Hypnosis for Drug Addiction: What You Need to Know

Hypnosis for Addiction

Your family is sick of jumping every time the phone rings. They fear this time your addiction will finally have got you in trouble with the law. Or worse, knowing drug overdoses kill 44,000 people each year in the United States.

Isn’t it time you ended their fear, quitting your addiction for good? Many addicts cycle in and out of rehab. If that’s your experience, you might be ready to try something very different, and very effective.

To learn how you can help yourself, and your family, by using hypnosis for addiction, read on!

The Growing Problem of Addiction

Every day in the U.S., 114 people die from drug overdose. But despite these figures, experts say it’s still America’s most neglected disease. More Americans suffer from addiction than from heart disease, diabetes or cancer.

It costs the government something like $468 billion each year. Overdose from abuse of opioids is the fastest growing drug problem in the U.S., and not just in cities. Let’s look at the causes of this growing problem.

What Causes Addiction?

Drug addiction is a disease where drug-seeking behaviors are compulsive or uncontrollable. Drug users seek their high despite the damage it does. To their brain, career, bank balance, and families.

While drug taking begins as a voluntary act, it becomes a compulsion that is hard to control. Addiction triggers the areas of the brain involved in motivation and reward. It also triggers the brain centers of learning, memory, and control over behavior.

In this way, addiction affects both behavior and brain. For some, it might start as a prescribed physical pain management program. That spirals out of control. 

For many, it’s down to trauma or pain that the addict wants to dull. Being high means being numb to their emotional pain. Family dysfunction and sexual abuse are just some of the traumatic experiences people dull with drugs.

Only one in 10 people with addiction to drugs or alcohol get any treatment. Those that do receive treatment often cycle in and out of different rehabs. Trying to find something that actually works.

Common Treatments for Addiction

Effective addiction treatment must stop users from using drugs. It should keep them drug-free and help them be productive members of society again. The first step to any recovery is admitting they no longer have control over their substance use.

From there, common treatment options are:

  • Medication
  • Behavioral counseling such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
  • Treatment for co-occurring mental health issues such as depression

Rehab clinic will often use these three approaches in tandem. But they’re not always effective in treating the underlying cause of the addiction. The good news, is there are effective alternatives, like hypnosis.

An Effective Alternative: Hypnosis for Addiction

Hypnotherapy is where subliminal messages change unhelpful thought patterns at the subconscious level. Addiction behaviors come from the motivation, reward, and learning centers of the brain. That means they’re controlling the addict’s behavior at a subconscious level.

For treatment to work, it has to target these causal areas. Hypnosis does just that. While some people think of hypnosis as akin to a magic trick, it’s actually a form of psychotherapy.

First, relaxation methods place the patient in a comfortable state-of-mind. They’ll feel awake, but relaxed. In this state, the unconscious mind is at the fore.

It’s a state like meditation or drug-induced hallucination. The hypnotist now works to implant a suggestion. This is usually a new, positive behavior.

They might generate a feeling of disgust whenever someone mentions drugs. The feeling of disgust now over-rides the positive feelings the reward center of the brain was sending before. Hypnosis might also work by uncovering memories of trauma underlying an addiction.

The therapist will suggest a new perspective on these painful memories. In this way, they aid in healing and recovery. 

Is Hypnosis Safe?

Certified Hypnotists learn the skill under close professional supervision. That makes it a safe alternative therapy for addiction. Check out the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH) database. It lists certified hypnosis professionals that can help you. 

Does It Work for Everyone?

Hypnosis is a very effective treatment for addiction, but it won’t work for everyone. About 10 percent of the population is highly susceptible to hypnotic suggestion. They’ll see results the fastest.

Around 25 percent of the population are minimally susceptible. So it can still work, but you’ll have to put in the effort. There are some ways you can increase the chances of hypnosis working.

Work on feeling positive about the potential of the treatment. This can make you more susceptible to suggestions under hypnosis. Knowing you are in the hands of an experienced professional will help.

Can I Do This Treatment at Home?

Hypnosis can happen at a hypnotherapists clinic. But it can also take place at home. If you’d like to try it in the comfort of your own house, look for high-quality hypnosis recordings.

Richard Barker has MP3 recordings targeting addiction. You might consider adding sessions related to your addiction. Like anxiety or depression.

You can buy these recordings online and try them right at home, a less expensive, low-risk way to see if hypnosis will work for you and your addiction.

Hypnosis for Addiction: Time to Try Something That Works

If you’re suffering from drug addiction, or you’re supporting an addict, you know how exhausting the revolving door of rehab is. Your family is dreading for the day you accidentally overdose, or get in trouble with the law. Many addictions stem from us trying to dull some deeper emotional pain.

This can be on a subconscious level. Stopping taking drugs doesn’t help at all with the cause of it. Hypnosis for addiction is different.

It’s a therapy that communicates with the source of the problem: your psyche. Subliminal suggestions replace pain and suffering self-talk to positive messages of coping. It’s still going to be work to stay sober, but with hypnosis, you’ve got a much better chance of making it stick.

If you’re ready to stop suffering and to stop your family’s suffering – try hypnosis today!

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