Addictions take many forms, such as alcoholism, gambling, overeating, or substance abuse. But the one thing they have in common is the ability to cause great distress, destroy relationships, and lead to loss of livelihoods, among others.
Among the many treatments available for overcoming the unhealthy dependence on addictive behaviors and substances are NLP and hypnosis. These approaches are remarkable in their ability to transform behavior, thus helping in curbing addiction.
But what do NLP and hypnosis entail, and how do they work?
What is NLP?
NLP or Neuro-linguistic programming began in the 1970s to change a person’s thoughts and behaviors and help them attain the desired outcome. The psychological approach analyzes strategies successful individuals use and applies them to people trying to reach personal goals. NLP entails treating phobias, anxiety disorders and enhancing personal development.
The approach uses perception, behavior, and communication to make it simpler for individuals to change their behavior and thought patterns. NLP’s main appeal lies in its ability to address the diverse issues that face most people, including behavioral and substance addiction.
How Does NLP Work
NLP has various interpretations, but its underlying framework is based on the premise that people operate using internal world maps they adopt through sensory experiences. The program thus tries to identify and modify the unconscious barriers or biases existing in a person’s reality map.
Through the use of language, NLP works to effect a change in a person’s thoughts and actions and tries to identify their preferred sensory system. An NLP practitioner, therefore, bases their therapeutic framework around the client’s preferred representational system (PRS). This might involve the use of information-gathering, rapport-building, and goal-setting.
When practicing NLP, you analyze your perspective plus other peoples’ to form an overview of a given situation. Understanding a wide range of perspectives enables you to gain information.
While NLP is useful to promote personal development skills like confidence, communication, self-reflection, and productivity, it is also effective as a therapeutic treatment. As a result, it helps address psychological disorders such as depression, phobias, anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
What Is Hypnosis?
Hypnosis is a psychological and therapeutic process that might help in coping with or treating various conditions. During hypnosis, a trained hypnotherapist leads you into a trance or profoundly relaxed state. The therapist then goes ahead to make suggestions meant to make you more receptive to change and the treatment, thus reach your intended goals.
How Does Hypnosis Work?
During the session, the hypnotist induces a state of intense concentration and focused attention through a process guided with repetition and verbal cues. The heightened focus makes you more open to accepting suggestions that you are more likely to ignore in your normal mental state. And though you might appear to be asleep, you’re fully aware of everything that’s happening.
Once the session is complete, your therapist wakes you, or you exit the trance-like state on your own.
The Differences Between NLP and Hypnosis
Below are some of the main differences between NLP and hypnosis:
● NLP uses language to cause a change in someone’s thoughts and actions, while hypnotherapy identifies the root cause of self-sabotaging behavior patterns so as to tackle the problem.
● NLP is more interactive and engages with the conscious and unconscious mind, while hypnosis focuses more on the unconscious mind.
How NLP and Hypnosis Help in Overcoming Addictions
An NLP therapist tries to understand how people think, their behaviors, emotions, and aspirations. Examining an individual’s reality map thus enables the therapist to locate and strengthen skills that are best-placed to help them replace unproductive behaviors with new ones.
This process can help individuals undergoing treatment to reach their desired goals, such as overcoming an addiction.
Ten studies conducted in 2012 evaluated the effects of NLP on various health conditions such as anxiety, substance abuse, and weight management. They concluded that although there was no evidence to prove NLP was ineffective, there was also little evidence to show that the intervention resulted in improved health.
During hypnosis, some parts of the brain undergo change. These are areas that play a significant role in controlling your actions as well as awareness. Therefore, hypnotherapy could be responsible for placing different thoughts in your mind that might cause changes to take root. These changes could lead to new behaviors replacing addictive ones such as smoking and overeating.
The hypnotic state also makes it possible for individuals to explore painful feelings, thoughts, and memories they are not conscious of. This can help them address the underlying issues leading to their addiction.
Final Thoughts
Both NLP and hypnosis form genuine therapeutic tools that are useful as alternative treatments for several conditions like alcohol and drug addiction, insomnia, and PTSD. They are also valuable in overcoming various addictions.
While scientific studies do not yet provide clear empirical evidence of the effectiveness of both approaches, they do not dispute their usefulness either. Besides, evidence shows that hypnosis can be used in treating depression and smoking addiction.