Hypnosis for Anxiety and Depression (An Update)

Hypnosis is an intervention therapy used to treat the patients with different mental health issues.

In this article we will discuss Hypnosis for Anxiety and Depression Clinicians use this therapy by inducing a state of trance which is resembled with sleep.

In this state a patient becomes vulnerable to take dictations, suggestions and directions from clinician.

In the process of hypnosis a person gets into a position where he/she becomes more able to concentrate and focus.

The therapist assists the client in getting relaxed and calm which enables him to be able to take suggestions openly. 

This type of treatment technique can be compared with daydreaming.

When a person is daydreaming he does not focus on other stimuli or thoughts which are running through his mind and he just simply becomes focused on his daydreaming.

During the process of hypnosis a client similarly becomes more focused and concentrated on current thoughts that are happening right now regardless of what’s happening around. 

There are various applications of hypnosis to treat different mental health issues.

Such as, depression and anxiety can be lessened or eliminated through suggestibility induced through hypnosis.

Different medical conditions can also be treated by inducing hypnosis.

For example, skin conditions, gastrointestinal diseases and chronic pain.

There have also been some researches on hypnosis to get information about how it impacts memory, sensations, learning and perception.

How Hypnosis Works

To get a better understanding of working of hypnosis let’s assume an instance that imagines a person has developed a habit of biting his nails and wants to get rid of this bad habit.

For this reason, you get an appointment with a mental health professional.

He’ll ask you about the place of your choice, if you want to sit or lie down.

You sit on the chair and counsellor starts asking you questions about what you would like to work on. 

The session of hypnosis consists of almost one hour.

Different relaxation techniques are applied by the trained therapist to guide the person into hypnotic state.

A person will still be aware and conscious in this state.

He will be feeling physically more relaxed and his mind will give response to suggestions from the therapist. 

The suggestion passed by the therapist will be dependent on the type of behaviour and condition a client is trying to get treated.

Hypnosis can also be helpful in removing the undesired and unhealthy habits and then replacing them with better and healthier ones.

For example, a person becomes more able to get control of his anxiety or pain and can easily improve and adjust negative thought patterns which are contributing in making tge symptoms of depression more worse. 

Hypnotherapy for Depression

Depression is considered as a mental disorder which negatively affects the mood.

Thus it is also regarded as a mood disorder.

In mood disorder a person constantly feels sad and shows lack of interest.

It isn’t linked to mood fluctuation because it is a common thing which people can regularly experience in their daily life routine. 

Depression is a worldwide problem.

It  basically comes in episodes in which it’s symptoms may last for 14 days.

Depression can last longer from weeks to months to even years. 

There are various causes of depression.

For example, losing someone very close, getting fired from the job or getting a rejection may put a person into a depressive state.

However, psychologists merely consider feelings of grief as a part of depression if they persist. 

Hypnotherapy is regarded as most relaxed and to put the mind into a relaxed and focused state.

Most of the people can get into a relaxed state of mind by simply applying some focusing and relaxation techniques.

Being treated with hypnosis or being under the influence of hypnosis is most similar to practicing meditation. 

But, there is one major difference that hypnotherapy is goal oriented therapy.

Hypnosis puts a person into a highly relaxed state which allows tge person to shed the conscious, critical mind.

When a person is getting hypnotherapy he becomes able to directly communicate with his subconscious.

Researchers have proved that when a mind is under the effect of hypnosis it becomes more vulnerable to get new information and derives new avenues of thinking.

This implies that the subconscious mind can be fed with desired information during the process of hypnotherapy.

For example, positive affirmations and suggestions etc.

Subconscious can be fed with information again and again to make it understand about making sense of the world around.

This is why hypnosis is called a meditation technique with aims.

A person enters into a relaxed state not only to get his mind and body relaxed but also to reshape our consciousness to feed more positive thoughts into it. 

Hypnosis offers benefits particularly for depression.

Hypnotherapy which is done with depression patients enables us to retrain the subconscious.

It allows the therapist to actually overwrite the existing negative thinking patterns which are contributing to develop negative habits, irrational responses and negative thoughts.

Because, all these factors are responsible for contributing to depression. 

There are several outside and inside key elements which are the causes of increasing the possibility of depression.

For instance, millions of adults get affected by drug abuse and it has been closely linked with depression.

According to an estimate around one-third of addicted adults are found to be clinically depressed. 

Obesity, traumatic events in life, low levels of self-esteem can potentially contribute to depression.

Therefore, hypnosis can be helpful for treating those who are suffering from depression and help them minimise their habits which are causing an increase in depression. 

Hypnosis, in depression, specifically can focus on low-self esteem.

This means that how a person thinks and tends to feel about himself which jmpacts his mood.

Thus the subconscious gets filled with irrational beliefs and negative thought patterns.

When these thoughts get repeated again and again a person feels difficulty in doing his day to day tasks.

Hypnosis is thought to be a powerful method to overcome such negative thought patterns which arise due to low self-esteem.

