How hypnosis can stop your addictions

Is it cutting-edge science or mere hokum?

What comes to mind when most people think of hypnosis is some kind of sleight-of-hand, something similar to a stroke of Aladdin’s magic wand for mostly entertainment or fascination than anything else. However, what you probably haven’t gotten a handle on is the fact that hypnosis also boasts a long track road of effective application in health care circles. And one of such medical applications that have garnered some form of clout in recent times is hypnosis’ proven efficacy at fixing addiction disorders.

Hypnotherapy has proven adept at helping people get over drinking, smoking, drug and even gambling addictions. Years of being a slave to any of these elements or substances can leave you helpless, hopeless and even desperate. You may have tried and failed at several attempts to kick the habit. While different methods of addiction therapy are somewhat hit-or-miss with no guarantee of results, hypnotherapy just has a way of affecting the brain in ways that are subliminal. You kind of just have those desires for alcohol or drugs turned off. Hypnosis has the ability to help your subconscious mind get the better of the addictive urges. Unlike other methods, it does an amazing job of stopping addictions by exploiting such variables as how the brain works, how the subconscious mind controls our life and how to change it for good. So, try not to brush this one off as just another fad for its subtle approach makes it ideal for addiction treatment.

How it works its magic

Core issues such as memories of failure, fears and hopelessness make you weak and fearful of relapse, and it won’t be long before you fall off the wagon for the umpteenth time. This is what hypnosis typically works on. It changes the way the brain reacts to these memories and effectively stops the cravings and desire for drugs, alcohol or gambling. Most other addiction therapies saturate your mind with the fear of failure, the expectation of relapse and the need to surrender and be powerless. All these contribute to the problem as you can’t live out the rest of your years in fear of relapse, which by itself is a destructive mindset. The brain reacts to these negative beliefs and in fact, triggers relapse. Hypnosis does away with these old beliefs and triggers and integrates new beliefs, values, self-worth and purpose.

It does this by helping you meet a healthier, cleaner, and more powerful future self. Meeting this future self has the effect of making you experience what it feels like to no longer face the unsavoury prospect of being an ‘addict in recovery’ to the exhilarating experience of living healthy and totally free from addiction. This connection with a better version of yourself changes the way your brain reacts to drug and alcohol triggers and memories; experiencing a healthier lifestyle subtly frees your mind from the shackles of addiction and turned stronger, healthier, cleaner person that is in control of their lives. It’s good riddance to addiction; out with the old ways and in with the new!

How can hypnosis fortify you against relapse?

While other addiction therapies are founded on instilling into you the widely-accepted yet false philosophy that you are an addict and you are always going to be fighting relapse, hypnotherapy’s perspective seeks to eliminate this notion by discouraging any form of owning the ‘addict identity’. Since we all tend to become what we say and think, affirming that you are an addict is a constant reinforcement of your weakness. And if anything, it does you no good and increases your susceptibility to relapse because the constant affirmation triggers negative connections and memories in the brain. Hypnosis fights this by changing the identity and beliefs that poses problems and creates a new identity about who the client is now. Miraculous recovery is always in the offing with this inside-out approach. This reconfiguration of deep-seated fears and weaknesses to a powerful and in-control mindset is what makes hypnosis so effective at addiction therapy.

One definition of crazy, doing the same things over and over and expecting different results, can be extrapolated to the current state of affairs for various aspects of addiction treatment. Hypnosis is stepping in, however, as a game changer.

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author. All articles published on Hypnotherapy Directory are reviewed by our editorial team.

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Glasgow G2 & London W1H
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Written by Biodun Ogunyemi
Certified Master Hypnotherapist ANLP,BNLP,SNLP,C.H,Dip.Hyp
location_on Glasgow G2 & London W1H
Biodun Ogunyemi is the founder of Optimind, one of the leading hypnotherapy practices within the UK. He has practised on Harley Street and is an experienced hypnotherapist, trained to the highest level in advanced hypnotherapy and NLP and is the auth...
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