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Can hypnosis relieve depression?
Results so far:
| Yes | 57% | 361 votes | Total: 634 votes | |
| No | 43% | 273 votes |
Yes
by Bridget Webber
Created on: December 16, 2007
Hypnosis can relieve depression, but it depends on the experience and strength of knowledge of the hypnotist and the patients willingness to participate fully. In-order to be hypnotized you have to want to be so. You also need to trust your hypnotherapist so that you can reach into your subconscious where healing can take place.
I am a hypnotherapist and wouldn't dream of taking a patient back to relieve a painful memory unless thats what they want to do and I can see a benefit coming from doing so. I would also need to feel that they can cope with the experience without being hurt or damaged.
This may relate to depression if the depression stems from a known cause which could be a painful event. In such a case the most positive way to begin to overcome such depression is not usually to keep going over the problem like a stuck record and reliving the anxiety which was produced by the event.
It is possible, instead, to help a patient tap into their own healing properties caused by chemical reactions in their brain. During certain happy memories good and helpful chemicals are released into the patients system which can help to aid their recovery.
A patient can then be taught to gain back their own personal strength and personal power by learning how to access positive emotions when they most need to, rather than negative ones.
Working in this way empowers individuals and lets them be in charge of what happens to them. This is useful as many people who are depressed have sought help from others who have meant well but who have come out as being the 'expert' while the patient ended up as the victim who needed their help.
When used wisely hypnotherapy can become a powerful tool for people who wish to reach positive emotions and to rid themselves of the pain of depression or unwanted negative thoughts.
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No
by Faolan Johanns
Created on: January 16, 2008
This issue is based on a broad audience, it's too generally focused to have a clearly defined yes/no answer that deduces whether hypnosis may or may not relieve depression.
Let's start off with depression:
Depressio n itself is defined as a feeling of sadness, bluesy, or a low mood, usually in emotional reaction to an event in one's life.
people who seem to have this state of being for a period of two weeks or more and as a result, the state of mind disrupts life, are considered to have what's known as clinical depression, which is what this topic focuses on.
Depression, is entirely based on the individual, some people use drugs to find relief, and some dig themselves out of where they were by hand, perhaps using methods such as hypnosis for temporary relief, or a tool conducive to recovery, if not the actualizing ingredient to recovery.
Now, let's take a look at hypnotism:
Hypnosis is defined as being in a state similar to sleep, a trance state, where the individual leaves themselves open to suggestion.
Starting from scratch, the individual must be susceptible to being hypnotized, otherwise it will not work to begin with, much less on the long run.
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and finally, let's put the two together,
can hypnosis relieve depression? for some few individuals it might be a likely tool used to help, but not an option for literal relief, no.
is it a likely, feasible, and reliable source of treatment for depression? - again no, hypnosis works on a limited crowd in the first place, in all likelihood only a fraction of even those would gain any sort of positive feedback.
depression is of varying degree to the individual, and it is never wholly curable by one said thing or another, even though antidepressants take the feeling away, they don't fix the problem, that's up to the person alone.
Yes, I have depression, no, I do not take drugs, the most recovery-stimulating things for myself, more so than drugs when i used them, have been daily exercise and keeping a journal. However, even what I say there may work for some, likely much more than hypnotism can account for, but not all, and i would anticipate far less than most.
Learn more about this author, Faolan Johanns.
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