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Senior Living

2009-08-01 12:16:00

Hypnosis in hospitals

Answer: Don’t laugh! It is quickly gaining the respect of physicians and scholars across the country who are researching the newly re-discovered benefits of this ancient, but effective means of pain relief. It is being used for everything from headaches to surgical pain. It has long been known to be effective in helping persons to quit smoking, and was even featured in “O” Magazine as one of the most effective ways to lose weight and keep it off. The hypnosis being used daily in major medical institutions is a far cry from the comedy shows at the State Fair or Las Vegas. But it’s still hypnosis, even if the intent is to cure rather than entertain. Today, hypnosis is being used as anesthetic for surgeries, to increase fertility, manage or entirely remove chronic pain, and help patients through the discomfort of cancer. The hypnotist usually starts by guiding their client into a state of deep concentration by using words that help them relax and focus. If you’ve ever wondered just what hypnosis is like, think back to a time when you were so engrossed in a book, movie or TV show that you didn’t even know when someone walked into the room. That is the state of hypnosis or the trance state as it is sometimes called. While in this state you are totally focused and aware of everything the hypnotist says. You also are totally in charge and if you chose, could get up and walk out of the room with no ill effects. However, most people find the “trance” state to be so relaxed they love the feeling. The most common request of first-timers after hypnosis is “that was great – can I go back?” Some hypnotists provide their clients with a technique so they can easily reach a very relaxed state anytime they choose. While in the trance state, you can experience or visualize anything suggested more vividly and intensely. It is this highly focused state that allows one to create the changes in the subconscious mind, where all habits and automatic reactions are stored. It is also the location where you have the most mind power. Dr. Albert Einstein said the subconscious mind is where you have at least 90 percent of your mind power. The conscious mind, the mind you think with and which you commonly refer to as your mind, has only 10 percent or less of your real ability to change. That is why so often, when we “decide” or “think about” making a change we are unsuccessful It is through accessing the subconscious mind, utilizing methods that relax the conscious mind, a process we call hypnosis, that all types of seeming miraculous changes can take place. In reality, science and modern technology tell us that the process is actually changing our brain chemistry so we can achieve the goals we have set for ourselves. Contrary to myth, anyone with a normal intelligence can be hypnotized if they want to be. Other similar myths about hypnosis, such as you can get stuck in it, can be forced to do things you don’t want to or can be made to tell secrets, are just as untrue. Your personal will always is in charge while in the hypnotic state. There also is no swinging watch. Modern hypnotic methods can have you deeply relaxed in three or four minutes using words alone. In the wonderfully relaxed state that we call hypnosis we can change our habits, our attitudes, our sensations, our beliefs, and our physical state. Of course, to make those changes successfully does take someone adequately trained in the field of hypnosis as a primary therapy. Hypnosis is commonly used to lose weight, stop smoking, alleviate fears, reduce anxiousness, relieve pain, contour the body, increase circulation, increase healing, prevent pain during or after surgeries, relieve the nausea of cancer treatments, increase fertility, and mitigate the effects of hot flashes, among the hundreds of uses that it is used for daily. Students are finding the use of hypnosis enables them to retain information from their studies better, as well as recall it during tests. They also use it to eliminate pre-test jitters, resulting in better test results. Business persons, who have to absorb and retain large amounts of information, can use it for that purpose also. It’s a great solution to the fear of public speaking, which has been found to be greater than the fear of death in most people. At Lifemasters Hypnosis, we use hypnosis to benefit people to make the changes they wish to make in their lives. We use both direct suggestion (traditional hypnosis) and regression techniques to achieve the desired changes. Direct suggestion is the method suggesting positive changes once a person has reached an adequate level of focus, or hypnosis. Those can be as simple as suggesting that they no longer wish to smoke and therefore have become a non-smoker. It can also be as demanding of the subconscious mind as inducing it to begin healing and reducing the inflammation of a damaged nerve or growing new tissue. Regression techniques are different. Regression is used to return the client to an incident that happened previously, which is impacting their current life. The client does not remember the incident, but instead experiences it again, almost as if they were re-living it. At that point, the hypnotist can help them deal with the ramifications of the incident, effectively removing it from further impact on their lives. While we work in all areas to help people improve their lives, we specialize in pain management/relief. We often are contacted as a last resort in pain management after all other methods have failed. We have used hypnosis for surgical patients who needed no pain medications after surgery, and from hip replacements to radical mastectomies. Colonoscopies, normally a painful procedure requiring medications to make one forget the pain are performed using hypnosis with the patient conscious and comfortable all the time. Many instances of pain, are either little understood or considered untreatable by the normal medical methods available today. Hypnosis can be very effective for chronic pain, acute pain or cancer pain. Many times, the normal healing process occurs, but for some unknown reason the pain remains, long after healing is completed. That kind of pain is the most difficult to treat by normal means. However, using the relaxation and focus of hypnosis, it can be relieved or usually completely eradicated. Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. today and chemical medicines often cannot adequately treat the pain of neuropathy or the lack of circulation. However, we have used hypnosis very effectively to treat the pain and increase circulation in the affected areas. RSD/CRPS, reflex sympathetic dystrophy/complex regional pain syndrome is a little understood and almost impossible to treat pain that in many cases disables the sufferer, often making them feel like the affected parts are being immersed in boiling water. It can also cause extreme discoloration in the areas of greatest pain. It is so disabling Social Security has provided a specific benefit for sufferers of this malady. Hypnosis has proven very effective in treating and relieving the discomfort in the patients who have come to my practice. While hypnosis for many years was often dismissed as “mind over matter,” recent advances in technology such as the FMRI, and PET scanning have brought understanding to scientists who are able to actually see the changes occurring in brain chemistrywhile subjects are being hypnotized. Studies on the efficacy of using hypnosis for pain relief were done in a joint study by the University of Iowa School of Medicine and the University of Aachen, Germany, using a source producing painful heat. It was noted that areas of the brain associated with pain actually changed chemically when hypnosis was present and suggestions for feeling pain were given. They also saw the brain change to a non-pain state, under hypnosis even though painful stimuli were being given to the volunteers. “It definitely does something to reduce the pain signal input into the cortical structure” said Sebastian Schulz-Stubner, M. D., Ph.D., UI assistant professor (clinical) of anesthesia. The National Institute of Health, and the National Institute of Mental Health are actively engaged in research projects to further the understanding and effective use of hypnosis in the medical community. The Mayo College of Medicine called Hypnosis, “effective” and a “benign therapy” in a 21-page report of accumulated studies on the benefits of Hypnosis in 2005. They also said “patients treated with hypnosis experienced substantial benefits for many different medical conditions. An expanded role for hypnosis (in medicine) and a larger study of techniques appears to be indicated.”