Hypnosis Pain Relief Tips
Read these 25 Hypnosis Pain Relief Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Hypnosis tips and hundreds of other topics.
Headaches and Hypnosis
It's no secret that the most common cause for headaches is stress. Did you know that hypnosis stress reduction can help eliminate those headaches quickly and effectively? The equation is simple: stress brings on headaches and headaches and hypnosis can release stress. the first step is to create a calm peaceful environment for hypnosis, either with a therapist or alone, using self-hypnosis. Hypnosis geared specifically to reduce headaches has been proven to help balance the immune system, alter the chemicals released in the brain, and create a different physiological state when a person is subjected to stress. All this adds up to being headache-free...for good!
Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia is a condition that involves chronic pain. You can use Pain Management Hypnosis to make it easier to live with fibromyalgia. Relaxation is one tool. Another is distraction, where you train yourself to shift your concentration to something else. Put yourself in a hypnotic trance to make it easier to concentrate. Another helpful approach is to use hypnosis and relaxation to overcome insomnia. Give yourself suggestions that you will sleep soundly, and go into a trance when you go to bed if you have trouble getting to sleep. Lack of restful sleep makes fibromyalgia worse. Hypnosis CDs can be very helpful for dealing with fibromyalgia.
Chronic Pain
The most common cause of chronic pain is arthritis. This pain can range from an occasional annoyance to a debilitating condition, but can be helped by Pain Management Hypnosis. You may be able to reduce, or even eliminate, the medication you are now taking to control the pain.
Research on Hypnosis Pain Relief
There have been many clinical studies documenting the effectiveness of hypnosis for pain relief, according to an article in Scientific American, July 2001. The article also asserts that hypnosis should not be the only intervention for a medical or psychological disorder. Pain management, including for such uses as relieving arthritis pain and headache relief, is considered by many to be the best documented use of hypnosis.
Pain Relief and Hypnosis: A Case Study
In a trial at Harvard Medical School, Elvira Lang, M.D., tested 240 people who were having a painful invasive interventional radiology procedure. The procedure involved little cameras being inserted through their arteries. Three groups were created: One with self-hypnosis training, one without, and one control group. The study showed that the patients who received self-hypnosis training were more comfortable, less anxious, had fewer problems and completed the procedure sooner.
Specific Methods Used During Pain Control Hypnosis
There are a number of specific methods employed during pain control hypnosis to help a client lessen his/her discomfort In one, the client imagines an inner advisor who will modify or release the pain. In yet another, called "The Protective Shield," the client imagines a protective force around the body shielding it from pain and/or unpleasant feelings. Also, there is a method known as "time and body dissociation." Here, the client imagines escaping to a pleasant past event or place while healthy and pain free.
Acute and Chronic Pain
Acute pain is immediate or short term, such as when you stub your toe or sprain your ankle. Chronic pain is ongoing, such as the pain of arthritis. There are two general types of pain that hypnosis can help with: acute and chronic.
Hypnotherapy Instead of Pain-killers?
Before you pop another aspirin for your headache, read this. Hypnosis may be powerful enough to relieve even procedure-related pain in adults. (In other words, pain caused by surgical procedures.) Imagine what kind of pain relief hypnosis can bring to a simple headache! A small trial of patients undergoing angioplasty, an invasive heart procedure, found that the sedative effect of hypnosis was slightly better than that of the drug diazepam, otherwise known as Valium.
How Hypnosis Is Used To Control Pain
Hypnosis for pain relief can work in three phases. First is physical relaxation. When people are in pain, muscles tense and exacerbate the pain. Second is sensory alteration, or changing your perception of pain. Mentally you transform the pain into another sensation. Finally, there is distraction. You simply focus on sensations in some other part of your body, reducing the attention you're paying to the pain.
Hypnosis and Pain Relief During Childbirth
Hypnosis helps many women during childbirth. Some clinicians believe that 10 to 20 percent of the general population can be trained to use hypnosis as their primary analgesic. However, a larger percentage of the population can use self-hypnosis to allay their fears of pain (including labor pain). This helps to keep them calm during the stages of early labor before they can be given an epidural -- stages which can last quite while.
Mild or Severe Pain
Isadore Rosenfeld (Dr. Rosenfeld's Guide to Alternative Medicine) explains that light hypnosis is sufficient that you would not feel a pin prick, but deeper hypnosis is necessary for severe pain. This would indicate that you may be able to achieve pain relief for minor pain through self hypnosis,
Psychological Pain
Pain can be psychological or physical. The sensation of pain is similar, and often it is difficult to identify psychological pain. The techniques that are effective for pain relief in physical pain may not work for psychological pain. If you think you have psychological pain, you can put yourself in a trance, focus on the pain, and let your mind wander back to the cause of the pain, which then lets you get rid of it. If the problem is deep seated or severe, see a qualified hypnotist, who will help you discover the cause of the psychological pain, and get rid of it.
