Pain is a signal indicating something is wrong with the body. Some pains even require medical help and clinical treatment to be definitively treated. Still, there are people who experience pain due to various conditions and have few alternatives other than learning to cope with them.
This learning requires therapeutic support, as there is a possibility that people may not know how to deal with their suffering, which can lead to the emergence of psychological disorders.
An alternative to help these patients, reducing the need for medication, is the use of self-hypnosis to reduce pain. In this article, we will explain to you how self-hypnosis works in the body and the scientific evidence that proves its usefulness in helping with this problem. Check it out!
Why can self-hypnosis help control pain?
Initially, we need to understand that this type of pain that accompanies patients throughout life is called “Chronic Pain.” Although the pain is not psychological, it is an interpretation of a stimulus, meaning it “happens” in the brain, making its modulation possible through hypnosis. Milton H. Erickson, the psychiatrist who revolutionized hypnosis, used self-hypnosis techniques to relieve the chronic pain he felt due to polio.
This technique involves using suggestions to change the perception of pain. If a person without self-hypnosis feels a pain with a “burning” sensation, through hypnosis, they may experience changes in the perception of that stimulus to just a different and milder sensation. With practice, effectiveness can increase, making it possible not to perceive it at all.
Additionally, non-chronic pains, even the most intense ones like labor pain, can also be alleviated through hypnosis. One explanation for why self-hypnosis has this effect on a pregnant woman’s body is the Fear – Tension – Pain triad.
Fear causes a protective tension reaction, which is not only mental but also muscular tension. When the pregnant woman goes into labor and is tense, the cervix has difficulty dilating for the natural exit of the child, causing pain. Furthermore, when a woman is in situations of pain, with fear and tension, she interprets it as a situation of danger, which can intensify her fear and tension, creating a vicious cycle.
This same triad theory can be applied to any other type of pain.
Technical explanation
If we take a more technical approach, we can look at the explanations of two Korean psychiatrists who published their conclusions in the US National Library of Medicine. According to them, the pain relief acquired through hypnosis can be divided into two mechanisms: physical relaxation and altered perception or cognitive distraction. Muscle tension is usually accompanied by the occurrence of pain. When there is pain, the area originating the pain increases muscle tensions in the region, intensifying it even more. But when the mind receives suggestions of images leading to physical relaxation, like “floating,” the muscles in the region relax, and the pain begins to decrease.
Different techniques can be used to alter the patient’s perception. People who respond less to hypnosis techniques may respond better to distraction techniques, which makes the patient’s concentration compete with the body regions where they feel pain, causing them not to feel it anymore. Additionally, imagetic suggestions can also have more positive effects on people with low susceptibility to hypnosis.
For patients with higher susceptibility to hypnosis, direct suggestions to deny the specific pain region can be used. For example, the sensation of receiving an anesthesia injection is something that can spread throughout the area where the pain is concentrated. It can also suggest that the pain is a “bad liquid” flowing inside the body but can flow out of the body.
Now, you might be wondering: what are the scientific evidences that hypnosis can indeed help control pain? Continue reading to find this answer.
What are the evidences that self-hypnosis can help?
Hypnosis is already recommended by the WHO for the treatment of anxiety, panic syndrome, and insomnia.
Certainly, the field with the most evidence supporting the use of hypnosis is pain control. In 2019¹, a systematic review and meta-analysis involving 85 randomized controlled studies was conducted to observe the effectiveness of hypnosis for pain relief.
There is also another study from the US National Library of Medicine, showing that self-hypnosis can be used as a way to treat chronic pain.
This study demonstrates that a group of people who constantly felt back pain underwent a process of suggestions using self-hypnosis for at least three months. Conclusions were reached through forms filled out before and after the study by the study group, noting a 25% reduction in pain sensation. A result considered significant.
Looking at another study from the Journal Of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association, it shows that using hypnosis for pain relief has proven effective for various types of chronic pain, especially in adults who responded positively when treated with hypnosis, lowering their pain levels and improving quality of life. It was also concluded that hypnosis might be a more efficient method than other psychological alternatives for reducing pain.
The BMC Geriatrics conducted a study on the effectiveness of self-hypnosis in elderly people for chronic pain control and concluded that hypnosis can be an alternative method for pain control and can be used alongside medication.
Therefore, self-hypnosis for pain reduction is an alternative method that has proven effective for different ages with different pains. Thus, it is an alternative medicine for patients, and it is advisable that before practicing any type of hypnosis treatment, a clinical diagnosis of the patient should be obtained to understand the origin of the pain.
If you are looking to learn hypnosis, check out our course schedule for official training at SBH.
- Thompson T, Terhune DB, Oram C, Sharangparni J, Rouf R, Solmi M, Veronese N, Stubbs B. The effectiveness of hypnosis for pain relief: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 85 controlled experimental trials. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2019 Apr;99:298-310. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.02.013. Epub 2019 Feb 18. PMID: 30790634.
Originally posted 2021-04-07 15:23:59.