Through hypnosis a new subconscious is fed with positive thoughts and affirmations.

And a person becomes able to minimise or overcome most of his old and negative thoughts which dominate his inner self. 

Drug addiction is another factor which arises depression.

Many beliefs and thought patterns are underlying in the subconscious which hijacks the senses and body.

The addiction arises from the craving about drugs and encourages the person to find and take drugs.

Through hypnosis a person can get to understand his irrational thoughts which arise cravings and take over his control of mind.

Numerous researches have shown that hypnotherapy is proved to be promising in relieving drug addiction. 

Apart from improving the existing conditions hypnotherapy can also be influential about managing depression.

For instance, getting to know new coping strategies enables a person to handle different emotions and events which contribute to rising depression.

Thus hypnosis has been proved fruitful in learning and enhancing the coping strategies. 

Hypnotherapy can help in enhancing traditionally used therapies to deal with depression such as cognitive behavioural therapy.

It can help in improving mood conditions and can help in managing the symptoms of depression. 

Hypnosis for Anxiety

Anxiety is a perceived fear and threat of something to happen in future.

It can trigger stressful and fearful thoughts.

It is learned through many researches that anxiety is learned subconsciously.

A person makes himself to be reactive to different stressful situations in a specific way.

For those people who are suffering from anxiety, a wide range of symptoms can arise in response to stressful situations.

These symptoms can be negative thoughts and rapid breathing. 

Hypnosis enables a person to restructure his thoughts and relieve the automatic responses and then replace these thoughts and responses with positive thinking eventually overcoming stress and anxiety instantly.

Hypnosis can make you able to get control of your responses towards stressful events and empowers the mind to be friendly in such situations. 

Hypnosis make people able to get to know about their subconscious, automatic thought patterns and let them to recognise them and eventually help them to remove these negative thoughts.

Hypnosis derives a way to probe into the foundations of causes of anxiety, automatic defense mechanism thinking, and then eliminate the fear, irrational thoughts and panic which triggers anxiety. 

Anxiety generally takes control of a person’s life which means that person can no longer avoid anxiousness with self help.

When he is exposed to stimuli such as a social situation which fuels an automatic response.

These responses arise fear and panic and eventually trigger anxiety. 

Through hypnosis a person can start to overcome and eliminate the information present in his subconscious which makes him to get afraid and panic in different situations. 

In the state of hypnosis which pits mind and body into a very relaxed and aware state.

In this situation a person is able to bypass his negative thoughts and can easily move  right to the subconscious. 

Looking into medical research, they have shown that hypnosis is proved to be highly effective in treating the anxiety.

Many health care organisations and medical associations have recognised that hypnosis is a suitable and valid treatment method for people who are suffering from anxiety, stress and many other psychological issues. 

Benefits of Hypnosis

Hypnosis can be extremely helpful in treating the patients with their medical conditions without applying any other invasive therapies or additional medication.

Applying a therapy is considered as a most vital, safe and effective method of treatment with a lesser chance of side effects. 

Therapy may not be useful for everyone and every other mental illness, this is usually referred to as a complementary therapy.

A client may adopt to get help from hypnotherapy additionally with other treatment methods for depression to uplift his sense of contentment, boosting mood, getting better feelings of hopefulness.

There are a number of conditions which are being treated by hypnotherapists.

These are as follow:

• Anxiety
• Chronic pain
• Concentration problems
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Smoking control
• Teeth grinding 

A person who is diagnosed with depression may experience a lot of different emotions.

According to the University of New Hampshire,hypnotherapy may also be helpful with a patient to know how to minimise or control his feelings of stress, anxiety and sadness in a better and controlled way.

Hypnotherapy is also considered effective in treating negative behaviours which can contribute in worsening the depression of a person.

Some of these behaviours are poor eating, smoking and sleeping habits.

Disadvantages of Hypnotherapy

There are several kinds of risk factors involved in hypnotherapy.

One of the most disadvantageous is the capacity to make fabricated memories which is known as confabulation. 

Different other severe disadvantages of Hypnotherapy are, dizziness, headache and anxiety.

However, the above mentioned side effects get vanished sooner or later after the therapy sessions are over. 

While thinking about taking hypnotherapy one must get advice from his physician or physiatrist.

There are chances that hypnotherapy can potentially contribute in worsening tge symptoms.

Those who are suffering from hallucinations, delusions or any kind of other symptoms are not thought to be best candidates for taking hypnotherapy sessions. 

There is a possibility that hypnotherapy might not prove to be an effective approach of treatment.

A person needs to be focused and to enter in a trance state of hypnosis in this therapy.

This becomes very difficult for some people.

FAQs about Hypnosis for Depression and Anxiety

References:

gshypnosis.com/hypnosis-for-anxiety-removing-your-automatic-thoughts-that-are-triggering-fear

medicalnewstoday.com/articles/8933#definition

healthline.com/health/depression/hypnotherapy#what-the-experts-saystudy.com/academy/lesson/what-is-hypnosis-definition-techniques.html