Reducing Pain
For pain management, imagine a thermometer on its side, something like what you see on your computer screen when a page is loading. Put a 1 at one end and a 10 at the other. Now place your pain at a spot along the scale, with 10 being the worst you can imagine and 1 being hardly any. Put yourself in a trance and relax. Visualize your pain subsiding as the thermometer marker moves slowly down the scale. You may not get to 1, but if you move your pain from 7 to 4, you will feel much better. Don't force it beyond where it wants to stop.
The Most Common Physical Pains Eased by Hypnotherapy
Enough research has been done over the years to prove that hypnosis is an effective tool to eliminate and even prevent nearly every kind of pain. More specifically, the list has included back pain, cancer pain, labor pains during childbirth, dental anesthesia, headaches and migraines, and arthritis or rheumatism.
This is Your Brain on Pain
The brain itself does not feel pain, but instead sends signals to the rest of the body in the form of pain to let you know something is wrong. Pain control hypnosis teaches your brain to redirect your energy away from experiencing pain. Keep in mind, however, that hypnosis is not a one-shot cure for pain. Be sure to see a medical professional before embarking on a course of pain management through hypnotherapy to be sure a more serious problem is not causing your discomfort.
Isn't Pain Good?
Pain is necessary as a message to let you know you have an injury or physical condition that needs attention. Once you have taken the necessary steps--first aid, rest, seeing a doctor--the pain is not needed. You do not want to block all future pain. Renew pain relief as needed.
Reducing Pain From Medical Procedures Through Hypnosis
According to Consumer Reports, discomfort during certain medical procedures can be reduced with the help of hypnosis. In a study in Wales, 80 cancer patients ages 6 to 16 received hypnosis from a therapist. They reported less pain and anxiety during their treatments. One of the treatments involved spinal cord punctures. The test subjects demonstrated less distress than those who received only standard care during those painful procedures.
Migraine Headaches
For migraines, here is a good tip for headache relief. When you feel a migraine coming on, relax and visualize your hands becoming very warm. Migraines are thought to be associated with dilation of blood vessels in the brain, so warming your hands will bring more blood to the extremities and let the coronary arteries return to normal, thereby relieving the pain.
Pain Threshold
Your pain threshold is higher when you are relaxed, so train yourself as part of pain management to relax quickly and you can head off an attack of chronic pain. Plan to relax when you know pain is coming, as during a visit to the dentist. Dental pain is usually not as bad as we fear, so relaxing can prevent it completely.
Cautions About Hypnosis
Pain management is one area in which there may be a danger in using hypnosis. Hypnosis can be too successful, covering the symptom of pain before the cause is found. Always see your health provider for a diagnosis of the cause of pain, and approval for treating it with hypnosis, before you try to relieve it through hypnosis.
Hypnosis and Placebo
Research has shown hypnosis to be more effective in pain relief than placebo. This shows that hypnosis is more than just having a good imagination. There are actual changes in brain function involved.
Preventing Muscle Damage
Here's a pain relief technique that can keep you from making a minor injury worse: Let's say you are out for a run. You feel a pain or cramp in your leg. Slow down gradually while you concentrate on that area in your leg and tell it to relax. (Yes, you can talk to your body.) This can relieve the tension in the muscle and keep it from tearing. Slow to a walk and see if the pain is gone. If not, you can deal with it with the appropriate first aid or ride home if necessary. If the pain is gone, you can continue on your way.
Hypnosis and Pain Relief During Childbirth
Hypnosis helps many women during childbirth. Some clinicians believe that 10 to 20 percent of the general population can be trained to use hypnosis as their primary analgesic. However, a larger percentage of the population can use self-hypnosis to allay their fears of pain (including labor pain). This helps to keep them calm during the stages of early labor before they can be given an epidural -- stages which can last quite while.
Pain Relief in the Brain
Researchers used positron emission tomography to show that there are actual brain changes when hypnosis is used for pain relief. Hypnosis reduced the activity of the anterior cingulate cortex, an area involved in pain, but not the somatosensory cortex, in which the sensations are processed. This indicates that hypnosis pain management occurs in parts of the brain other than that where the pain is registered. (Scientific American, July 2001) This doesn't fully explain how hypnosis works in pain relief, but it indicates that it does.
Recovering from Injury
If you are recovering from an injury, for instance an ankle sprain, put yourself into a trance, and replay the accident that caused the injury in your mind. The pain will get worse at the point in the replay when you actually hurt yourself, but will quickly subside. For pain relief, do this two or three times, and the pain will be less each time. When you bring yourself out of hypnosis, you will find that the ankle hurts less than it did before. It will also heal more quickly after this mental exercise.
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