HYPNOSIS FOR ADDICTIONS: WHY IT DOESN’T WORK!
Peter Andrew Sacco, Ph.D.
February 05, 2007
You’re getting sleepy. Your eyes are getting heavier and heavier. You are in a complete state of peace and relaxation. Feel your body getting lighter and lighter. You’re starting to float. As you float, feel your worries drift away. Feel yourself letting go of the chains which have bound you to your addictions in the past…
Have you ever been to see a clinical hypnotherapist to help you overcome a habit or assist you in achieving something you wanted very much to build on your personal growth? Did the hypnosis help you or even cure you? If it did great! In fact, hypnosis is an excellent tool for helping individuals overcome minor irritations in their lives such as anxiety, phobias, habits and stress management problems. However, when circumstances become more pronounced and actually become addictions, the likelihood of hypnosis as an effective solution lessens.
What do we know about addictions? For starters, they can be either physical (i.e. alcohol) or psychological (i.e. gambling). Since all individuals are unique individuals, their level of addiction will differ and most importantly, how they arrived at their specific addiction will differ. Addictions are an illness because no matter how hard one tries to stop on their own, or even with outside help, there will be several failed tries and relapses. In most cases, the addiction controls them rendering them helpless to effectively live a normal life. A habit on the other hand, does not render the individual helpless in their everyday activities as severe addictions do.
Addictions occur for any of the three reasons. First, the individual may use their specific vice for the relief of pain or stress whether they be emotional and/or physical. Second, the individual engages in the addiction for the main reason of instant gratification. They get an instant catharsis from the vice. And third, the addict falls into the addiction as they are prone to some kind of classical conditioning response. This means that as certain situations or cues arise, the addict is stimulated to engage in the vice for whatever reason brought them there in the first place.
Well then, if we know why addictions occur and why individuals engage in them, why doesn’t hypnosis work for most addicts? If we know the cause-effect relationship, should we not be able to attack the nature of the beast effectively with hypnosis? One would think so, but this is not the case. Not only does the individual battle the addiction itself, they also battle two other factors. Firstly, they battle the addiction to the addiction. Sound bizarre? In essence, this is a very simple factor. The more one engages in something, they become more proficient at it and actually begin to identify themselves around that particular act. For example, if you were a lawyer, who really loved being a lawyer, you would probably be a workaholic (addiction) plus addicted to the career of lawyer (addicted to addiction). The second major factor the addict battles is themselves. Perhaps this is the most trying of all the factors in helping someone control their addiction.
The most prevalent underlying pre-cursor to addiction is low self-esteem culminated by a host of personal events such as repeated rejection, abuse, child abuse, neglect and failures topped off by feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. If you were to examine these pre-cursors under a microscope you would see they are pretty harsh and destructive experiences. Folks, these are not the factors we see leading to most habits like nail-biting, nose-picking and even smoking for that matter. When we see an addict who is into alcohol, drugs, gambling, pornography, compulsive eating or even excessive working, we know they do so to compensate or mask some deeper, personal underlying cause. And these underlying causes probably occurred at an earlier age and have been repressed ever since.
In addictions, I like to view an addict on one of two sides of a continuum. On the negative side, where the addiction rules the addict I coin it “bitter resistance”. On the positive side of the continuum, where the addict is in control of their addiction and have overcome their demons, I coin “sweet acceptance”. When one is bitter and engages in a vice for a long period of time and becomes addicted, it is because they have repressed so many bad memories and events which they are uncomfortable accepting and dealing with. They are very resistant to taking a soul searching journey because as they remove layers of themselves, they feel uncharted pain. For them, the hurt has always been equated with rejection and depression, so why open the can of worms. The best way of dealing with the rot and stench of the past is to bury it under something else which they believe they can control, i.e. the vice.
When an individual is still operating on the “bitter resistance” side, they have not come to terms with their past. In fact, most are still in full psychological flight. Hypnosis would not even begin to scratch the surface. Sure, you might give the individual some post-hypnotic suggestion to create a diversion or a distraction when they feel compelled to engage in their vice. The problem here is that the vice is not the real problem per se as much as their personality which facilitates their engaging in the vice. Hypnosis will try to treat the vice and some behaviors which are triggered by the mental/emotional problems in their short-circuited personalities. Now if you began to dig into the personality problems during hypnosis, you would then start to engage in regression hypnosis and no longer be doing true hypnosis as much as you would be counseling. For all intents and purposes, if you were to get into long-term therapy, then perhaps counseling would be a more effective and a viable lasting option!
To sum it all up, if you were to treat addictions, not habits using a hypnosis approach, what you are really doing is engaging in a “band aid” solution at best. In most cases you are not getting to the heart of the matter which is the bitter resistance which exists in the core of the individual’s personality. Sure the hypnosis might help the individual to function better or even appear to make it look like the individual is cure, however, the chances of them relapsing are almost inevitable. Hypnosis is a very good therapy, albeit not the best when it comes to addictions.
