In this essay I shall be looking at the relationship between stress, anxiety, habits and phobias and looking at the ways to treat each with hypnotherapy. Firstly we will look at stress. We all need a level of stress to motivate us, in fact being unmotivated can cause a form of stress known as Hypotheses! There are many levels of stress some of which become damaging to our health and everyday lives. The different categories are as follows: Stutters: which is "a positive stress"(adrenaline) which is short term allowing us to carry out a new challenge, increase our creativity, motivation and performance.Acute Stress: Generally identified as stress, symptoms comprise of tension and physical disturbances such as sleep.
This is treatable within about 6 weeks with hypnotherapy, Episodic Acute Stress: More severe and long term which can cause symptoms such as migraines, stroke, heart attack and Castro disorders such as BIBS. This can be treated you must check that your client has been to a doctor concerning the physical symptoms. Traumatic Stress: Caused due to a massive acute stress for example a horrific event in that person's life.Post traumatic stress also comes under this category for example a soldier serving in a war who then has problems when ring to return to normal life. Traumatic stress should only be treated by qualified people within this field and would require a multidisciplinary team. Stress causes both physical and mental symptoms the most common of which are: conditions such as depression, inability to concentrate, confusion resulting in difficulty with time management and ability to function to the best of their ability in a work/home situation.
Stress can also affect your sleep causing insomnia or waking up in the night and not being able to get back to sleep. When we are in a sleep state our mind dreams out the scenarios of the day. If you do not sleep or keep waking up your mind doesn't clear. Stress can also have an effect on your sex life, you may suffer from a lack of libido, be unable to reach orgasm, and impotence in men. Stress can be pinpointed to a specific event such as an exam, public speaking, going to the doctors or dentist, but sometimes the symptoms do not have a trigger and are constant along with feelings of low self esteem, inadequacy and failure.Treatment would be based on relaxation and how it feels to be relaxed.
Triggers such as less stressed, confused or agitated are very effective. Relaxation achieved Hough hypnotherapy will help to clear the mind allowing people to think straight, put things in proportion and make positive changes in their lives to relieve stress. Clients have to take some responsibility to make changes in their lives to relieve the stress, Once clients have learnt how to relax they are on the road to recovery and can then start to tackle the situations that they previously were unable to deal with.Stress derives from any situation in which we feel angry, frustrated or anxious whereas the source of anxiety is not always easy to pinpoint, but the root cause is apprehension or fear. Anxiety can occur when we have been suffering from long term stress or when we feel threatened by a person or a situation; clients with anxious parent's are much more susceptible. Anxiety is the body normal response and we all get feelings of anxiety - its the body natural reaction and warns us to avoid dangerous situations.
Feelings of anxiety would be present if for example we were faced with a lion in our pathway.Our flight or fight instinct would kick in which is the body best aid for our survival. Clients who are suffering from anxiety usually use avoiding tactics to alleviate the homonyms of anxiety. This can impact of everyday life as the more you avoid things the harder it is to face them in the future.
For example if a person has a road traffic accident they may feel anxious when they get behind a wheel, so they start to avoid driving, which impacts on their life as they are unable to get to work, they then have money problems which causes more stress and anxiety and so it goes on.If after the road accident they had got back behind the wheel, they may have felt a little nervous, but if nothing significant happened on the Journey the feelings would subside and fore long disappear and they would not have to avoid driving, so there would be no long term impact on their life. Anxiety impacts on your emotions, behavior and physical health. By avoiding situations we make things worse and our thought pattern is very negative.It's a vicious circle the more anxious we feel the more anxious we become and is often the start of depression.
The many physical symptoms associated with anxiety such as trembling, tense muscles, churning stomach, sickness, diarrhea, headaches, back ache, numbness and sweating are used as an avoidance tactic to completing a task that has in the past caused you anxiety. Because anxiety presents many physical symptoms it is best to advise your client to get them checked out by a doctor as well.As it is sometimes hard for clients to pinpoint the source of their anxiety, we need to help them realize that their symptoms can be helped with hypnotherapy and they can learn to deal with it. A great screed is for the client to imagine and create a shield that when they get feelings of anxiety they will be able to put up their shield and deflect the anxiety away.
