Hypnotherapy, commonly known as hypnosis, is a condition that is often not understood correctly. Many people think it is following the hypnosis ball to enter the state of trance. However, hypnosis is much more nuanced.
What is hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy is a special technique that allows people to become relaxed, especially mentally. Hypnotherapists use different methods to make people enter a different headspace, whereby they detach from the external environment and connect better with their minds.
There are different purposes that hypnotherapy helps to serve. Some use it to jog people’s memories, while others might rely on it for dealing with traumatic events, especially if they have PTSD.
Moreover, hypnotherapy is also used to mental health issues like anxiety. Similar problems like stress and depression are also said to improve with the aid of hypnotherapy.
What is anxiety?
Anxiety is your body’s reaction to a stressful situation. It is the state of heightened worry in the body. While in moderate amounts, anxiety is beneficial, it is when it becomes chronic that it causes problems around the body.
Uncontrolled and perpetual anxiety wreaks havoc on people’s mental well-being. It also causes behavioral and psychological problems, alongside damaging people’s prospects in life.
Hence, addressing anxiety disorders is important. Of many techniques that are said to help with anxiety management, one such is hypnotherapy.
Can hypnotherapy help with anxiety?
Hypnosis is said to help in mitigating the harmful impacts of anxiety on the body, in the short and the long term. It helps by:
Improved attention: Anxiety attacks can lead to skewed thoughts and a mind that is all over the place. The consequent spiraling into negativity also increases anxiety levels.
Clinical hypnotherapy allows people to improve their focus and attention. This way, their thinking remains crisp, and they pay attention to the issue at hand, rather than getting more riled up by the anxiety-inducing thoughts.
Better emotional control: According to research, hypnosis helps in activating the parts of the brain that are involved in emotional control. Since anxiety is remarked by extreme worry that leads to emotions getting out of control, reigning in the emotions then plays a significant role in curbing the impact of anxiety.
Produce relaxed state: When experiencing anxiety, your mind is in a chaotic state. But your physical health also perceives itself to be in danger, which is why your heart starts racing, your muscles become tense, and your breathing becomes short.
Hypnosis helps in mitigating these physical and mental impacts of anxiety by inducing a state of relaxation. It allows your body to then feel at relative peace.
Reduced self-consciousness: Many situations that make people anxious are because they become preoccupied with other people’s opinions. For example, public speaking, socializing, dating, etc., all involve exposing oneself to others, which can be very daunting.
Hypnotherapy, on the other hand, helps in making feel less self-conscious. As they become more comfortable in their skin, they feel less anxious by the situations in which they have to put themselves out there.
So, should you use hypnotherapy for treating anxiety?
A hypnotherapy course will certainly help you in managing your anxiety, but it works best when supplemented with other methods like CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), etc.
