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.
- Fever
- Fatigue
- Swollen lymph nodes
- Sore throat
- Headache
- Muscle pain
- Joint Pain
- Skin rash
- Itch
- Nausea
- Surrender
- Diarrhea
- Dry cough
- Night sweats[1]
- Mild dementia
- Weight Loss
- Mouth ulcers
- Ulcers on the genitals[2].
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 in the process, just always ask your doctor about this in your specific case first! Wear a condom just to be sure.
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 a complaint that is incredibly common among people living with HIV and/or AIDS. It can cause you to sleep worse and become totally annoyed by the itchy feeling.
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 had to learn self-hypnosis. This involved being able to relax, deepening that relaxation or hypnosis and visualizing things. For example, a relaxing place or a way to reduce itching.
Hypnosis for nerve pain
When you suffer from HIV, you may experience nerve pain. Usually this pain consists of tingling, numbness or burning. This often starts in your feet and legs and can also occur in the hands[6]. This often reduces your sense of well-being and can prevent you from taking good care of yourself because, for example, you can no longer walk properly or grasp things due to the influence of this nerve pain.
In the study, more than 70% (7 out of 10) experienced less pain after the hypnosis treatment. They had about half as much pain as before the hypnosis treatment. The improvement was independent of taking or not taking 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 common knowledge that stress is bad for your immune system and can weaken your immune system. Then, if you already have a poor immune system, it is very inconvenient when you suffer from stress. That's why scientists are researching what ways best 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 helped significantly reduce stress compared with 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 comes after an interpretation of an event, and you interpret an event based on your beliefs about how the world works and how you can function in it.
Hypnosis then often focuses on those beliefs, especially blocking beliefs or non-helpful beliefs that cause you to experience more stress than is logically necessary.
For example, if you keep experiencing stress every time a problem keeps recurring, regression can help you identify where this pattern started. Then regression can help you break this pattern, allowing you to release the stress more easily.
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 believe that anyone can be hypnotized if they are open to it, but the depth of hypnosis is different for everyone.
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.
Want to learn more about how hypnosis works and how you can help other people with hypnosis? Then come to the hypnosis playshop (now also in Zwolle).
Or register for our training courses or other events at Hypnosis Institute 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
