Hypnosis to support treatment against HIV/AIDS

Edwin Selij
July 22, 2019

Unfortunately, HIV/AIDS is a disease that is still life-threatening. With proper medication and lifestyle, you can still live to a very old age with HIV or AIDS, but you have to be very careful. Having this disease is no fun because slowly but surely you lose the proper functioning of your immune system which causes you to become incredibly ill.

In this blog, I discuss how hypnosis can help you treat HIV/AIDS

HIV Symptoms

Not everyone has the same symptoms with HIV, but as mentioned, it can make you incredibly ill. You can recognize HIV by the following symptoms.

When does HIV become AIDS?

HIV is the precursor to AIDS, but where is the line? If you don't treat HIV, you can get AIDS from it after about 10 years. This is because HIV destroys your CD4 T cells. These are the white blood cells you have to fight viruses, bacteria and fungi.

If you have fewer than 200 such cells, you meet the conditions for calling the disease AIDS[3]. Namely, you then have acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. You have too few immune cells in your immune system to take good care of yourself.

Treatment of HIV

HIV is treated with medications that cause your immune system to weaken more slowly or not at all. You usually get a combination of medications formulated based on your symptoms and what you need to live as normal a life as possible.

In some cases, you can even have sex without the risk of infecting your partner with HIV—but always ask your doctor first to find out how this applies to your specific situation! To be on the safe side, use a condom.

You must adhere well to the medication regimen at least 85% of the time to experience the positive effects[4].

Supporting hypnosis and the treatment of HIV

There are several problems you can face with HIV where hypnosis can help alleviate symptoms so you can live as normal a life as possible.

Hypnosis and itching from AIDS

Itching is an extremely common complaint among people with HIV and/or AIDS. It can cause you to sleep poorly and become completely bothered by the itchy sensation.

Hypnosis can help you look at the itch in a different way that makes it bother you less. Even the itching sensation can diminish as a result.

Research shows that hypnosis in people with AIDS who suffer from itching can help them suffer less, become less disturbed by it, and sleep better[5].

In this study, participants were asked to learn self-hypnosis. This involved learning to relax, deepening that relaxation or state of hypnosis, and visualizing specific things—such as a relaxing place or a way to reduce itching.

Hypnosis for nerve pain

If you have HIV, you may experience nerve pain. This pain usually manifests as tingling, numbness, or a burning sensation. It often starts in your feet and legs and can also occur in your hands[6]. This often reduces your sense of well-being and can make it difficult to take care of yourself—for example, because you may no longer be able to walk properly or grasp objects due to the effects of this nerve pain.

In the study, more than 70% (7 out of 10) experienced less pain after the hypnosis treatment. They experienced about half as much pain as before the hypnosis treatment. The improvement was independent of whether or not they took pain medication. In addition, these participants also felt that their quality of life had improved[7].

Hypnosis for stress management in HIV with less than 400 T cells

It is well known that stress is bad for your immune system and can weaken it. If you already have a compromised immune system, experiencing stress is particularly problematic. That is why scientists are researching the most effective ways to help people with HIV experience as little stress as possible.

The study examined relaxation exercises, mindfulness, and hypnosis for reducing stress in men with HIV who already had fewer than 400 T-cells. These techniques significantly helped reduce stress compared to the group that had not received stress treatment[8].

Having this disease is already very stressful. Stress is usually a reaction to a negative emotion. That negative emotion, in turn, is a reaction to what is happening in your environment. That reaction follows an interpretation of an event, and you interpret an event based on your beliefs about how the world works and how you can function within it.

Hypnosis often focuses primarily on those beliefs —particularly limiting beliefs or unhelpful beliefs—that cause you to experience more stress than is logically necessary.

For example, if you consistently feel stressed whenever a recurring problem arises, regression can help you identify where this pattern originated. Regression can then help you break this pattern, making it easier to let go of the stress.

Hypnosis and increasing the T-cells in your blood

Note! I am not saying here that hypnosis can cure HIV. Absolutely not, but hypnosis does have an effect on your immune system. As read, hypnosis can help you reduce stress and that can be better for your immune system.

Whether this applies to you depends again a bit on how far you can be brought under hypnosis. Hypnosis is a unique experience for everyone. One person is super quick to get into hypnosis and can go very deep into hypnosis, while with another person you need more patience to get them into hypnosis and the hypnosis is not as deep.

I am convinced that anyone can be hypnotized if they are open to it, but the depth of hypnosis varies from person to person.

Now it has been studied whether that hypnotizability also affects your immune system, and there indeed appears to be a correlation. The deeper you can get into hypnosis, the better for your immune system if you suffer from HIV. The study found that people who could be hypnotized deeper after being under hypnosis for 2 hours weekly for a month and being treated had a higher number of T cells in their blood than less hypnotizable people[9].

Hypnosis techniques for stress and pain

As mentioned, hypnosis addresses how you experience the world, your beliefs. Regression is an important way to identify beliefs and change patterns based on those beliefs.

In addition, hypnotic suggestions can also do a lot while you are under hypnosis. For example, you can change impeding beliefs into helping beliefs that you repeat during hypnosis. Because you are under hypnosis at that time, you also absorb those beliefs more deeply, making them part of your beliefs more quickly and thus influencing your emotions and stress levels more quickly.

These may include suggestions such as:

"I can master anything."

"I put my well-beingfirst."

"I get to take time for myself."

"A walk is also movement."

These are just examples. Depending on what stresses you out and what problems you are having with your HIV treatment, you may get other suggestions from your hypnosis expert.

Visualization

Visualizations are also great for reducing stress. For example, you can visualize yourself relaxing in the sun or some other nice place. With some visualizations, for example, you can also visualize water cleaning your body and causing pain or itching to be washed away. This can be very relaxing and this will make you feel less pain faster.

Another visualization often used to reduce pain is to visualize a kind of button that you can turn up and down. By turning the button softer, you turn down your pain.

You practice these types of visualizations with a hypnotist before working on them at home, so you can use a technique or visualization that works well for you.

Would you like to learn more about how hypnosis works and how you can help others with hypnosis? Then come to the hypnosis workshop (now also in Zwolle).

Or sign up for our training courses or other events organized by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.

[1] https://endinghiv.org.au/blog/7-symptoms-of-hiv-early-stages/

[2] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/321920.php

[3] https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/hiv-aids/symptoms-causes/syc-20373524

[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3036694/

[5] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207140208410096

[6] https://aidsinfo.nih.gov/understanding-hiv-aids/glossary/4599/distal-sensory-polyneuropathy

[7] https://academic.oup.com/painmedicine/article/14/7/1048/1805531

[8] https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2466/pr0.1995.76.2.451

[9] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/ch.297