Can Hypnosis Help to Eliminate Pain?
Pain is a subject that touches everyone. After all, it is
a human condition from which we all suffer at one time or
another. There are headaches, dental procedures, sports injuries,
broken bones, soft-tissue injuries, and psychosomatic pain.
Research shows that 75% to 80% of all adults will experience
lower back pain at some time in their lives. Approximately
40 million Americans suffer from arthritis pain and as many
as 45 million suffer from chronic, recurring headaches. There
are thousands of people every year who suffer the agony of
surgical interventions and thousands more who endure the pain
of debilitating or terminal illnesses.
All of this pain falls into two basic categories: (1) acute
pain, which is of short duration and (2) chronic pain, which
continues for weeks, months or years.
Most people respond to pain - whether acute or chronic -
by taking drugs of some kind. But drugs are often a temporary
solution.
What few people realize is that the ancient art of hypnosis
offers a safe, effective alternative for reducing sensitivity
to pain.
Hypnosis has been shown effective in the management of various
types of pain. Besides providing an effective solution for
maladies such as headaches and acute injuries, hypnosis offers
a unique solution for those suffering from chronic conditions
like back pain and arthritis as well as intermediate and advanced
stages of cancer. Studies show that patients with chronic
diseases require fewer painkillers to achieve pain relief
when they practice hypnosis. These same patients exhibit fewer
signs of anxiety and experience greater comfort during medical
procedures.
Hypnosis also has been shown to be effective in reducing
nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients.
The most effective approach for acute pain appears to be
the use of hypnotic suggestions focusing on anxiety reduction
and minimizing the importance of the pain. For chronic pain,
it is more effective to confront the pain directly under hypnosis,
dealing with both the pain's physical and psychological effects.
Another area where hypnosis offers significant positive results
is in dealing with pre- and post-operative patients. Using
hypnosis in preparation for surgery has been shown to reduce
the experience of pain during surgery, resulting in the need
for less anesthetics. Hypnosis as a pain management tool with
surgical patients also has been shown to reduce nausea and
greatly increase the recovery rate in most patients, thereby
truncating the length of time spent in the hospital. (That
creates another rarely mentioned positive result: reduced
medical costs!)
But efficacy and lower medical expenses are not the only
positives related to the use of hypnosis for pain management.
This modality has no dangerous side effects. Unlike medications,
hypnosis does not become less effective with use and does
not require stronger and stronger doses to cope with pain.
While patients may have to ingest costly medications several
times a day for years, they have the potential for reducing
or eliminating their pain in just a few hypnotic sessions
for significantly less cost.
Does hypnosis always work? In the area of pain control, everyone
can be helped to SOME degree. There are essentially five categories
into which subjects fall:
1. Those who find total and permanent relief.
2. Those that have a decrease in the severity of pain.
3. Those who experience pain relief initially, but who need
occasional reinforcement.
4. Those that experience intermittent relief.
5. Those that still have pain, but feel 10-30% less pain than
before.
What accounts for these differences in relief? The answer
appears to be the patient's susceptibility to hypnosis - the
level of relaxation reached during the hypnotic sessions.
The deeper the relaxation, the more effective the pain reduction.
Certainly, no treatment for pain - whether chemical, physical
or psychological - is effective all the time. However, hypnosis
has shown over and over again that it can help people reduce
or eliminate both acute and chronic pain. Best of all, it
works its magic without any side effects.
As a safe, effective alternative for reducing sensitivity
to pain, hypnosis is second to none.
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Author: Eric Choong
Please visit my website at: http://www.health-beauty-care.com
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