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.
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.
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. If you have arthritis, get a good grounding in hypnosis pain relief for chronic conditions by getting and using pain relief CDs. You may be able to reduce, or even eliminate, the medication you are now taking to control the pain.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.