Good News: Hypnosis Can Ease Your Chronic Pain!

Do you suffer with chronic pain? The good news is that physical pain caused by conditions like migraine, back pain, arthritis, fibromyalgia and neuralgia can be eased with hypnosis.

Chronic pain has been defined as pain that lasts beyond normal healing time, usually for more than three months. The pain affects daily life. Sometimes the pain is due to a medical condition, such as arthritis or fibromyalgia, or there may not be an obvious cause.

Hypnosis may be a helpful therapy to reduce pain in chronic conditions. However, before having any hypnosis treatment you are always advised to see your doctor to have a diagnosis of the cause of the pain.

Recent advances in brain imaging mean that brain scans have been carried out to identify the parts of the brain activated by pain. A study in 2009 (Jensen) showed that during hypnosis these areas respond to suggestion for changes in pain intensity, both increasing and decreasing the pain. A follow up study in 2010 (Dillworth & Jensen) showed that hypnosis was effective in reducing pain intensity, frequency and duration in a wide number of conditions. This meant that people using hypnosis to relieve their pain not only felt better but also required less medication.

Treatment with hypnosis may include a variety of approaches to help reduce the pain and to cope with the emotional impact of it. It gives those suffering with chronic pain a tool that they can use to create comfort and ease. This would include teaching the use of "self-hypnosis" so that the hypnotic techniques can be used whenever and wherever they are required and not just in the treatment room.

Everyone is different but most people find a few sessions are all it takes to feel better.

References

Jensen, M P. Hypnosis for chronic pain management: A new hope, Pain: December 2009 - Volume 146 - Issue 3 - p 235-237

doi: 10.1016/j.pain.2009.06.027

Jensen, M P & Dillworth T. The Role of Suggestions in Hypnosis for Chronic Pain: A Review of the Literature. Open Pain J. 2010; 3(1): 39–51.