I paid $200 to be hypnotized to cure my anxiety over going out in public after COVID-19. Surprisingly, it worked.

An hour-long phone call with a hypnosis expert helped Julie Peck overcome her fear after her mom got COVID-19.

Julie Peck learned that hypnosis isn’t at all like in the movies. Photo: Tara Moore/Getty Images

By Julie Peck

I care for my 80-year-old mother in my home, so ensuring her safety and that of myself and the rest of our family from the COVID-19 virus has been nothing short of an obsession for me. We’ve been hypervigilant about masks, hand washing, hand sanitizing, staying home, social distancing when out, and much more.

Despite all my precautions, my mother caught COVID-19 anyway: She took a spill when visiting her brother — what I thought would be a safe trip — and ended up in the hospital and subsequently a rehab facility.

Yes, you guessed it — that’s where the pandemic reached out and touched her. Thankfully, unlike with so many others, she was lucky; she had a fever and some other mild symptoms for a couple of days, but was otherwise unbothered.

Add to this the fact that I live in an area of the country where both vaccinations and masking are not issues of common sense and public health but political lightning rods, and I’ll do just about anything to avoid going out in public — even now that my 14-year-old is the only one who’s not fully…