Author: MJT
Three Common Uses of Medical Hypnosis
When most people hear the word "hypnosis," they
think of magicians or parlor tricks. Perhaps they picture a hypnotized person
clucking like a chicken or barking like a dog. The truth is that hypnosis
represents a state of deep relaxation, somewhere between being asleep and being
awake. People in this state can be led to focus completely on one thing in
their environment, while ignoring all other stimuli. People who are hypnotized
are also somewhat inclined to follow suggestion, although no matter how deep the
trance, the hypnotized subject is never out of control of his or her own
behavior.
Over the years, the medical community has come to view
medical hypnosis as a useful tool. Medical hypnosis has frequently been used to
help treat the following conditions.
Pain
Pain signals originate in the brain. For instance, if you
touch a hot stove, your fingers will immediately transmit the heat they feel to
the brain. The brain interprets this as pain, and you jerk your hand back to
avoid further injury. In this way, pain helps us survive.
But sometimes pain has no clear cause. When this type of
pain becomes chronic, sufferers are often willing to try anything to end their
torment. Medical hypnosis has been used successfully to help turn these random
pain signals "off."
Pain is also highly associated with anxiety and fear. If the
anxiety and fear are reduced through hypnosis, the pain may regulate itself.
Cancer
Medical hypnosis has been used in several ways in the fight
against cancer. Child subjects especially, but sometimes adults as well, are
encouraged under medical hypnosis to visualize their healthy cells attacking
the cancer cells and making them go away. Whether or not this actually reduces
the number of cancer cells is hard to say, but it does seem to make patients
feel more empowered in their fights. This can lead to a more positive attitude
and a better outcome.
Medical hypnosis is also used frequently to manage pain and
nausea that result from the cancer itself and the cancer treatments the patient
is receiving.
Bad Habits
Medical hypnosis has been offered as a cure for every
problem for alcoholism to smoking to overeating. Most people who use hypnosis
to treat these problems admit that patients do better if hypnosis is only one
of many tools used. For instance, someone who smokes would get the best outcome
if he or she underwent medical hypnosis and joined a support group and used
nicotine gum or patches.
While medical hypnosis is not a cure-all, then, it does seem
to help with certain conditions. If you're struggling with a health care
problem that doesn't seem to respond to traditional treatments, why not discuss
medical hypnosis with your physician? It could be just the tool you need to
help resolve your health problem.
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