diff --git a/code/datums/brain_damage/hypnosis.dm b/code/datums/brain_damage/hypnosis.dm
index 61e59026ebb..d3ce57ca672 100644
--- a/code/datums/brain_damage/hypnosis.dm
+++ b/code/datums/brain_damage/hypnosis.dm
@@ -7,11 +7,17 @@
 	resilience = TRAUMA_RESILIENCE_SURGERY
 
 	var/hypnotic_phrase = ""
+	var/regex/target_phrase
 
 /datum/brain_trauma/hypnosis/New(phrase)
 	if(!phrase)
 		qdel(src)
 	hypnotic_phrase = phrase
+	try
+		target_phrase = new("(\\b[hypnotic_phrase]\\b)","ig")
+	catch(var/exception/e)
+		stack_trace("[e] on [e.file]:[e.line]")
+		qdel(src)
 	..()
 
 /datum/brain_trauma/hypnosis/on_gain()
@@ -43,6 +49,5 @@
 				new /datum/hallucination/chat(owner, TRUE, FALSE, "<span class='hypnophrase'>[hypnotic_phrase]</span>")
 
 /datum/brain_trauma/hypnosis/on_hear(message, speaker, message_language, raw_message, radio_freq)
-	var/regex/target_phrase = new("(\\b[hypnotic_phrase]\\b)","ig")
 	message = target_phrase.Replace(message, "<span class='hypnophrase'>$1</span>")
-	return message
\ No newline at end of file
+	return message