Supporting asthma treatment with hypnosis

December 08, 2017

Asthma is incredibly annoying to have, and in the Netherlands about 10% of children suffer from asthma. About 1.6 million Dutch people have asthma, but not everyone is treated for it. Women suffer from asthma more often than men, but as children boys suffer more. Because this disease can cause many problems and even hospitalizations, it is important to treat asthma as well as possible if you suffer a lot from this lung disease.

Hypnosis can also help relieve asthma symptoms. In this blog, I explain how that works.

What is asthma?

Asthma is a condition characterized by inflamed bronchi in the lungs and windpipes. This is characterized by a thickening of the windpipes and the production of more mucus. This makes it difficult to breathe properly.

As a result, people with asthma can suffer from the following symptoms:

Kuchen, especially at night.
Beeps.
Shortness of breath.
Pressure, pain or tension in the chest.
Quickly suffer from shortness of breath with exercise.
You feel very weak or tired during exercise.
Wheezing or coughing after exercise.
Fatigue.
Irritation.
Trouble sleeping.
Quickly upset.
Allergic reaction in your airways, such as lots of fluid, runny nose, headache.
Trouble sleeping.

In addition, people may also experience an asthma attack. During such an attack, you’ll experience the first four symptoms simultaneously. You may also suffer from uncontrollable coughing, rapid breathing, muscle tension in the chest, neck, and shoulders, and difficulty speaking. Pale, sweaty skin with blue lips and sometimes blue fingernails. If the coughing stops, that isn’t always a good sign. Sometimes this also means there isn’t enough air in the lungs to cough. Therefore, to be on the safe side, call an ambulance if the inhaler does not stop the attack. An attack like this can cause you to feel anxiety and panic.

The sooner you take steps to stop the drug attack and calm down, the better. Using an inhaler is then really recommended.

Some people require hospitalization to stop the seizure.

However, this is usually not necessary because such an attack only lasts a few minutes, or you may have bad breathing for a few hours which means you have to take it very easy.

Some people experience symptoms or an attack on a daily basis, but other people only experience symptoms very occasionally.

Asthma is not the same for every asthmatic. Some people experience asthma only when they are exercising, or in combination with another infection such as a cold or flu.

If you fear you have asthma, you can have it checked with a doctor and you can also get medication for the asthma.

What factors contribute to an asthma attack?

An asthma attack can be triggered, for example, by infections or exercise. This is true for those people who actually only suffer from asthma if they also have another illness under their belt, or if they have to perform strenuous physical activity.

In addition, emotions can also trigger asthma attacks. Research has shown that children who live in an emotionally unhealthy home environment are more likely to experience symptoms of depression and often have a more severe form of asthma.

Research conducted in 2000 in which 20 adults kept a diary of their emotions and lung function found that strong emotions, both good and bad, caused worsening of lung function. The researchers do indicate that the effect of depressive emotions should be looked at more closely.

In another study conducted around the same time, 24 people with asthma and 24 people without asthma were shown a movie designed to evoke a variety of good and bad emotions. The interesting thing about this study was that again, reinforced emotions both good and bad were shown to have a bad impact on lung function, but most interestingly, people with asthma seemed to experience the emotions more intensely than people without asthma. Researchers also indicate that needs to examine how people with asthma may be more passive in dealing with emotional triggers.

As early as 2002, it was known that stress, anxiety, sadness, and suggestion can trigger an asthma attack, in addition to environmental factors such as allergens, exercise, and infections. This study also indicates that emotional triggers should be avoided and that doing so leads to lower mortality rates among people with asthma.

In the process, they recommend yoga, meditation and hypnosis as alternative treatments.

How can hypnosis help treat asthma?

Hypnosis can contribute to the treatment of asthma in several ways. Emotions are, in fact, your psyche’s reactions to certain situations and how they relate to your worldview—your beliefs about how life and the world work.

Because suggestions can already trigger a seizure, hypnotic suggestions can also prevent a seizure.

In the process, scientists recommend looking at symptoms in a different way.

Here are already 3 ways hypnosis can affect asthma symptoms.

