hypnosis has been used for quite some time. mesmer and charcot and the like...

some people are more hypnotisable than others so hypnotism is not suitable for everybody.

if you extend the notion of 'hypnosis' to cover talk therapy and everyday experiences of altered consciousness you can of course maintain that all therapists use hypnotism, but typically people keep 'hypnotism' to refer to the therapist (or practitioner) using methods of formal induction. of course there is something of a blurry line, but i would say that guided imagery (imagine a calming place) while being a hypnotic technique (a suggestion) doesn't really constitute formal hypnosis.

hypnosis has been subjected to a great deal of controversy particularly with respect to the veridicality (truthfulness or accuracy) of memories recovered during a hypnotic induction. hypnosis is often contra-indicated for memory / trauma work because it has become rather renouned for producing confabulations in the subjects.

with respect to smoking cessation / weight loss etc i'm wondering if the studies that have been done on the efficacy of hypnosis controlled for placebo effect. placebo effect for an innert medication, even. of course that isn't the best control group to have... but hypnosis basically works through the power of suggestion, so i'd be interested to know whehter the response is greater than placebo. (placebo response is of course a response and i'm not meaning to undermine it).

hypnosis has also been critiqued with respect to producing elaborations on states of fragmentation (for elaborating people who are dissociated into distinct personalities or identities).

with what i've learned in psychology (including clinical psychology) and in psychiatry... hypnosis isn't used very often anymore in those fields and yes, there is a widespread concern about whether hypnosis helps or harms all things considered...

> I don't quite understand with all of the research and articles writen by very reputable sources, why some people would rather suffer with their issues then use hypnosis.

well... maybe because of this other literature that has been written by very reputable sources which expresses a great deal of concern about the potential harmfulness of hypnosis...