It’s the same nightmare over and over again. You feel sick but your doctor says you’re fine. You become obsessed with figuring out what could be causing your symptoms. For those suffering from hypochondria, stress, and anxiety about health is just a daily part of their life. But hypnosis can help with that.
That being said, welcome back to another edition of Hypnosis News. Hypochondria is something I grew up with. My mother was actually really sick, but that illness gave her a fear of new symptoms. Between her own health issues and her fear of them, I came to fear that I would have the same problems when I grew up. Now, I mostly overcame my fears before finding hypnosis, but most people aren’t that lucky. Which is why I want to talk today about how hypnosis can help.
Hypochondria
My mother had an illness that led to her hypochondria, but most of the time hypochondriacs are not sick. They are just convinced that they are ill. They are constantly looking for problems. Constantly going from doctor to doctor looking for someone to validate their concerns, often leaving disappointed that another doctor can’t see what they feel.
What’s The Deal?
For some reason, your subconscious is determined and convinced that you are sick. Worse, for that same underlying reason, you have an intense fear or anxiety about getting sick. Engaging in the very research you think will calm those feelings, only cycles, and fuels them instead. It’s a vicious cycle your unconscious unintentionally has you trapped in. And while I never say it’s impossible to overcome such things without help, for many people it can be. That’s where interventions like hypnosis may swoop in to save the day.
Intervention For Hypochondria
Hypnosis may be the best intervention for hypochondria. As far as I know, its the only one that goes to the heart of the issue. A struggle between sensations in your body and your unconscious mind. The part of your brain that controls many automatic responses and hidden motivations.
In the case of my mother, I suspect that her motivations were also a fear. A fear that she would be unable to live the life she once lived. The problem is that this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Where you steer into the problem instead of away from it. I can remember having this problem myself when I was afraid of gaining the same health problems my mother had.
How Hypnosis Can Help
Hypnosis, as mentioned in previous articles (neuro link), hypnosis puts you into a state of hyper concentration or focus. As a result, your hypnotist can help you determine the root cause of your hypochondria, if you don’t already know. This gives us answers directly from the unconscious, which deals with your underlying motivations and other criteria you may not be consciously aware of.
What’s even better is that while you will find those answers during hypnosis, you don’t necessarily have to share them with your hypnotist to find benefit from the process. Many of our clients not only answer these questions but finish the session with some if not all, of the new coping skills they need to overcome.
Sharing Is Not Always Caring
Of course, if you feel that you need to share, you may also do so. But, in my practice, I have found that many people enjoy the privacy of being able to keep their inner workings to themselves. I personally love it because it was a part of the struggle I had with other therapies. Finding that trust to be willing to share with a stranger (even a potentially helpful clinician) may be harder than overcoming the fear and anxiety related to hypochondria itself.
Interventions with hypnosis would be aimed at teaching the unconscious how to separate legitimate illnesses from imagined ones. In many cases, it is something your unconscious has blown out of proportion like a fear of germs your mother instilled in you. Or, as in my case, growing up with an ill mother who was also a hypochondriac herself.
These behaviors and thoughts are modeled for us. And we have to change those thoughts to change the beliefs, habits, and actions that stem from them. Everyone is different. The purpose and reason behind anyone’s hypochondria may share traits, but will ultimately be unique. Just as your hypnotic intervention with a hypnotist.
Don’t Continue To Suffer
If you feel you need help reach out for it. Whether you go to a hypnotist or not, life is too short to suffer this way. I’ve been there. I’ve watched someone I love to go through it too. Help is out there.
Feel free to call us for a free consultation at 317-699-1066.
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