Smoking Cessation: Hypnosis Treatment and Therapy
By Bob Sherman
What comes to mind when you think about hypnosis?
Perhaps you've been to a stage performance where a stage hypnotist selects members of the audience and has them strutting around the stage clucking like chickens. And you probably know about the swinging watch and the hypnotist telling the subject that he is "going deeper and deeper into a very deep sleep."
In fact, hypnosis treatment is a means of contacting the subconscious mind. The "sleep" state is simply a way to bypass the reflective nature of the conscious mind. This simply means that the reasoning, evaluating, judging part of your mind is temporarily inactive.
If you've ever driven to work and when you arrived you could not recall many of the events of your drive, your conscious mind has been somewhat inactive. Many of your daily activities have been practiced so well that you don't have to concentrate to do them. You automatically know what to do at a red light. You know how to avoid running into cars stopped ahead of you. You hardly have to think about driving.
Hypnosis treatment is very similar to that. It's also similar to day dreaming. When you are under hypnosis your are day dreaming, guided by the hypnotist. The hypnotist can be another individual, a tape or MP3 recording, or your own thoughts during self-hypnosis.
It's almost like allowing yourself to be guided by a movie. You laugh, you cry, you experience a full range of feelings and emotions. It's just as if you were really involved in the lives of the actors on the silver screen.
In hypnosis, you are still in control and can respond to emergencies and you can resist unwanted suggestions. And, because you are still in control, you really have nothing to fear. It is simply a myth that you can be hypnotized against your will.
In a sense, all hypnosis treatment is self-hypnosis. You allow your mind to be placed in a deep, receptive state. You have the power to resist unwanted suggestions. Hypnosis therapy is simply a term that means you are temporarily allowing others to guide your thoughts and communicate with your subconscious mind.
Over the years, hypnosis therapy has become a recognized technique in the medical community for treating people. It is recognized by such organizations as the Mayo Clinic and the National Institutes of Health. Hypnosis has been proven effective in the treatment of physical, emotional, and mental conditions. These include pain control, weight loss, phobias, smoking cessation, sleeplessness, as well as many other conditions. Here are a few case studies to illustrate the effectiveness of hypnotherapy.
Asthma
In a study on adults with mild to moderate asthma, half of 44 subjects were involved in a hypnotic treatment. The hypnotic treatment involved 6 sessions of progressive relaxation, ego enhancement, guided imageries, and involved teaching of a method of self-hypnosis. Participants were lead through a progression of guided imageries. By the final two sessions, the symptoms of asthma could be produced and resolved by the subjects themselves.
The hypnotic treatment group at the end of the trial showed significant improvement in peak expiratory flow rate and maximum expiratory flow rate of 50% of vital capacity. Those who were most susceptible to hypnosis showed significant improvement in bronchial hyper-responsiveness and significantly reduced their bronchodialator use.
Insomnia
Hypnosis has been shown to be effective in helping adults relax and fall asleep, significantly reducing insomnia. Children are often more susceptible to hypnosis and guided imagery than adults. Children often have difficulty falling asleep because of asthma, anxiety, headaches, allergies, attention deficit disorder, and other less frequent reasons. In one study, school age children who could not fall asleep within 30 minutes at least once a week were instructed in self-hypnosis techniques employing favorite place imagery and progressive relaxation techniques, plus any imagery that would help resolve the causes of insomnia.
This treatment resulted in the following success rates:
- 82% of children without any specific cause of insomnia
- 67% of those children with attention deficit disorder or anxiety
- 74% of those children with other specific causes of insomnia
Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Hypnosis can help in many medical areas involving stress and anxiety. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) includes a number of problems with the gastrointestinal tract. One study involved patients with what could be described as irritable colon syndrome, colitis, spastic colon, or diverticulitis. These conditions can often be associated with stress and anxiety, which makes treatment with hypnosis particularly useful. Hypnosis can be used with guided imagery to help patients visualize previously stressful situations with a new feeling of calmness. Using hypnosis with 8 successive IBS patients, Dr. Waxman found that 6 patients had no recurrence of any symptoms and 2 patients were successfully treated when recurrences were noted.
Smoking Cessation
Hypnosis has been found useful in smoking cessation. In one randomized study, 10 patients were selected for hypnotherapy and 10 patients were placed on a "wait list". The average number of cigarettes smoked by each of the patients was around 24 cigarettes per day. Both groups were given self-help material from the National Cancer Institute. Smoking abstinence for both groups was confirmed with expired carbon monoxide measurements.
Members of the therapy group received 8 hypnotherapy sessions and a self-hypnosis tape for their own use. At the end of 26 weeks, none of the "wait list" group were abstinent while 40% of the hypnosis therapy group were abstinent with 30% being continuously abstinent. This result is comparable with pharmacological interventions where combinations of bupropion and nicotine replacement therapies have achieved up to 35% cessation rates.
Overall, hypnosis is now a recognized therapy that can enhance many areas of our lives. So, though some aspects of hypnosis are still a mystery, it is a credible and effective option for positive change.
References
- Timothy C Ewer & Donald E Steward, Improvement in bronchial hyper-responsiveness in patients with moderate asthma after treatment with a hypnotic technique: a randomized controlled trial, British Medical Journal, v 293, 1129-1132.
- Ran D Anbar & Molly P Slothower, Hypnosis for treatment of insomnia in school-age children: a restrospective chart review, BMC Pediatrics, 6(23), 6pp.
- D Waxman, The irritable bowel: a pathological or psychological syndrome?, Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, v 81, 718-720.
- Teresa Cook, Intensive Hypnotherapy for Smoking Cessation: A prospective Study, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 54(3), 303-315.
This is the right place if you want to learn how to use hypnosis for No More Cigarettes. Get ready to learn 10 steps to becoming a non-smoker!
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