How Can Hypnotherapy Help With Anxiety and Depression Symptoms?
Research has shown that hypnotherapy can help relieve stress, fear, and anxiety. It can also be used to help in coping with the symptoms of panic disorder. While under hypnosis, a person with panic disorder may be guided to bring attention to coping with specific symptoms and overcoming limiting behaviours.
hypnotherapy can help a person learn to reduce and/or better control feelings of anxiety, depression, stress, and sadness. Hypnotherapy is also used to treat negative behaviours that could be worsening a person’s depression
Anxiety and depression can be very debilitating and the longer it is untreated, the more serious it can become. It is good to talk to someone about your anxiety as this helps to become more conscious of what is really happening and about your perception of it.
Treatments like Hypnotherapy can be really good for you to start taking steps and do things you might have stopped doing, and start feeling better about yourself as well as manage the levels of anxiety and depression.
How is hypnotherapy used to treat anxiety?
Let’s say you have a fear of flying. During a hypnotherapy session, the therapist can give you what’s known as a “posthypnotic suggestion” while you’re in a state of trance.
In this dreamlike state, the mind becomes more open to suggestion. This allows the therapist to suggest to you how easily confident you will be the next time you sit on a plane.
Because of the relaxed state you’re in, it can be easier to avoid escalating any anxiety symptoms you may feel, such as:
- A feeling of impending doom
- Shortness of breath
- Increased heart rate
- Muscle tension
- Irritability
- Nervous stomach
Hypnotherapy should be used as a complementary treatment to cognitive behavioural therapy.
However, if you only use hypnosis to treat your anxiety, it could have effects similar to those of meditation. A hypnotic induction would help put you into this relaxed state, just like meditation. You can then use this state to address anxieties and phobias.
So, if you’re trying to treat a fear of flying, you can visualize yourself going back to the first time you were scared of flying. You can use a technique called hypnoprojectives, where you visualize your past events as you would’ve liked to have seen them. Then you see yourself in the future, feeling calm and peaceful while on a plane.
