Anorexia and hypnosis: what can it do in addition to treatment?
Anorexia is a terrible disease. If you suffer from anorexia yourself, it may not always be obvious, but those around you certainly see it. The idea that you are too fat can put you on a strict diet and cause you to lose dangerous amounts of weight. Some people with anorexia even end up in intensive care because they have reached a dangerously low weight. This is not only dangerous for yourself; those around you also find it difficult to see you like this.
That’s why, in this article, I’ll discuss what hypnosis can do for someone with anorexia.
Anorexia nervosa
If you suffer from anorexia nervosa, you have an eating disorder caused, among other things, by a distorted body image. As a result, people with anorexia are very preoccupied with losing weight. There are two distinct types of anorexia nervosa.
The first is that you simply don't eat much, if at all, while exercising a lot.
The second version is also characterized by deliberate vomiting in addition to barely eating when some food is eaten and laxatives are also used to maintain or achieve the unnaturally low body weight.
The disease is mostly associated with women, as many as 85% of people with anorexia are also women, but men can also suffer from anorexia nervosa, up to 15% of people with anorexia are men.
Anorexia nervosa is different from bulimia and binge eating. With bulimia, you do eat, but you then induce vomiting. With bulimia, you don’t always lose weight; with overeating, you may experience binge eating and may actually end up gaining weight. These two eating disorders are also unhealthy.
Back to anorexia...
Anorexia test
If you fear you have anorexia but are not sure, there are a few symptoms you can tell you are underweight and anorexic.
For example, as a woman, if you are underweight, you will stop getting your period at some point. This is a very clear indicator of anorexia.
If you are preoccupied with eating all day long, even if you don't eat, chances are you also suffer from anorexia. Therefore, you know exactly how many calories are in each type of food.
You plan times when you will and won't eat and find it annoying when that planning doesn't work out.
You have a sense of control over your body through the way you handle nutrition.
These are just a few examples of what you may suffer from if you have anorexia. You can also always see your family doctor just to be sure, who can give you a proper diagnosis or refer you to a doctor who specializes in eating disorders.
Anorexia story
Several years ago, I helped a girl with anorexia. She came to me at one point for help. She had already been hospitalized and regular therapy had not had the effect she had hoped for. Desperate for help, she came to me hoping that "something" would happen.
We first addressed her underlying issue with an intensive regression session. This revealed that she believed she was, at the very least, better than anyone else at losing weight. In her view, she wasn’t good at anything, but she could lose weight better than anyone else.
If I were to take that away from her, she’d get the idea that she couldn’t do anything at all— and that’s certainly not the point. The subconscious would then start thinking, “This is bad, but at least it’s something.” So we examined her beliefs and also strengthened her ego.
A day later, her parents sent me an e-mail that she was participating in the barbecue normally again, and of course that's what you want to achieve. That you can enjoy eating again without worrying about your weight. That you can eat what you want to eat again and think about a future again instead of thinking about how long this can be sustained.
Anorexia and hypnosis: what can it do in addition to treatment?
Anorexia treatment with hypnosis often consists of cognitive behavioral therapy, regression, ego-strengthening techniques and self-hypnosis. A case study showed that after 8 sessions over 3 months, this resulted in significant improvement in the person studied with no relapse of anorexia.
Cognitive behavioral therapy with hypnosis
Cognitive behavioral therapy is primarily used to change the dysfunction in the patient's thinking about the importance of body shape. If you suffer from anorexia, you may think that it is very important for your life to have an ideal and super slim body. For example, to be happy or to find work, when in reality this is often not the case.
Cognitive behavioral therapy for eating disorders focuses on increasing self-control, self-monitoring, cognitive restructuring, problem/solution training and relapse prevention.
You also get diet management techniques to avoid not eating anything.
Cognitive restructuring, for example, involves looking at certain thought patterns that drive anorexic behavior. Then those patterns are normalized again to promote normal eating behavior.
The effects of cognitive behavioral therapy are enhanced when the therapy takes place under hypnosis.
Regression for conflict
Anorexia usually has no physical cause, such as being overweight, but rather a psychological one. Internal conflicts and past experiences can trigger this behavior, as the video also shows. Regression is the way to find out if there is a belief that is causing the person to eat very little or not at all.
Then, the cause of that belief can also be found out. By doing this, it is possible to change the beliefs.
Ego-strengthening exercises
Anorexia can also take a serious toll on your self-esteem; sometimes it’s even a symptom of deep insecurity. That’s why it’s also important to build up your self-esteem. For example, someone with anorexia might believe that the only thing they’re good at is losing weight. If that’s the only thing you believe you’re good at, it actually says a lot about your self-confidence.
Therefore, it is important to increase self-confidence so that you can also believe again that you are good at other things. This allows you to think about other things besides your weight again.
Self-hypnosis
In addition to hypnotherapy, you can apply self-hypnosis to retain and enhance the effects of hypnotherapy.
The ego-strengthening exercises in particular are suitable for repetition during self-hypnosis.
Anorexia consequences
If left untreated, anorexia nervosa is a very dangerous and even life-threatening condition. For example, anorexia can cause an abnormally low heart rate and low blood pressure. As a result, not all of your organs receive the blood they need to function properly.
Because you eat little, you also lack nutrients, causing body parts to decay faster than normal. This causes you to suffer from brittle bones, for example, making them easier to break if you fall once.
The risk of falling is also increased because at some point your muscles begin to be used as fuel, making you less strong. You may also feel sluggish as a result. It also increases the chances of fainting.
Not taking in all the substances you need can also cause you to suffer from dry skin and hair loss, but paradoxically, you can get downy hair all over your body. This is your body's ultimate attempt to keep itself warm.
If you do nothing about anorexia, it is a deadly disease. Therefore, always seek help if you think you suffer from anorexia. In any case, see your doctor.
In short
Anorexia is a terrible disease that affects your body and your psyche. Insecurity can be the cause that makes you suddenly think you need to lose weight, even though this is not really necessary at all. Anorexia is also incredibly distracting because you spend all day thinking about food and not eating food instead of things you get energy from.
Anorexia occurs in both women and men, although women are by far the most affected by anorexia nervosa.
Hypnotherapy can be an effective treatment for anorexia. It uses cognitive behavioral therapy, regression, ego-strengthening techniques and self-hypnosis. A scientific case study shows that 8 hypnosis sessions can be enough to get rid of anorexia symptoms without relapse. I myself also have experiences that two hypnosis sessions can be enough to be able to enjoy food and think about a future again.
After reading this story, would you like to learn more about hypnosis and how it can help you and others? Be sure to check out the hypnosis events and training programs offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.
Sources:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207144.2014.869140
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00029157.1984.10404160
This article is not medical advice; an eating disorder always requires guidance from your primary care physician and a specialized practitioner. Hypnosis can, at most, serve as a complementary treatment alongside that care—never as a substitute for it.