Written by: Nate Hager, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
The 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health produced a rather shocking statistic, 38% of American adults have a prescription for pain control medication. That’s about 93 million pain suffers! If you've ever struggled with chronic pain, you know just how much it drains you mentally and physically. Worse yet, 15% of prescription holders reported some degree of misuse or dependency. People are becoming more aware of the risks of these medications and are seeking a pain control solution with decidedly less severe downsides, and hypnosis is stepping in to fill the void.
The experience of pain is an interesting one, and one that keeps stumping scientists and researchers. Why can one person shrug off an injury that would send another into tears? At some point each of us has had that moment of discovery where we notice a bruise or scrape on an arm or leg and can’t recall how we got it, or even remember feeling any pain. Sometimes, at the mome,nt of injury, we don’t feel the pain until we turn our attention to the injury, noticing then it might start to throb or sting.
It’s not magic that we don’t immediately notice some of our injuries ‒ the nerves weren’t somehow turned off, our focus was simply elsewhere. We were able to block out pain signalling because our mind was concentrated on a different avenue within our awareness, and this is the fundamental principal of pain control hypnosis. One of the questions I get the most is ‒ how can you possibly reduce a person’s pain with hypnosis? People believe it’s some kind of voodoo when in actuality, there are plenty of documented cases in the medical history of full surgical procedures being done using hypnosis as the method of anesthesia. These cases go back as far as the eighteen hundreds and are still done today.
One of the biggest components of hypnosis is the power of focus. When elite athlete gets “in the zone” they’re in a state of eyes open hypnosis. Their focus is so tightly directed that they deliver what amounts to an unnatural level of performance – the kind that goes down in the history books and cements their legacy. The Duchess of Cambridge recently brought such great awareness to the subject of hypno-birthing, relying on it for the delivery of her three children. Using this drug free method, a labouring mother’s focus is so tightly directed that she is able to have a comfortable natural birth experience without the use of epidurals.
For decades dentists have received training in hypnosis so they could use less, or even no, anesthesia in dental surgeries like root canals. Because the patient was in a state of hypnosis at the time their body`s natural healing systems were more engaged, and dentists noticed the patient had better post-infection and residual pain outcomes. Pain is absolutely a useful signal; it tells us something is wrong and needs our attention. On the other hand, chronic pain is a lingering discomfort that persists long after the initial issue as been looked after. It impacts the patient’s quality of life, preventing them from engaging in meaningful social and family interactions and can even prevent them from working.
Choosing to work with a qualified pain control hypnotist can bring safe and effective relief to these individuals. Because of this, it’s of paramount importance that the practitioner first conducts due diligence in ensuring the pain management hypnosis isn’t going to cover up an underlying issue. Typically, when a client comes in for this kind of intervention, I will fully qualify them by working with their medical doctor to verify they’ve had every appropriate test or scan for their issue. Thereby ensuring the client is not in any medical danger when reducing the pain level they are feeling. Once their doctor approves they are clear to proceed with hypnosis.
One of the biggest benefits of pain control hypnosis is the ability to combat the fear of recurring or chronic pain, both consciously and subconsciously. This fear or anxiety keeps our bodies in a state where our natural pain blocking chemicals become suppressed. Anxiety has the effect of increasing a person’s adrenaline levels enough to block the production or Nor-adrenaline, and the primary job of Nor-adrenaline is to ramp up the release of endorphins. These little wonders are chemical substances one hundred times stronger than morphine, and because they’re naturally occurring they have the benefit of no negative side effects!
In the super stressed-out society we live in it’s no wonder we always feel like we’re aching and creaking along through the day, we just aren’t allowing our bodies the downtime it needs to make endorphins. Even basic self-hypnosis skills will reduce stress-induced adrenaline production, automatically letting the body generate its own natural anesthetic hormones.
It’s not unusual to hear my quit smoking or weight management clients comment on how relaxed and less achy they felt after just the initial hypnotic assessment. Such is the power of stress to negatively impact all the body’s functions.
Nate Hager, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Nate is a board-certified Hypnotist, an NLP Master Practitioner, master level Executive Coach and Certified Life & Health Mindset Coach. Over the last ten years, he’s worked with Fortune 500 executives and entrepreneurs helping them eliminate self-sabotage to achieve peak performance, raise their earnings potential and build business empires. Appearing on Rogers Business TV and 98.5’s Good News Only Show, he’s passionate about underscoring the benefits of hypnosis in building a fitness mindset, reducing stress and anxiety, weight management and personal performance. His techniques have shaped the lives of his clients by helping them redefine their identities and bounce back from major life stressors.
