Addicted to licorice food: Hypnosis helps

Edwin Selij
June 29, 2018

Licorice laces, licorice cars, honey licorice, licorice with sugar, licorice with salt, licorice with wine gums. Delicious and sometimes or actually most of the time you can't get rid of it. If you think you are the only one suffering from this addiction to licorice I can reassure you. Monthly there are dozens of people searching on this term in Google and even Napoleon was addicted to licorice

What is licorice good for?

Licorice owes its delicious taste in part to licorice. Licorice and licorice have been eaten for centuries and this even started with a medical need. For example, licorice contains ingredients that help against:

  • Constipation
  • Sore Throat
  • Chair Gait Problems
  • Arthritis
  • Stomach ulcers

Is licorice healthy?

Licorice certainly has health benefits, but eating too much of it can be unhealthy. This is because licorice contains a substance that inhibits a specific enzyme. This has both positive and negative effects. On the one hand, it’s beneficial because it stimulates substances that protect your stomach. On the other hand, it’s bad because it can cause your blood pressure to rise.

So licorice helps to develop the protective mucus in your stomach. As a result, you are less likely to have ulcers and seat passage problems in your stomach, for example.

This development of phlegm also helps if you suffer from a sore throat. Licorice is therefore very popular if you suffer from a sore throat or a tickle in the throat that just won't go away.

Drop and your blood pressure

As mentioned, licorice is precisely not good for your blood pressure. You can even get Apparent mineralocorticoid excess syndrome from it. If you already suffer from high blood pressure and you eat a lot of licorice with licorice as an ingredient, it can cause you to end up in the hospital.

This is because licorice affects the potassium and salt levels in your body. As a result, you may retain too much fluid, causing you to swell up like a balloon filled with water. At some point, that’s going to go wrong.

Fortunately, it's okay to indulge in licorice once in a while, but if you eat too much licorice for an extended period of time AND you also suffer from high blood pressure, it can go all wrong.

High blood pressure isn’t the only problem licorice can cause. Licorice also lowers testosterone levels and, when consumed in large quantities, can lead to increased pain during menstruation and even complications during pregnancy.

So if you did indeed come here because you empty a bag of licorice every day, now you know why it is important to indeed eat less licorice.

How do you stay off licorice?

It can be very simple, namely licorice just don't buy it. You've probably tried that before and failed.

In this case, a hypnotherapist can help you get rid of your licorice addiction. Hypnosis is also used for other serious addictions, such as to drugs, and for addictions that seem less serious, such as sugar addiction.

Basically, licorice is nothing but a sugar or salt addiction. Therefore, hypnosis can be a great way for licorice to get rid of addiction as well.

In hypnosis, you make the substance you are addicted to as unappealing as possible. With sugar and salt, you can't go very far with this because these are foods you need, but fortunately you can live very well without licorice.

There are multiple techniques the hypnotherapist can use, such as:

  • Cognitive behavioral therapy
  • Socratic conversation
  • Post-hypnotic suggestions
  • Hypnotic suggestions
  • Visualizations
  • Guided visualizations

Cognitive behavioral therapy and socratic conversation

These two techniques are used to identify the causes for addiction and the times when addiction is triggered.

Cognitive behavioral therapy, for example, is used to find out at what times of the day you get a craving for licorice. For this, you can keep a diary, for example. You describe what you did and how you felt the moment you reached for the bag of licorice.

The hypnotherapist can then help you deal with the triggers in ways other than how you’re currently handling them. This can be done, for example, through a post-hypnotic suggestion or by changing your beliefs about those kinds of moments.

Changing beliefs and behaviors against licorice addiction

The other techniques are used to change beliefs and your behavior. Suppose you start eating licorice when you are bored. Then a guided visualization can make you more likely to do something other than eat licorice anyway.

For example, your goal may be to do something useful instead of eating licorice. You may still find this difficult to envision. And it turns out that people only start doing something when they can imagine themselves doing something.

That’s exactly why guided visualization is so important. For guided visualization, the hypnotist helps you enter a state of hypnosis. This is done through an induction. There are all kinds of inductions, and then the actual guided visualization begins, such as:

"You're done with work and sitting at home on the couch. There's nothing on television and you haven't met with anyone. You get a craving for licorice. Instead, you walk to the kitchen and drink an entire glass of water. The water feels fresh in your mouth and you feel it reach your stomach through your esophagus. A wonderfully refreshing feeling. It makes you feel more cheerful. This makes you feel good about the healthy choice you've made and you start preparing your dinner with more peace of mind."

Post-hypnotic suggestion against licorice addiction

This is just an example of a guided visualization. In doing so, this is like a post-hypnotic suggestion. The purpose of a post-hypnotic suggestion is to get you to do something other than eat licorice when you feel like eating licorice. Drinking a glass of water or taking a short walk is then a healthy alternative.

With some addictions, post-hypnotic suggestions are used precisely that when you do give in to the addiction you get a super bad feeling. You then become nauseous, for example. The idea behind this is that you find the alternative, namely not giving in to your addiction, more appealing.

Suggestions against licorice addiction

If you’re addicted to licorice, this may also stem from beliefs you hold—for example, about boredom. Many people with food-related addictions tend to eat when they’re bored. This is often linked to the belief that it’s bad to be bored and that you have to have something to do. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A hypnotist can therefore help make new beliefs stronger, and this is done through the power of repetition. Initially, you receive hypnotic suggestions from your hypnotist. Then you can repeat them at home during self-hypnosis.

In the case of self-hypnosis, you need to induce hypnosis in yourself. You usually do this with a relaxation exercise. For this you sit or lie down in a nice place and first focus on your breathing. Then you can repeat the suggestions aloud or turn on the mp3 you got from your hypnotherapist, such as:

"Boredom is part of life."

"When I get bored, it's a signal that I need a break."

"When I get bored I can think of this as a moment of meditation and reflection on the day."

"I'm allowed to be bored and I don't have to resist it."

These are just examples of hypnotic suggestions. If these do not work for you, it is wise to see a hypnotist to find out what suggestions do work in your case.

Practical tips for eating less licorice

There are also a number of practical ways to eat less licorice.

Tip #1: Reward yourself after a week or a month

By not buying and eating licorice, you save money. Set aside this money for yourself and, over time, reward yourself with something nice. By doing this, you also stimulate your brain's reward center when you treat yourself with something other than licorice after not eating licorice for a week, for example.

Tip 2: Ask your housemates for help

Aren't you the only one in your house who eats licorice? Then ask your roommates for help to at least keep the licorice away from you. Maybe your roommate can even join as a buddy and together you can stop eating licorice.

So there are a number of practical ways to eat less licorice, but they are not always a formula for success. Hypnosis causes subconscious mechanisms that cause you to reach for licorice every time to change. Therefore, for the long term, hypnosis can help you stay off licorice.

In doing so, you protect your health, which is ultimately the most important goal.

Would you like to learn more about hypnosis and other mental techniques to help yourself or others overcome an addiction? Then come to an event hosted by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands or sign up for a training program right away.

Sources:

http://drholly.typepad.com/licorice/2007/08/licorice.html