Life comes with ups and downs, and sometimes those downs are such that they "bother" you for the rest of your life. Does this mean you can't get any more ups? Certainly not, because the way you deal with chronic illness determines whether you can still get a nice up in your life.
When are you chronically ill?
You suffer from a chronic illness when you have a condition that generally won't go away. For example, you are talking about asthma, diabetes, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, arthritis, COPD, kidney disease, Parkinson's and the like.
You may also suffer from chronic pain due to the condition, but you don't have to.
Self-management of chronic illness
Of course, chronic illness can leave you needing a lot of medical help. With some kidney diseases, you simply cannot do without dialysis, and so you may have other conditions that require regular visits to a doctor or other specialist.
Of course, take care of yourself physically and see medical experts as needed for your chronic illness.
In addition to the help you can get from certain medical experts, self-management is also an important part of being chronically ill, and that is specifically about how you cope with your life and the problems you may experience because of the disease.
In self-management, it is initially helpful if you believe you can handle the responsibility of taking care of yourself. For example, you believe that you can stick to a healthy diet and regular exercise, such as when you suffer from diabetes.
In addition, good self-management is also important for maintaining and improving your well-being, mental state, functional state and quality of life[1].
I am chronically ill
If you are chronically ill you may feel that there is nothing you can do about it, because after all, you "have" it or in the case of chronic depression, for example, then you "are" it.
I often say, "It's not you, it's you." Now you don't have to take that entirely literally. If you have asthma, you have it. If you have diabetes, you have that.
What I am trying to make clear with that sentence above all else is that you can do a lot yourself to suffer less and seek help to deal with your illness in a different way.
You can then change the part of the chronic illness that you 'do' so to speak because you have certain beliefs about the condition, so that you are only bothered by the symptoms that really come from the illness and no longer bothered by your own thoughts about how the condition affects your life.
Hypnosis for chronic illness
For example, did you know that you can use hypnosis to affect asthma? Some people can use hypnosis to be less bothered by something getting in the way of your airways and to reduce respiratory sensitivity and reactivity.
The way hypnotherapy is delivered is especially important to the success of that treatment[2].
Another chronic condition that hypnosis can help you suffer less from thoughts is irritable bowel syndrome (PDS). With this syndrome, you may suffer from inflammation in the intestines, and research shows that stress, anxiety and depression can worsen the symptoms of PDS.
Hypnotherapy that then focuses on the abdomen can reduce the symptoms of PDS. This is partly because it gives you the idea of more control over the symptoms, and in the process, it lowers stress and other anxieties. This also makes you feel better about the quality of your life[3].
There are now also beginning studies on the role hypnosis can play for people with type II diabetes . These pilot studies show that hypnosis holds promise for managing the disease. In one study, participants who had received hypnosis experienced less stress after hypnosis and had better control of their blood sugar levels than the group of people who had not received hypnotherapy[4].
When you suffer from COPD, it is important to quit smoking. This is often done with hypnosis. In doing so, a pilot study also shows that hypnosis can not only help people with COPD quit smoking, it can also help to slightly improve the breathing function of the lungs. The study included the use of visualizations and breathing exercises while the client was under hypnosis[5].
With some chronic conditions, you may also suffer from pain, such as arthritis. Many older people suffer from this. Hypnosis can therefore play a role in managing pain. An exploratory study that used hypnosis against pain on thirty elderly people who suffered from pain due to arthritis found that they all felt a significant difference[6]. So this is quite promising.
How does hypnosis work for chronic illness?
So hypnosis can do a lot that will make you suffer less from pain, other symptoms, stress, anxiety and depression due to being chronically ill, but how does hypnosis do it?
Hypnosis is a state in which your attention is focused, usually that focus is on the therapist. You can also fall into hypnosis naturally, such as when you are completely absorbed in a movie or book and lose track of time.
In the case of hypnotherapy, the therapist gets you into that state and you become absorbed in the suggestions he or she gives.
Hypnosis against pain and discomfort
In the case of pain or discomfort, visualizations are often used. With PDS, you focus your visualization on the abdomen in order to gain a sense of control over your abdomen. For example, you can visualize how your gut is actually completely calm and functioning properly. You can visualize how a magic light removes inflammation from your body. Of course, it's not that this happens immediately, but the visualization can allow you to relax, which in turn helps your immune system to function better.
In fact, stress partially blocks the normal function of your immune system. So visualizing that you can do something about it internally can bring a lot of relaxation.
However, sometimes you have something where you don't feel this is appropriate, then you can also use other visualizations that will help you relax .
You can also control pain with visualizations where you can turn your pain up and down, so to speak, just as you can with music. This requires the state of hypnosis and proper guidance from a hypnotherapist to pull this off.
Hypnosis for managing your illness
In addition to pain, hypnosis can also help you manage your illness. For example, your ideas about healthy eating and exercise can be scrutinized. This can help you remove limiting beliefs and shift your focus from what you cannot do because of chronic illness to what you can do.
Much of it also depends on your sense of ability and self-confidence.
For example, you may think you can't go anywhere because someone would have to drive you. You may then feel that you are a burden to someone, while someone would like to drive you. Only that person again might not be able to indicate that, because that person is afraid that they might think they are then feeling too sorry for you instead of just wanting to help you have a nice day. Asking for help can become a lot easier with hypnosis.
For example, you can visualize how you can get certain things done.
Hypnosis for your thoughts and disease
Much of what you do depends on how you think. Your thoughts, in turn, often depend on unconscious beliefs about how life works and how you are supposed to function in it. This can be very difficult when you are chronically ill, especially if you think you have to do everything yourself and that nothing should go wrong.
What beliefs block you from doing certain things that are good for you, such as walking or eating healthier, you can find out with hypnosis. Then you can also change those with hypnosis.
This is sometimes a matter of noticing how ridiculous a certain belief is and setting a new belief in opposition to it.
Sometimes it is also an issue that is a little more complicated and then you often go into regression. With regression, you go back to the moment when a belief arose that is not helping you now. These are often moments from your childhood, perhaps well before you became chronically ill. You then revisit this moment and that can already give you many other insights that make it easier to still think positively while you are chronically ill.
Want to learn more about hypnosis and how it can help people? Then come to the free online master class.
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