The shield can be used when ever they feel anxious even if they are unaware of the root cause of the anxiety. Our deep fears and phobias can be traced back to the Initial Sensitivities Event (SIS).As we know our subconscious receives information and looks for a match as in a past experience and sends us a warning if the past experience has caused us pain, hurt or anxiety. If as a child your parent was very critical and then teachers were also critical as an adult you are likely to have a fear of being criticized by your boss , partner or friends.
This will cause you anxiety as the subconscious matches previous experiences which are part of your belief system but the TIE is traced back to childhood.The fear we felt as a child will be different from that of an adult. To treat the root cause (SIS) it is important to find out how the fear felt as a child. A Phobia is an irrational fear of something and it is important that when a client's phobia is presented we do not show surprise or laugh. A "simple phobia" can be a fear of a singular for example spiders or snakes or heights or a confined space.
At this stage in our training we would be able to treat a client presenting a single phobia.A more complex phobia which is spurred by several situations for example a fear of drowning or crashing or agoraphobia which is the ear of open spaces, when people fear even leaving their own home are more difficult to treat and may not be cured by hypnotherapy alone. The more complex phobias may be cured but in time would be replaced by a different phobia. A good gauge as to whether a person is suffering from a phobia is to ask them how much money it would take for them to face their particular fear? The reply would be No amount of money!To treat a person with a singular phobia you would write a screed in which the client imagines their fear with a sense of control 'e imagining how good their life would be thou the fear, seeing themselves dealing with the fear in a prepared and calm manor. You would insert triggers into the screed to reduce the feelings of fear and to help them deal with the situation when it arises. It is common for clients to suffer Panic attacks when faced with their phobias and quite often if a person suffers a panic attack once, they then become fearful of having another, which will increase anxiety.
Although panic attacks are not in themselves dangerous for a healthy person the symptoms they produce are very scary and sometimes have no warning. A combination of any 4 of the following symptoms indicates a panic attack: palpitations, sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, feelings of chocking, chest pain, sickness, dizziness, feelings of unreality or being detached from themselves , fear of loosing control, going crazy or dying, numbness, chills or hot flushes. As always when a client has physical symptoms you should make sure they are checked out by a doctor before you start treatment.Your client needs to be very honest about their use of drugs, alcohol and prescription medication as this can affect the level of their anxiety. 1 in 10 people will have a singular panic attack and 1 n 50 people will have recurring panic attacks.
Unfortunately people who suffer from reoccurring panic attacks will develop depression and often are diagnosed with another illness in the future. Panic attacks are caused by slight abnormalities in brain messenger chemicals (neurotransmitters) and because of this medication can also help.They can run in families or be triggered by a life crisis. Clients will find it comforting to understand why this is happening and will take comfort to know it may be inherited or to know that the symptoms they are experiencing are due too " overload" in their wiring and o can help them deal with the debilitating and frightening symptoms by reprogramming their brain.
Hypnosis with trigger words should be used so as when the client feels the symptoms coming on it will enable them to deal with their anxiety in a more relaxed way.For example "From this moment forward whenever you need to relax to relieve feelings of anxiety you can Just say the word calm and your body and your mind will respond...
. more relaxed, more in control, clearer, calm. Habits are once again different and the definition of habit is something you do without thinking about it. Our brain relies on habits for a quick solution too problem. Our habits such as smoking, nail biting etc.
Were at some point useful to us, to over come a problem or to deal with stress or any difficult situation.Some habits would relate back to childhood which at the time were perfectly acceptable and comforting, but as a adult are now inappropriate for example thumb sucking. Our brain has stored this information and when ever we are presented with these situations we use our habit as we believe it is useful, Joyful, comforting or a way to avoid the situation. From my own experience I use smoking as a reward when I am resented with a difficult situation I believe smoking will help, it gives me a boost.If I have a task to complete my reward for completing it is a cigarette.
... ' see smoking as bringing me Joy and assisting me in my life!. Other habits are doing things in a certain way for example driving a car, a bedtime ritual.
Hypnotherapy is very effective in habit breaking. The client must recognize they no longer need to do it and that they can change it. You would write a screed around this and pointing out the benefits the client will feel for not continuing with the habit. Life.
