The idea that you are going to be cut is not comforting to anyone. During a medical procedure, you are totally at the mercy of the doctor and his team and have absolutely no control over what happens to you. Therefore, it is not surprising if you have anxiety before undergoing a medical procedure. In addition, you may also have anxiety about treatments that require you to take medication with unpleasant side effects, such as chemotherapy. Even then fear is not crazy, but it should not stop you from doing what is right for you, which is to undergo the treatment and get better.
That's why in this article I'll discuss how hypnosis can help you if you have a fear of a medical procedure.
There are different types of medical procedures in which everyone has their own fears. The most well-known procedure is surgery. This is also equally one of the most invasive that people can be afraid of. In addition, there are often examination methods that can cause fear, such as endoscopy, taking X-rays or undergoing an MRI. Most people are already not afraid of taking an X-ray since it is often done at the dentist as well, but you can have fear for the other procedures. Therefore, I will discuss medical procedures and how hypnosis can provide support to reduce fear of that procedure.
Hypnosis before surgery
Over 10 percent of the population is hospitalized for inpatient treatment each year, this is if you don't count day hospitalizations. Still, that's 1.6 million people in the Netherlands every year. Some of them also have a fear of the procedure, which actually makes it more difficult for the doctor to perform the treatment.
In fact, research shows that if anxiety is reduced, for example with hypnosis, it can shorten the time it takes the surgeon to perform the surgery.
In addition, fear of surgery is also not good for your well-being after surgery. Studies of children and young adults have shown that people who had more anxiety before surgery suffered more pain after surgery than people who had little anxiety before surgery. Especially the fear of pain itself can cause this effect.
For example, relaxation is important to reduce anxiety. In doing so, the patient's imagination can run wild about what could happen, and hypnosis can help them live in the here and now instead of making all kinds of representations about what could go wrong.
In the process, the hypnotherapist can also help create a realistic visualization of the procedure, should it not be so dangerous and impressive. Especially when people misrepresent, for example, the material used for ventilation instead of what actually happens, this can help. For example, there is an example of a woman who was afraid that all kinds of large steel objects would be rooted in her throat. That, of course, is not the case and that depiction makes you unnecessarily anxious.
Hypnosis for a biopsy
In some cases, doctors need a piece of tissue or fluid to examine. In that case, bacteria and the like can be determined from the biopsy, but that often requires poking a needle into you. That's not always pleasant.
Research shows that when hypnosis is used during biopsy, it can increase the patient's pain tolerance. This study specifically looked at taking a biopsy to diagnose prostate cancer.
The procedure performed was that patients received a 10-minute hypnosis session before surgery. During this session, suggestions that promoted relaxation and reduced anxiety were used. During a comparison of the pain and anxiety experience in the people who did receive a hypnosis session and the patients who did not receive it, it was found that those with hypnotherapy before surgery experienced significantly less anxiety and pain during and after surgery.
All with just a 10-minute hypnosis session shortly before surgery.
Hypnosis for an endoscopy
Bowel and stomach exams usually involve endoscopy. You either have to swallow a camera or it is inserted anally. Both procedures are not fun and are often performed under anesthesia. Also, these procedures are not risk-free which can cause anxiety in the patient.
With endoscopy, pain and nausea are common, therefore managing these symptoms is important to reduce endoscopy anxiety. Research shows that conversational hypnosis (covert hypnosis) can reduce anxiety, nausea and the occurrence of hiccups after an endoscopy, but the results were not significant, so this could also have happened by chance.
What I would like to note here is that conversational hypnosis is a technique for hypnotizing people without them realizing it, therefore they may also not be completely open to it, such as when you ask if you can hypnotize that person after which they actually participate in the hypnotherapy themselves. Because hypnotherapy often does achieve good results then, I expect that this needs to be investigated further in hypnotherapy for endoscopy.
Techniques that can be used, for example, can be similar to those used and proven to work when taking a biopsy.
Hypnosis for an MRI
An MRI is sometimes necessary to really be aware of what is going on inside your body, but undergoing such an MRI scan is not fun for everyone. For one thing, you are in a small room that makes some people claustrophobic .
If you already suffer from claustrophobia, an MRI scan is no fun at all.
Then that device also makes a deafening sound and some patients can feel which part of the body is being scanned.
Breathing during the MRI scan sometimes also has to be done in a certain way to get good pictures. So of course, if you want to get everything over with quickly, you don't want to get that wrong either.
Then you also have to wait and see if the outcomes are good news or bad news. Plenty to worry about and get anxious about, in other words.
Research shows that cognitive behavioral therapy can help reduce MRI scan anxiety. The results of cognitive behavioral therapy can be enhanced if the patient is under hypnosis during therapy.
They also use neuro linguistic programming (NLP) to reduce fear of an MRI scan. NLP makes it easier for people with a fear of small spaces to successfully complete an MRI scan. For example, in the NLP procedure, the therapist first asked what thought came to the patient's mind when thinking about the MRI scan. Then the patient had to look at something in the room and associate those feelings with the MRI to that object.
Next, the patient should instead think of something that will make them happy, relaxed and stronger. The therapist then touches the patient to hold those feelings. If this is done while the patient is looking at the object to which he has linked his MRI fears, the anxiety may diminish as a result. I know this sounds strange, but this method has been scientifically researched and works to reduce fear of the MRI scan.
Other research again shows that hypnosis can enhance NLP therapy. Hypnosis is also commonly used by NLP and CBT therapists.
In addition, a patient can apply self-hypnosis during the MRI scan to stay calm. For example, relaxation exercises and visualizations can be used, making one less concerned with what is really happening in the moment.
In short
Going to the hospital is never fun and especially not when you have to undergo an examination that involves putting something inside you or going under the knife completely under anesthesia. So it is also not surprising that many people have anxiety about the procedure.
Hypnosis can help reduce anxiety in such a case. This has the benefit of reducing post-surgery pain and speeding up procedures. Thus, it is a win-win situation for the doctor and the patient.
During an MRI scan, people may also suffer from claustrophobia. In that case, self-hypnosis during the MRI scan is a solution to stay calm and focused so you don't have to go through the scan twice due to agitation because it didn't work the first time.
In addition to relaxation exercises and state hypnosis, cognitive behavioral therapy and neuro linguistic programming can also be used to reduce and change fears and beliefs.
Want to learn more about how to help people by applying hypnotherapy? Then check out Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' events and trainings.
Sources:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272735813000457
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11255-015-1111-0
http://www.birpublications.org/doi/full/10.1259/bjr/14421796
