MS, short for Multiple Sclerosis, is a disease that affects your brain and nervous system. It is a chronic disease that can eventually become fatal. This autoimmune disease has this chronic effect because white blood cells attack what are called myelin cells. These cells encompass the nerves and actually protect them. Because your immune system attacks them, you eventually suffer from failure of certain bodily functions.
To see how this disease is treated and what role hypnosis can play in this treatment, in this blog I will go over what MS is and what treatments are available.
MS Disease
As mentioned, multiple sclerosis is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks and destroys myelin cells. Yet the myelin cells want to repair themselves again, which can cause scar tissue to form.
Your brain has difficulty sending signals to your body and vice versa because of this. As a result, you may have problems with touch and with your balance.
Cause of MS
Doctors do not yet know exactly what causes MS. Genes may be related, and smoking seems to increase the risk of MS.
Infections that affect the immune system can also trigger MS, such as Epstein-Bar virus and human herpes virus of the 6th kind.
Vitamin D deficiency may also contribute something to MS. People in sunnier areas tend to suffer less from MS than those from areas where the sun provides less vitamin D.
MS Symptoms
Generally, people get the first symptoms of this disease between the ages of 20 and 40.
Symptoms of MS can come and go, but sometimes they linger at some point. Also, you can have nothing bothering you for years and then suddenly it's there again.
Symptoms of MS vary from patient to patient, but generally patients have the same initial symptoms, namely:
- Double vision.
- Trouble thinking.
- Clumsiness.
- Balance loss.
- Senselessness.
- Tingling.
- Weakness in the arm(s) or legs.
If you have had MS for some time, you may also experience the following symptoms.
- Inexplicable feelings, such as feeling pricked.
- Pain.
- Bladder problems.
- Difficulty walking.
- Dizziness.
- Fatigue.
- Spastic Muscles.
- Sexual problems.
- Speech Impairment.
- Concentration problems.
- Vibrations.
- Vision problems.
Secondary symptoms
These initial symptoms can produce other symptoms. These are also called secondary symptoms. For example, problems with the bladder can lead to a bladder infection.
Tertiary symptoms
Then you also have tertiary symptoms. These are symptoms that work more on the psyche of the person who has MS. For example, you may become very uncertain about the future or depressed because you lose your freedom of movement.
For example, when driving becomes dangerous, it can have a tremendous impact on how you feel by making you more dependent on other people willing to give you a ride or on public transportation. Your freedom is taken away from you, so to speak.
MS treatment
Before getting MS treatment, it is important to get the right diagnosis. This is very difficult because in the early stages MS is still incredibly similar to other neurological disorders. There is also no single test that clearly shows whether someone has MS or not.
This mostly rules out other diseases. For example, a blood test rules out Lyme disease.
Certain exercises monitor how well the nerves are still working. The electricity in your brain can also be measured.
MS leaves certain proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid, but examining this cerebrospinal fluid is not always a pleasant examination to undergo.
If you are then correctly diagnosed, you get treatment. First, you get medications that slow the damage to your nerves and slow down MS.
In addition, you can get muscle relaxants for spastic muscles. In some cases, even botox.
A physical therapist can help you with exercises to keep your balance and to be stronger and less likely to suffer from fatigue. Therapy on posture at work or how to do certain household tasks more easily can also be part of MS treatment.
In addition, exercise remains important, but again, you need to avoid getting too hot to combat fatigue. Therefore, you can look into gentle forms of movement, such as walking, dancing and yoga.
Currently, there is also a lot of research being done on stem cell therapy to stop MS altogether. So maybe in a few years it won't even be a chronic disease anymore, but one you can cure.
Until then, you still need to stay strong, and that includes a strong mind.
Mental Treatment
The tertiary symptoms, the more mental symptoms, that you can get from MS are also important to treat. MS is not a light disease and can be incredibly hard on you. That is why it is important to also maintain your emotional health when you suffer from MS.
You can do this, for example, by talking about MS with family and friends from time to time. In addition, you can talk to people who also suffer from MS so that you know you are not alone. In doing so, experts by experience can give you advice that doctors may not even come up with.
Getting help from a psychologist can also be very helpful. Cognitive behavioral therapy can help you cope with difficult situations. There are also promising developments regarding the impact hypnosis can have on MS symptoms.
So a hypnotherapist can already do a lot for you, too.
Hypnosis and pain reduction
Hypnosis can reduce the pain symptoms of people with MS. In 2008, patients with MS were studied for the effect of self-hypnosis against pain and progressive muscle relaxation, such as a mindfulness body scan, this study found that the subjects who applied self-hypnosis experienced the greatest difference in pain reduction and that this difference persisted for at least 3 months after the hypnosis treatments.
The degree of hypnotizability did not affect the outcome, but rather the progression achieved during treatment. The more was achieved during treatment, the better the long-term outcome.
Hypnotic visualizations against pain
Hypnotic visualizations also help individuals with MS reduce pain symptoms and even slow worsening of symptoms. In the study combining visualizations and post-hypnotic suggestions, patients had more control over pain, better balance and less double vision.
Visualizations with hypnosis can consist of several types, such as:
- The safe haven
- The volume button
The safe haven
In a safe harbor visualization, you encourage relaxation. In this visualization you go to a nice place, perhaps a place you once vacationed, perhaps a place that exists only in your imagination where you can relax.
It's almost like daydreaming.
The volume button
A volume button visualization is actually more functional. So in this visualization, you visualize a kind of volume knob that allows you to turn the pain louder or softer. You practice this visualization first with a hypnotherapist, then you can use it in other situations with self-hypnosis.
Post-hypnotic suggestions
Post-hypnotic suggestions actually affect how you feel after you have had a hypnotherapy session. For example, these help you influence healthy behaviors.
For example, if you suffer from tension in the evening, post-hypnotic suggestions help you relax. These might include:
" In the evening after dinner you feel the warmth of the hot food spreading in your body which makes you feel nice and warm. The nice relaxing couch hanging is then a total moment of peace and pleasure with your family."
Post-hypnotic suggestions depend on the symptoms you have, so this example does not necessarily apply to your situation. Your hypnotherapist will give you suggestions that fit your triggers for MS symptoms.
Hypnosis Against Catastrophic Thinking
Something else you may suffer from with diseases such as MS and ALS is catastrophic thinking. This means that you judge your situation at the time to be much worse than it is. Actually, you are then a little panicky because you keep going on thinking about the consequences of certain events.
This is very annoying because with these types of thought patterns, you usually assume that a future event will go totally wrong. For example, you may think that you will make a total fool of yourself if you can no longer walk.
A therapist might then ask what would happen if you arrived in a wheelchair?
Most of the time, the answer then falls very far short. The question gets you out of the catastrophic mindset.
That's just a more pleasant mindset. Hypnosis can help you restructure those thoughts in this way, among others, so you don't suffer so much from catastrophic thoughts.
Want to learn more about how hypnosis can help you or others? Then come to a playshop or check out Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' training programs.
Sources:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207140802665476
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207144.2011.522892
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207149608416084
https://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/guide/multiple-sclerosis-symptoms
https://www.webmd.com/multiple-sclerosis/guide/what-is-multiple-sclerosis
