What is hypnosis? Can it be considered a solution to alcoholism? Or is it merely a complementary solution? These are just some of the questions this section aims to answer.

Alcoholism: An addiction that makes you feel worse

When alcohol becomes the cure for all your ills, you’ve lost control of the situation. Convince yourself otherwise, but it’s the sad truth. The problem you were hoping to solve with alcohol remains, and your health deteriorates. There’s nothing positive about alcohol.

Alcohol aggravates your emotional wounds. It takes control of your life, destroys everything you have and sometimes drives away the people you care about. Alcohol can also change you (your mood, your motivation, your intellectual capacity). All the positive effects you think you get from alcohol (adrenalin, courage, carefree spirit) are only temporary. The pleasure you derive from it for a few hours doesn’t solve your problems. The worst thing is the discomfort you feel after drinking (headaches, fatigue, loss of motivation, low morale, etc.).

Consuming a few glasses of alcohol in moderation is possible. The first step is to decide to give up alcohol abuse. Then, there are various solutions. One that I recommend you try is hypnosis.

HYPNOSIS FOR ADDICTIONS
Hypnosis and alcoholism can be associated, just as hypnosis is associated with smoking. In fact, the practice of hypnosis has already proved its worth in the fight against smoking.

Hypnotherapy is not only a quick fix, it’s also highly effective against addictions. Whereas withdrawal relies on the patient’s discipline, hypnotherapy attacks the problem at source. Thanks to hypnosis, the subconscious mind is reprogrammed to adopt healthier habits. What’s more, the results of hypnotherapy are faster. We’re talking about a month to 6 months at most, whereas other solutions can take years without success. Combining hypnosis and alcoholism also has the advantage of being simple (about fifteen minutes) for long-term results.

ALCOHOL IS A SUBSTITUTE FOR OTHER NEEDS
What perpetuates your dependence on alcohol is what it means to you. Alcohol acts as a substitute for other needs that are essential to you. In other words, you drink to avoid dealing with the real problem. It’s often said that alcohol helps you forget your worries. Alcohol abuse is rarely a simple pleasure.

To try and solve the problem of alcohol, hynotherapy can aim to identify the problems you’re avoiding. To demystify them and focus your energy on finding solutions. Because addiction is always difficult, hypnotherapy doesn’t just identify and solve your problems. It will also give you the means to deal with further attempts at relapse.

HYPNOSIS AND ALCOHOLISM: WHAT IS ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE?
The addiction in question is alcohol abuse. It’s the abuse of alcohol to the point of no longer caring about one’s physical and emotional health. At this point, alcohol becomes a necessity for the body and mind. As if it were necessary to keep on living, like water.

Alcohol abuse slows down the body’s essential functions, such as :

motor coordination
concentration
general mood
memory

SOME SIGNS OF ALCOHOLISM
The American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) is a useful tool for identifying signs of alcoholism. It provides a series of questions to ask a patient to classify his or her alcohol consumption. The most frequently asked questions are as follows:

Has the patient tried to stop or reduce alcohol consumption without success?
Does the patient often drink more than expected?
Has alcohol interfered with school or work responsibilities?
Has the patient been in a dangerous situation more than once because of alcohol?
Does the patient give up pleasurable activities to drink instead?
Is it necessary to drink more to feel something?

HYPNOSIS: A WORTHWHILE PERSONAL INVESTMENT
Hypnosis is accessible to everyone. You can try it for free without paying a cent. Just type hypnosis and alcoholism on youtube and you’ll come across quality hypnosis videos. If you’ve tried free online content to no avail (which is unlikely), you can have a hypnotherapist accompany you. The advantage is that he or she will follow you from start to finish, and your sessions will be personalized to your profile. The only disadvantage of using a hypnotherapist is, of course, that you have to pay for his or her services. But what you pay doesn’t amount to much in terms of care.

ACHIEVING YOUR GOALS WITH HYPNOSIS
Although the effort involved in each hypnosis session is relatively low, the goals that can be achieved are considerable. Hypnotherapy is highly effective in the fight against addiction. But hypnosis can also be used for rehabilitation, to overcome stress, anxiety, fatigue, insomnia and so on. The only real limitation to hypnosis is a lack of open-mindedness. Skepticism can prevent the patient from exploiting the full potential of hypnosis. A closed mind may not be enough to achieve hypnotic trance. It should be noted that even if a session is successful, patience and perseverance are required.

