, this can be done rather easily if you habituate yourself to them. Meaning, expose yourself to the memories as much as possible until they no longer solicit a negitive reaction, are no longer salient, or you have accepted them and can move on with your life. Of course, if we are talking about extreme cases, then seek a local professional.

However, I can tell you that hypnosis has not proven to be an effective tool for forgetting (nor recall for that matter), but hypnosis is good for pain management, ie physical rather than mental pain, and it works well for relaxation, generally, in the research literature. 

[Neonivek]

I can tell you that hypnosis has not proven to be an effective tool for forgetting

Well that is because even Freudian psychology said that repressed memories are the cause of psychosis.

[ChairmanPoo]

Freudian psychology  is hogwash

[Neonivek]

Freudian psychology  is hogwash

I know but most psychology afterwords generally agrees with at least the statement that repression can lead to problems. So it was more of a "Even back then they said not to do it"

The difference however is modern psychology even states that depending on the circumstance, repression is a perfectly healthy response to trauma.