Around 30% of the UK live with daily, chronic pain, that’s around 28 million people according to research carried out in 2016.
For most of these sufferers, opiates are offered as the main treatment for their pain.) In America opiod prescriptions have quadrupled since the turn of the century, but the research shows that the relief offered by opiate medications actually isn’t so great.
The National Council for Hypnotherapy says: “Hypnotherapy is often highly effective in dealing with pain management.
In a study at Stanford University School of Medicine in 2016 scientists scanned the brains of 57 people during guided hypnosis sessions. They found several changes that occur while the subjects were in hypnosis. These changes included a greater connectivity between the brain’s executive-control network and the insula, a grape-sized region deeper in the brain that helps us control what’s going on in the body, including processing pain.
Further to this, it is becoming more widely recognised that the mind plays a role in the experience of pain. Learning skills to change habitual thought patterns around chronic pain can significantly reduce a person’s distress and improve their quality of life. Negative emotions can amplify the experience of pain, and a positive outlook can ease it.
Self hypnosis can help. Hypnosis techniques can be taught to clients by an NCH therapist to help them manage chronic pain. Patients suffering from a range of conditions including fibromyalgia, back disorders and pain from trauma such as car accidents or workplace injuries can learn to control their pain through practicing self-hypnosis.
When seeing a therapist for chronic pain, it is essential that the pain is checked out by a GP first for a formal diagnosis. After you’ve had an assessment contact a hypnotherapist near you by using the NCH directory.
