Does Hypnosis Work?
Hypnosis for stress and anxiety is an effective treatment option that can help many people who suffer from anxiety disorders. While the method is sometimes misunderstood, hypnosis creates an altered state of mind that is similar to deep relaxation. When a practitioner, called a hypnotist, uses hypnosis to relieve anxiety and stress, he or she usually facilitates a process that uses verbal suggestions to induce a state of relaxation. The subject of hypnosis can usually learn to use the same suggestions to self-induce the altered state in order to feel calmer under pressure.
There are two types of anxiety, situational and existential. Situational anxiety is usually related to stressful events or pressures in a person’s life. Existential anxiety is more of a pervading state of mind that can often be related to a chemical imbalance.
Hypnosis for stress and anxiety can help alleviate anxiety symptoms in sufferers of both types of anxiety. If the anxiety is situational, one can use hypnosis to help create an inner-environment that is conducive to re framing thoughts about what is stressful. If anxiety is existential, the hypnotic state can be a refuge from chronic physical feelings of anxiety, such as nervousness, racing heart beat and mental confusion.
How Does It Help?
Since anxiety is fueled by negative thoughts and stopped by positive thoughts, hypnosis trains a person to recognize automatic negative responses and consciously replace them with positive thoughts.
A person who sufferers from an anxiety disorder will often find that his or her physical reaction, that is the feeling of anxiety, is usually in response to negative thoughts. Therefore, if the thoughts can be challenged and re framed, symptoms of anxiety will decrease. This is much easier to accomplish in a state of relaxation induced by hypnosis.
Hypnosis for stress and anxiety can be used to control both thoughts and physical responses to those thoughts. For example, a person can use hypnotic suggestion to reduce or eliminate anxiety symptoms like jitteriness and flushing as well as to lessen or change negative internal thought patterns. In the relaxed state of hypnosis, it is much easier to identify the underlying thoughts that contribute to anxiety symptoms, and once these thoughts are identified, they can be changed.
Further, the hypnotic state is one of deep relaxation that is counter to anxious feelings that may arise as a result of negative thoughts, so the physical symptoms of anxiety are helped by hypnosis even before thoughts are addressed.
During a session of hypnosis aimed to relieve tension and anxiety, relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and meditation are used to achieve a state of calm called a hypnotic trance. The depth of the trance depends on the person being hypnotized and the skill of the practitioner.
While it may be easier to access thoughts and emotions while one is in a deep trance, hypnosis for stress and anxiety is effective even when the subject is only able to achieve a mild state of relaxation.
Wishing you balance and inner calmness,
more on hypnosis for stress and anxiety and tips on how to manage on our anxiety information page
