Self-hypnosis against the pain of sickle cell disease

Abdominal pain due to swollen organs, fatigue due to poor oxygen supply to all your muscles and major organs are symptoms associated with sickle cell disease. This disease can bother you your entire life if you are unlucky enough to be born with it. Fortunately, there are many treatments available to make life easier, but it still isn't fun.

Therefore, in this blog, I want to discuss what sickle cell disease is and what mental treatments are available to support treatment and to be happier with this disease.

What is sickle cell disease?

Sickle cell disease is an inherited blood disorder. People who suffer from this disease have blood cells among healthy blood cells that are not healthy ( 1). For example, these have an abnormal shape similar to a sickle.

This shape makes it difficult for cells to transport oxygen and also causes them to clump together more quickly. As a result, people with this disease are more likely to suffer from anemia and also strokes.

Sometimes it can also cause a congestion in the organs of blood. Because of this and because of the lack of oxygen in organs, you can experience very severe abdominal pain because, for example, the spleen can swell due to such a blood clot.

In addition, these blood cells live much shorter lives than healthy blood cells. Healthy blood cells live an average of 120 days and sickle blood cells live only 20 days.

There are multiple forms of this disease with some having a greater impact on a patient's life than others.

You can only get this inherited disorder if both parents are carriers of the gene, then you have a 50 percent chance of getting it. If you want to have children and you are afraid that you are a carrier of this gene you can have it checked. If you are already pregnant, doctors can also test if your unborn child is affected.

What symptoms do you have with this disease?

If you have sickle cell disease, it can be recognized by the following symptoms:

• Tires more quickly than the average person.
• Sudden severe pain (especially as a child).
• Chronic pain (from adult age).
• Bleach.
• Weakness.
• Gallstones.
• Backwards in sight.
• Sporadic blood in urine.
• Shortness of breath.
• Upper abdominal pain.
• Pain and swollen hands, in sickle cell crisis.
• Swelling around joints, in sickle cell crisis.
• Severe pain in the upper abdomen, in sickle cell crisis.
• Benouwd, at sickle cell crisis.

Sickle cell disease in the Netherlands

Sickle cell disease is a condition that occurs in Dutch people of Moroccan, Ghanaian, Turkish, Surinamese and Antillean descent, according to thuisarts.nl.Approximately 55 children per year are born with this disorder in the Netherlands ( 2).

Supporting treatment sickle cell disease with mental techniques

The treatment of sickle cell disease in the Netherlands is mainly with medication. In mild forms, for example, it is only necessary to take extra folic acid, which is even just a supplement. In severe forms of the disease, on the other hand, blood transfusions are used again. So there is a very broad band into which the disease can fall if you get it.

In addition, it is also very important for people with this condition to eat a healthy diet. Eating plenty of vegetables, fruits, and healthy fats is important to minimize the symptoms of the condition.

The symptoms of the disease have a great impact on daily life. Playing sports is something that can deplete the blood cells, leaving you in intense pain. In addition, you have less energy than the average person anyway due to the lower amount of oxygen transported.

American researchers estimate that children with sickle cell disease spend up to 30% of school days at home due to pain. This pain can also negatively affect their ability to provide an income in adult life.

Cognitive behavioral therapy with self-hypnosis

As early as 1997, research was conducted to determine whether cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with self-hypnosis could support the treatment of sickle cell disease in children, adolescents and adults to be less affected by the pain and other mental symptoms that can accompany this disease. In the study, they chose not to have a control group without treatment because of the acute help needed. So the normal medication was also taken alongside cognitive behavioral therapy without self-hypnosis and alongside CBT with self-hypnosis.

The study lasted one year, during which participants received weekly training in the first half of the year and biweekly training in the second half. The group that also practiced self-hypnosis experienced significantly fewer days of pain than the group that did not practice self-hypnosis and relied solely on CBT.

In addition to reducing pain, sleep also improved in the group that also used self-hypnosis . There were significantly fewer nights labeled with poor sleep ( 3).

Since you're now naturally anxious to know how such a self-hypnosis exercise works, I'm going to give you one that will give you an insight into how it can work.

Self-hypnosis exercise against pain:

Lie down in a comfortable place and close your eyes. First, focus on your breathing and notice how it is going. Then control your breathing by increasing the duration of your breaths and making sure that the inhale and exhale take about the same amount of time.

While doing this, also breathe through your belly. If you find this difficult to control you can put your hands on your belly and then when you feel your hands move up and down you are doing well. By breathing through your belly you are using more lung capacity so you are also taking in more oxygen.

When you are completely relaxed, you can create a safe place in your brain. You do this by visualizing a place where you are completely relaxed and free of pain. For example, you can visualize walking along a babbling river and how clear the water is. Near that river you can also see beautiful dragonflies flying and the sun shining wonderfully on your head.

For you, that safe place might be something different, but by creating that place, you can distract yourself from the pain that sickle cell disease can cause.

Mindfulness

Other research also shows that when adults with this disease practice mindfulness, it can reduce their negative thoughts about their situation. Of course, the disease is not pleasant to live with and can therefore lead to depressive thoughts and actual depression.

By applying mindfulness, you become increasingly aware of certain thought processes and how you react to them emotionally. These emotions, in turn, can cause you to focus on the negative aspects of your life, such as pain, rather than what is going well.

In mindfulness, in fact, you try to be in the here and now with your attention. Thoughts are usually not about what is happening now, but can often be a memory or a thought about the future. If you are worrying, it can ruin your mood quite a bit, when you are actually doing something enjoyable.

To give a first step, I've come up with a mindfulness meditation exercise you can use to help your thoughts have less influence on your emotions.

Mindfulness exercise against negative thoughts:

Mindfulness can already be used in very mundane things, such as doing laundry or while cooking dinner. You try to be in the here and now with your thoughts. Your attention goes to the signals you get from your senses, such as the smell of freshly laundered laundry before you put it in the dryer or hang it up.

If during such a moment you notice that you get a thought that is not about the subject or about something else you name that thought. For example, if you are thinking about a doctor's appointment that you have the next day you name "doctor's appointment" then you also name the emotion or feeling that comes with it, such as "exciting" or "worried." Then you focus again on the here and now. If you find that difficult, you can always start by paying attention to your breathing.

Over time, you may then find that you may have repetitive thoughts that are not helping you at all. As you train yourself to go back with your attention to what you are working on, you also get better and better at shaking off negative thoughts and identifying less with them.

As you can see, sickle cell disease is a difficult disease to live with. The symptoms are intense in that they can affect your daily life quite a bit. Fortunately, there is already much that doctors can do with medication to make this less of an issue. In addition, mental techniques, such as CBT with self-hypnosis and mindfulness, can help you be less bothered by pain and other mental symptoms you may experience from this disease ( 4).

Would you like to learn more about hypnosis and other mental techniques for helping yourself or others? Then check out the courses offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands or attend a seminar.

Sources:

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/sca

https://www.thuisarts.nl/sikkelcelziekte/ik-wil-meer-weten-over-sikkelcelziekte

http://www.psych.upenn.edu/history/orne/dingesetal1997ijceh417432.html

http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/hea/15/1/3/