Can Hypnotherapy Help Overcome Addiction? Exploring the Benefits
Drinking with work – but it’s the culture, and everyone has a few more when they get home. Smoking weed, socially with friends, and having the odd one at home – every day, twice a day? Gambling, scrolling, watching porn, overeating – there’s always a reason.
Is there a behaviour you want to change, but don’t know how? Do you know you’re addicted? That first step to acknowledging you have a problem is sometimes the hardest in the recovery process.
Having a reason doesn’t mean there isn’t a problem. If you feel you need support to break a cycle of behaviour, hypnotherapy is possibly the thing that will help you break the chain for good.
How Hypnotherapy Works
During hypnosis, you’ll find yourself to have a strong focus of attention. Most people get absorbed in an imaginative experience, where you dissociate from the environment, open to suggestions and respond to communicated ideas. Hypnosis strengthens self awareness, so you have a stronger capacity for introspection and interoception and have less focus on the environment surrounding you.
Theta brain waves are the most prominent during hypnosis. Typically present during relaxation, creativity and meditation, light sleep, daydreaming, or hypnosis, theta brainwaves encourage the brain into a calm and introspective state. This makes it open to positive change and suggestions.
Hypnosis changes gamma brain waves. During high-level cognitive functioning, learning, and memory, the brain uses gamma brain waves. We do not know exactly why or how hypnosis changes gamma activity. However, the gamma brain waves present during hypnosis might be the reason hypnosis helps us change the way we process information and create healthier ways to think and respond.
The changes in brain waves affect the limbic system, which is the part of the brain that manages emotions, motivation, and memory. The amygdala and hippocampus are key parts of the limbic system, involved in emotional regulation and forming emotional memories. Hypnosis influences these circuits, helping you process and release emotional patterns or trauma linked to addictive behaviours.
The state of hypnosis feels like the meditative state. In a hypnotic state, the stress response reduces, so most people feel relaxed. Due to the changes already described, you have a greater ability for introspection, understanding, focus and commitment to personal changes.
The Unique Benefits of Hypnotherapy for Addiction
There isn’t a standard protocol for hypnotherapy. Therefore, hypnotherapists work in different ways. Because hypnotherapists have autonomy, most hypnotherapists will personalise the sessions, rather than follow a set structure that remains the same for each client. When I work with someone to help them stop repeating a toxic behaviour, I’ll use several techniques. Some of which are:
- Addressing Root Causes: I nearly always want to explore the roots, rather than just manage the symptoms. For some people, this means healing unresolved emotional pain or trauma that contributes to addiction. Occasionally addiction starts with peer pressure or wanting to fit in, and gets out of hand. Often, there is an underlying cause, and by remedying this, we weaken the need for addictive behaviour.
- Values Work: If you take the time to explore your core values, you’ll probably find that the addictive behaviour doesn’t fit in. Although some people have a vague idea of their values, few people formally acknowledge them. When you delve into your values, write them out and refer to them daily, it is easier to make choices that align with them.
- Empowering Self-Control: Hypnotherapy can help you build an internal locus of control. By shifting focus your focus from external solutions to internal resources, you’ll start to feel in control of your life. You will recognise you have choices, and rather than life being forced upon you, you can make decisions that change the course of your life.
- Complementary Approach: I prefer a holistic approach. Hypnotherapy can help heal your mind, and it can help with the mind-body connection. However, I believe you also need to heal your body. Hypnotherapy works well alongside other treatments, such as body work, exercise, nutrition and 12-step programs. It is important to have a network of support around you when you enter addiction recovery work.
Who Can Benefit from Hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy is a powerful technique that can help most people. It is not what stage hypnosis depicts. The hypnotherapist does not take control of their client. Rather through hypnosis, the hypnotised feels more in control of themselves. Hypnosis is about enhancing the mind. By reducing the external focus, you can make changes that are harder when you’re distracted by everything else around you. Hypnosis teaches you how to take control of yourself, how to remain strong in your decisions, and clearly see what you can achieve. Hypnosis reduces feelings of embarrassment or concern of what others think, and strengthens your imagination – hence why it works so well on stage.
Jensen MP, Adachi T, Hakimian S. Brain Oscillations, Hypnosis, and Hypnotizability. Am J Clin Hypn. 2015;57(3):230-253. doi: 10.1080/00029157.2014.976786. PMID: 25792761; PMCID: PMC4361031.
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