Have you ever been to see a clinical hypnotherapist to help you overcome a habit or assist you in achieving something you wanted very much to build on your personal growth? Did the hypnosis help you or even cure you? If it did great! In fact, hypnosis is an excellent tool for helping individuals overcome minor irritations in their lives such as anxiety, phobias, habits and stress management problems. However, when circumstances become more pronounced and actually become addictions, the likelihood of hypnosis as an effective solution lessens.
What do we know about addictions? For starters, they can be either physical (i.e. alcohol) or psychological (i.e. gambling). Since all individuals are unique individuals, their level of addiction will differ and most importantly, how they arrived at their specific addiction will differ. Addictions are an illness because no matter how hard one tries to stop on their own, or even with outside help, there will be several failed tries and relapses. In most cases, the addiction controls them rendering them helpless to effectively live a normal life. A habit on the other hand, does not render the individual helpless in their everyday activities as severe addictions do.
Addictions occur for any of the three reasons. First, the individual may use their specific vice for the relief of pain or stress whether they be emotional and/or physical. Second, the individual engages in the addiction for the main reason of instant gratification. They get an instant catharsis from the vice. And third, the addict falls into the addiction as they are prone to some kind of classical conditioning response. This means that as certain situations or cues arise, the addict is stimulated to engage in the vice for whatever reason brought them there in the first place.
Well then, if we know why addictions occur and why individuals engage in them, why doesn’t hypnosis work for most addicts? If we know the cause-effect relationship, should we not be able to attack the nature of the beast effectively with hypnosis? One would think so, but this is not the case. Not only does the individual battle the addiction itself, they also battle two other factors. Firstly, they battle the addiction to the addiction. Sound bizarre? In essence, this is a very simple factor. The more one engages in something, they become more proficient at it and actually begin to identify themselves around that particular act. For example, if you were a lawyer, who really loved being a lawyer, you would probably be a workaholic (addiction) plus addicted to the career of lawyer (addicted to addiction). The second major factor the addict battles is themselves. Perhaps this is the most trying of all the factors in helping someone control their addiction.
The most prevalent underlying pre-cursor to addiction is low self-esteem culminated by a host of personal events such as repeated rejection, abuse, child abuse, neglect and failures topped off by feelings of inadequacy and inferiority. If you were to examine these pre-cursors under a microscope you would see they are pretty harsh and destructive experiences. Folks, these are not the factors we see leading to most habits like nail-biting, nose-picking and even smoking for that matter. When we see an addict who is into alcohol, drugs, gambling, pornography, compulsive eating or even excessive working, we know they do so to compensate or mask some deeper, personal underlying cause. And these underlying causes probably occurred at an earlier age and have been repressed ever since.
In addictions, I like to view an addict on one of two sides of a continuum. On the negative side, where the addiction rules the addict I coin it “bitter resistance”. On the positive side of the continuum, where the addict is in control of their addiction and have overcome their demons, I coin “sweet acceptance”. When one is bitter and engages in a vice for a long period of time and becomes addicted, it is because they have repressed so many bad memories and events which they are uncomfortable accepting and dealing with. They are very resistant to taking a soul searching journey because as they remove layers of themselves, they feel uncharted pain. For them, the hurt has always been equated with rejection and depression, so why open the can of worms. The best way of dealing with the rot and stench of the past is to bury it under something else which they believe they can control, i.e. the vice.
When an individual is still operating on the “bitter resistance” side, they have not come to terms with their past. In fact, most are still in full psychological flight. Hypnosis would not even begin to scratch the surface. Sure, you might give the individual some post-hypnotic suggestion to create a diversion or a distraction when they feel compelled to engage in their vice. The problem here is that the vice is not the real problem per se as much as their personality which facilitates their engaging in the vice. Hypnosis will try to treat the vice and some behaviors which are triggered by the mental/emotional problems in their short-circuited personalities. Now if you began to dig into the personality problems during hypnosis, you would then start to engage in regression hypnosis and no longer be doing true hypnosis as much as you would be counseling. For all intents and purposes, if you were to get into long-term therapy, then perhaps counseling would be a more effective and a viable lasting option!
To sum it all up, if you were to treat addictions, not habits using a hypnosis approach, what you are really doing is engaging in a “band aid” solution at best. In most cases you are not getting to the heart of the matter which is the bitter resistance which exists in the core of the individual’s personality. Sure the hypnosis might help the individual to function better or even appear to make it look like the individual is cure, however, the chances of them relapsing are almost inevitable. Hypnosis is a very good therapy, albeit not the best when it comes to addictions.
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