Brain hemorrhage: hypnosis for rehabilitation

A spontaneous brain hemorrhage is actually a stroke, and in severe cases it can even be fatal. In some cases, there is a risk that you may suffer from brain hemorrhages more frequently once it has started.

Not fine at all, in this blog we will therefore discuss brain bleeding and what role hypnosis can play then.

Cause of cerebral hemorrhage

In a brain hemorrhage, the tiny blood vessels in the brain often rupture, this can have a variety of causes such as:

1. High blood pressure
2. Tumors
3. Inflamed walls of blood vessels[1].
4. Medications such as blood thinners
5. High blood pressure due to drug use ( coke or amphetamine)[2].
6. Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA)[3].
7. Trauma (such as a blow to the head)

Effects of cerebral hemorrhage

A brain hemorrhage can have a variety of consequences. For example, part of the brain no longer receives blood as a result of the hemorrhage and may die. On the other hand, the blood can accumulate and put pressure on the brain which is also not good[4].

This can lead to neurological problems. You may have trouble thinking clearly, your personality may change, or you may no longer be able to perform certain movements properly. Your speech may also be affected.

Especially in the first few weeks after brain hemorrhage, you may find that all sorts of additional problems arise. Often the damage is chronic, or at least you suffer from it for a long time[5].

In half the cases a person can die from a brain hemorrhage. So basically, you're still lucky if you only get away with neurological damage.

In that case, you may suffer from, so the neurological damage, but also:

1. Fatigue
2. Reduced working memory
3. Reduced concentration
4. Reduced focus/attention
5. Difficulty understanding written or spoken language
6. Forgetfulness, such as with important appointments
7. Feeling overwhelmed by information in social and public situations[6] (when you are in a mall, for example, or at a party).

Treatment

In the acute phase of a cerebral hemorrhage, you must pay particular attention to ensuring that a person can breathe properly and has good blood circulation.

Often people stop taking blood thinners and sometimes blood clotting medications are prescribed to stop bleeding.

However, it is important to lower blood pressure to prevent further bleeding (source 2).

Sometimes, surgery is even necessary[7]. If this makes you anxious, hypnosis can help you stay calm before and after the surgery, which in turn supports your recovery.

Rehabilitation

Because there may be neurological damage, help may be needed with physical therapy to relearn motor movements, speech therapy for speaking and swallowing, and cognitive behavioral therapy to improve or restore thought processes.

A case study shows that even a self-hypnosis recording that helps someone recall how it feels to perform certain tasks can promote recovery if the person has fallen into a somewhat coma-like state due to the brain hemorrhage[8]. This is, however, a long-term process and does not work as quickly as hypnotherapy, which typically requires just three sessions. After three years, the patient was able to eat and drink independently again.

Hypnotherapy began only when doctors indicated that they thought there would be no improvement in the condition. The person was able to open their eyes, but signals to say "yes" and "no" were not used consistently well. In the case study, the family asked if they could try hypnosis.

Chinese research also shows that people who have suffered a stroke due to cerebral hemorrhage can enhance their treatment with hypnosis. This was compared with treatment without hypnosis. Hypnosis then helps to:

1. Neurological pathways to improve.
2. Suffer less from anxiety.
3. Suffer less from depressive symptoms.
4. Improving quality of life.

The hypnosis group received a session from a hypnosis professional twice a week. They wore loose, comfortable clothing and underwent hypnotherapy while lying down. The induction of hypnosis was tailored to each patient and used to alleviate negative moods. Suggestions were used to enhance the patient’s rehabilitation. Participants were also brought out of hypnosis and encouraged to learn how to relax on their own[9].

Hypnosis for motivation

Having to relearn everything again like a baby can feel like a daunting task. Walking, eating, drinking, speaking - everything was always so natural. You weren't even aware that you were doing this and that this was in your body in some way.

Starting over literally like this can feel like quite a task, then the first step is to improve motivation for this whole rehab process.

Because hypnotherapy is one thing, but there may also be physical therapy and speech therapy involved—with homework assignments that can drive you to despair if you don’t get it right the first time.

You get that motivation, when you get the vision of a good outcome, and that starts with restoring neurological pathways.

Hypnosis to improve neurological pathways

You need neurological pathways to think clearly again. A hypnotic suggestion that is therefore very important for people is that they gain the confidence that “thinking” will once again come effortlessly and that they can rely on it again after treatment.

Various techniques can be used for this purpose, such as:

1. Regression to how you were before the brain hemorrhage.
2. Visualizing neuroplasticity (that your brain can repair itself).
3. Post hypnotic suggestions about the future (that you are functioning normally again).
4. Gain confidence in their own recovery, regardless of what others have said about it (source 6).

This confidence can be strengthened, for example, by making a comparison between other wounds that are always healed automatically, and that your brain can heal itself, too. If you have a scraped knee, it heals itself. Your brain is also scraped after a bleed and can heal itself afterwards.

Actually, you do this continuously unconsciously, and making people aware of this also strengthens their confidence in their healing process (source 6).

Using metaphors to repair brain damage

In addition, people can visualize how to repair brain damage. A case study shows a woman in hypnosis walking around her brain and seeing damage there. In the visualization, she puts a balm on it to repair the damage.

The damage she had to her brain, in her case from something other than a brain hemorrhage, meant that in addition to the 7 hours of sleep ''at night, she had to sleep 4 hours in the afternoon to be less tired.

After that visualization, which was very emotional but healing for her, she only needed to sleep for 1 hour in the afternoon and even wanted to go back to looking for a job.

The visualization she had wasn’t realistic at all, but that didn’t matter for her recovery. This was the metaphor for the damage she had sustained.

Hypnosis for motor function

One signal you can tell when your neurological connections are recovering is when you can no longer make certain movements properly due to a brain hemorrhage. If hypnotherapy is then used and you find that you can make that movement afterwards, this shows that there has been an effect.

A case study of a 66-year-old woman who could no longer move her left arm properly after a brain hemorrhage shows that hypnotherapy helped her gain more motor control so that she could again use her own thoughts and willpower to move her arm when she wanted to[10].

For this type of recovery, visualizations play a big role. When you are under hypnosis, you can first be suggested to remember what it was like to make certain movements.

Maybe you played volleyball before and want to be able to do it again. You can then imagine what it was like to make certain volleyball moves and feel what that felt like.

Then you can visualize this (with the feeling attached) in hypnosis, so your brain reestablishes the connections that made it possible. Or that the knowledge is like a seed planned back into yourself that will grow again (source 6). This then is a metaphor about the learning process you are beginning.

That way, you can keep making the moves you can do bigger and harder, until you are functioning normally again.

Hypnosis goes unconscious

The strange thing is, sometimes recovery can happen without you even realizing it. Then again, that can be demotivating, but that doesn't mean the recovery isn't there.

In a woman who had suffered a stroke, who was low in hypnotizability, it was found that 4 sessions were enough to have more energy and regain social functioning. Cognitive tests showed marked improvements and her surroundings noticed this as well, but she herself did not.

It wasn't until her partner reported several months later that she was no longer covered in bruises, because she was still running into everything before, that she realized that her subjective experience was unreliable and that she was actually doing very well.

She just didn't immediately realize that hypnosis had worked for her. It had gone completely unconscious (source 6).

Learn Hypnosis

Would you like to help others who have suffered from a brain hemorrhage to restore neurological pathways? Then knowledge of hypnotherapy is incredibly valuable.

If you have taken all of our training courses you may call yourself a hypnosis practitioner and also know the techniques named in this article.

Come check out a free masterclass to get started.

Or sign up right away for one of our training programs or events.

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