All these qualities are very important for successful hypnotherapy. What makes hypnotherapy for alcoholism so successful is that alcoholics have often exhausted all their cards before trying hypnotherapy. They come with the fierce hope that it will work, and put everything on the line to be ready to heal.

HYPNOSIS AND ALCOHOLISM: A DOUBLE STANDARD
Therapeutic hypnosis originated at the end of the 18th century with the Viennese physician Mesmer. For the first time in its history, Western medicine experimented with a practice for which there was as yet no scientific explanation. However, it was banned only 5 years after its arrival in France for example, as hypnosis represented a danger to the mores of the time.

Today, it is mainly Oriental medicine that has pushed the acceptance of hypnotherapy as a viable solution in the West. With conventional medicine struggling to cope with addictions, it was time to opt for different, innovative approaches. Hypnotherapy is a kind of second chance for alcoholics, but it is fast becoming the solution of choice.

HOW HYPNOSIS WORKS
There’s nothing mysterious about hypnosis. The body and mind are linked, and caring for one is essential to the development of the other. Hypnosis acts particularly on the mind.

Its primary aim is to bring the patient into a state often referred to as hypnotic trance. Once in this state, the hypnotherapist makes targeted suggestions to the patient, who is then more inclined to follow them. Suggestions are simple, precise phrases that can induce change in the patient.

It should be noted that the patient is not at the hypnotherapist’s mercy. In a trance state, the patient is fully aware of what is happening. What’s more, a qualified hypnotherapist will only make suggestions, not give orders. The patient is therefore free to listen to any suggestions he or she sees fit.

To achieve hypnotic trance, a series of breathing and relaxation exercises of all kinds can be practiced, the choice of which depends on the hypnotherapist.

There are three main styles of hypnotherapy:

A more authoritarian style: in which you listen passively to your hypnotherapist’s instructions.
A permissive style: in which you are more active during the session.
Self-hypnosis: you conduct your own hypnosis session using recordings.

Self-hypnosis is often free, and you can learn more about how to make a successful session. On the other hand, if you can’t manage on your own, you can get help from a specialist.

HYPNOSIS AND ALCOHOLISM: A GOOD COMBINATION?
It’s hard to say whether this combination works or not. Hypnotic suggestions can be more or less effective depending on the patient. There are people for whom hypnotherapy works best, and others for whom it works less well. Suggestibility is not guaranteed in all cases. Nevertheless, hypnosis can be tried, even if only in combination with other solutions. Hypnosis alone may not be enough to treat alcoholism. But it is an interesting way of getting in touch with the mind and understanding what’s going wrong.

THE RISKS OF HYPNOSIS
Before taking part in a hypnosis session, you should check that your state of health does not pose any problems. For example, if you suffer from depression, your hypnotherapist needs to know. That’s why it’s best to use a qualified hypnotherapist. On the other hand, if you’d like to try self-hypnosis, which involves being alone, it may be worth contacting your doctor to find out if you can do it. Bear in mind, however, that self-hypnosis rarely represents a danger to the practitioner.

The few side effects of hypnosis can be :

Headaches
Fatigue
Sleepiness (a good sign if you suffer from insomnia)
Dizziness
Anxiety

These risks can also be attributed to a phenomenon known as the post-hypnosis rebound effect.

HYPNOSIS AND ALCOHOLISM: THE THREE HYPNOTIC STAGES
The entire hypnosis session for alcoholism can be summarized in three stages:

Absorption: This stage involves the imagination. The patient enters into a deep connection with his or her thoughts, emotions and feelings. On this journey, they discover new and unexplored facets of themselves. This further expands their field of possibilities. To achieve this, the practitioner invites the patient to develop his or her imagination, which is the cornerstone of this stage.
Dissociation: The aim of this stage is to limit thinking. In other words, it involves detaching from the state of consciousness and letting the mind wander on its own. It is essential to facilitate the communication of suggestions in the next stage. A mind troubled by thoughts that come and go may be unable to distinguish suggestions from the hubbub of thoughts.
Suggestibility: This stage depends on the success of the previous stages. It is also at this stage that suggestions intended to bring about change are formulated. They can be used to produce a new vision of life. But they can also provide tools for dealing with problems. For example, a suggestion may be designed to help people understand the devastating effects of alcohol on their health.