Working with pain
Suffering is an alarm signal that we are in danger or that our biological needs are not being met. It is also the signal of a dysfunction and, as we too often forget, the manifestation of an inflammatory process of biological repair of every cell in our body. Therefore, it is necessary not to eliminate the pain completely, as there is a risk of camouflaging symptoms that are essential for survival and recognition of a disease.
Pain has multiple causal and contextual effects and subtleties, both biological and sensory, emotional and cultural. It is precisely this psychological, emotional and social context that accounts for 90% of the feeling of pain! The remaining 10% corresponds to the biological and chemical perception of pain, known as nociception. In short, it is the nervous message called nociceptive that is transported along the peripheral nerves to the brain and causes pain.
Now imagine how we can work with hypnosis to calm, soothe, reframe and re-harmonize this 90% of pain. Nevertheless, this psychological, emotional and cultural part, which is strongly involved in the pain syndrome, remains a feeling that everyone really experiences. The famous expression: “It’s all in your head!”
This means that we are in the presence of an “imaginary sick person”. Accepting this and the lack of understanding of the people around them can increase the isolation of the person suffering.
Emotions and hormones
Anxiety is one of the main emotions associated with the pain syndrome. Fear of suffering and the memory of it, fear of illness, etc.
Fear gradually becomes part of life and quickly becomes omnipresent. It twists your guts, makes you sweat and feel nauseous.
It intensifies the pain in a process of tension throughout the body. When you say tension, you say stress. Stress is a biological signal that warns of danger and enables the brain to secrete two main hormones: Cortisol and adrenaline, which prepare for action and combat (survival behavior in a context perceived as dangerous). Too much cortisol necessarily prevents sleep and causes fatigue and insomnia. This is schematically the beginning of a hellish loop that is conducive to the installation of chronic pain.
If the body has its own hormones with analgesic effects (these are natural morphines called endorphins or endomorphins to regulate stress and provide a sense of well-being), the imbalance caused by chronic pain does not allow this homeostatic balance to function. Hypnosis will intervene to bring these circuits back into balance.
Note that these hormones of well-being and happiness are released beneficially when you exercise, marathon runners know this well, or when you are in love. This also means being a lover of life and its little pleasures. Hypnosis enables the reprogramming of forgotten circuits, as too much suffering and pain, stress, melancholy, anger and aggression, even depressive states, etc. cause.
Thanks to hypnosis sessions, it is possible to make the person relive feelings of forgotten well-being, relaxation and joy, so that the brain reverses the process, secretes endorphins and reconnects with all positive emotions.
Hypnosis also helps in particular to numb the painful area using various techniques. One of the most common is the glove technique, which numbs the painful area. There are many others … Each technique is adapted to the sensitivity, beliefs and perceptions of the patient.
Hypnosis allows the sufferer to numb the painful area, to better manage their pain, taking into account the different components, including the emotional component. Finally, you can learn to welcome pain as a present state so that you no longer have to fight it, but can tame it to discover your own resources and thus learn to transform it.