Research shows that several sessions with a hypnotherapist combined with self-hypnosis produce the best results. Children with asthma also respond better to hypnotherapy than adults.

Reduce psychological symptoms

Hypnosis can help reduce psychological symptoms, such as anxiety. A case study in which a woman used self-hypnosis to reduce her anxiety found that she needed her medical tools to manage her asthma less often than before.

To reduce anxiety and other psychological symptoms, the hypnotherapist must first work with you to identify what psychological symptoms you suffer from and when. This may in fact say something about the beliefs you have that are only causing more rather than less anxiety.

For example, are you in a building without an elevator and have to climb stairs? If so, this can be problematic for some people with asthma. Especially if it's important for you to get there on time and so you want to run up the stairs quickly when you really just need to take it easy.

In that case, a hypnotherapist can ask you why you feel it is so important to be on time.

This allows beliefs to surface that may not make sense at all, such as:

"I have to be on time because it makes me look more professional."

"I have to run up the stairs quickly because my asthma should not be an excuse for being late."

These types of beliefs can actually cause you to get into trouble just a little bit.

A hypnotherapist can then help you by pointing out that these beliefs do not make sense at all, such as by saying:

"Professionals are only human too. Anyone can be late once, especially if you are unfamiliar with the building. Then next time you come a little earlier now that you know there is no elevator."

“There are also people who hate sweating or being out of breath. They, too, simply walk up the stairs very slowly, and they don’t even have asthma. They use normal bodily processes—such as breathing harder and sweating due to more intense movement—as an excuse to walk up the stairs slowly instead of running.”

As a result, you can already suffer less from the fear of being late. Don't you suffer from this particular fear? Then see a hypnotherapist who will help you with your fears.

Hypnotic suggestions

Since suggestions can trigger an asthma attack, they could also prevent one. Post-hypnotic suggestions are also used to stop allergic reactions, and in this way, asthma attacks may also be alleviated.

One such suggestion then might be.

"When you go for another half-hour walk you notice after 20 minutes that instead of having trouble breathing, you actually feel fresh and good. The fresh air fills your lungs and provides your body with the oxygen you need to, for once, complete the half-hour walk."

This suggestion is just an example. Depending on your symptoms and triggers, you may receive a different hypnotic suggestion for asthma symptoms.

Looking at symptoms in a different way

Are you someone who suffers a lot from asthma symptoms and gets catastrophic thoughts from them? Then it is important to deal with the symptoms in a different way.

If you suffer from catastrophic thoughts, it means that you link one consequence of a symptom to a new consequence, thus tying together a kind of negative spiral of consequences. This can also cause you to suffer from panic.

For example, if you cannot exercise due to asthma, this can make you think that you cannot be healthy, are more likely to get sick and also die earlier than average. You can then link this in turn to finding a partner and friends, putting yourself in social isolation in advance.

With hypnosis, you learn to look at symptoms in a different way, and you therefore learn how to stop these kinds of catastrophic thoughts. This can be done, for example, through visualizations and breathing exercises.

Relaxation Exercises

During an asthma attack, you may also experience panic. It is important for your body to stay calm, because a calm body needs less oxygen. This gives you more time to reach medical help.

Through hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis, you’ll also learn more about relaxation exercises and techniques to calm yourself immediately.

So hypnosis can certainly support asthma treatment, especially for the emotional side of asthma.

Want to learn more about hypnosis for yourself or to help others, such as asthmatics? Then come to a playshop and check out Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' trainings.

Sources:

https://www.volksgezondheidenzorg.info/onderwerp/astma/cijfers-context/huidige-situatie#node-prevalentie-van-astma-huisartsenpraktijk

https://www.webmd.com/asthma/guide/asthma-symptoms#1

https://academic.oup.com/jpepsy/article/32/5/542/929801

http://journals.lww.com/psychosomaticmedicine/Abstract/2000/11000/Emotion_and_Pulmonary_Function_in_Asthma_.11.aspx

http://journals.lww.com/psychosomaticmedicine/Abstract/2000/05000/Emotions_and_Stress_Increase_Respiratory.14.aspx

http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2002-01415-016

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/02770900009055424

https://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2431-3-7