The broken-hearted and hardcore smokers on trying hypnosis to overcome addiction
Dr Reema Shah doesn't exactly arrive at her Khar and Dadar clinics spinning a pocket watch, ready to nudge patients into a zombie state. She busts quite a few myths surrounding hypnotherapy, even while helping Mumbaikars wrangle out of the grip of addictions that range from smoking to drug abuse.
"Hypnotherapy is essentially a therapeutic tool," she explains. "It works on the principle of reprogramming the mind to accept healthy, positive suggestions and weed out negative messages."
The practice that dates back to ancient Greece and Egypt, and gets its name from the Greek term (hypnos) for `sleep' is said to alter a person's mental state, heightening his level of focus and awareness. Through it, we are able to access deeper layers of our memory bank or what we call the subconscious. "Every action is impacted by stored subconscious experiences, and conscious perceptions. At most times, we aren't aware of subconscious associations," explains consultant hypnotherapist at Masina Hospital, Kirti Bakshi. "For instance, smoking is associated with pleasure or stress-relief. Through hypnotherapy, we help smokers figure the root cause of stress."
Unlearn the negatives
To access the sub-conscious mind, the hypnotherapist helps your conscious mind relax. In this deeply relaxed state, a communication channel is opened with the subconscious mind. It's here that positive messages are programmed into the patient's mind using verbal affirmations and suggestions. "These new messages form the foundation of new behavioral patterns," explains Shah. Fresh neural pathways are created in the brain, and these are then strengthened by post-hypnotherapy structures (eg. posthypnotic recordings which the patient can hear during leisure).
"To put it simply, hypnotherapy helps in unlearning addictive patterns and re-learn healthy alternative behaviors."
An addiction is born out of dependency. By examining the genesis of this dependency and helping the patient understand it, the therapist works at restructuring aspects of his life that revolve around the addiction, offering healthy, sustainable alternatives.
3-pronged approach
A few years ago, Shah worked with a 24-year-old smoker who held a high-pressure job. He had smoked his first cigarette at 16 on a whim.
"At 24, when he came to me, he had experienced his first health scare. He was finding it tough to breathe. So, his motivation to quit was quite high. The motivation always has to come from within, otherwise hypnotherapy doesn't work," shares Shah, who opted for a three-pronged approach.
The first, involved hypnotherapy to unlearn the smoking behavior. The second was based on cognitive behavior therapy to identify, address and change peripheral behaviors that were encouraging the addiction. The third step involved sticking to post-hypnosis structures to support him after therapy concluded. "Therapy analysis," says Shah, made him realize he used smoking as a time-filler and a way of bonding with peers and friends.
"In therapy, we worked on his social skills and motivated him to take up exercising connecting with friends over the phone to fill out empty hours."
Bakshi, who has handled several cases of drug addiction, says, smoking is usually the first link, and could easily lead to drug abuse. "When compared to alcohol addiction, smoking is slightly easier to give up. But because of its social acceptability, motivation levels to stay off need to be high. Alcohol and drugs, on the other hand, are seen as potentially damaging, so the addiction is taken more seriously," she says.
Post a Comment
EmoticonClick to see the code!
To insert emoticon you must added at least one space before the code.