Chronic Pain
 Pain
is all too familiar to each of us, we take for granted that
we must live with it some of the time, and most of us manage
to do so successfully. Our familiarity with pain does not however
lesson the importance of understanding it better. Pain reduction
is a primary task of the physician, second only to the preservation
of health against life threatening disease. The prevalence of
pain is evident from the attention pain-killers receive in advertising
and from the millions of pounds that the public spend on them. |
Pain - useful or wasteful?
A fundamental paradox involving pain is
that it is at once beneficial and harmful. If a thorn scratches
the skin or a splinter pieces it, the resulting pain is a sign
that there is something to avoid or some damage to be repaired.
The information the pain conveys is useful because the site
of the damage can be located and something can be done about
it. The splinter can be removed a bleeding wound can be bandaged
or a dressing can be placed on a burn. If an ankle is sprained
or a bone broken pain increases when that member is used in
its ordinary way. Pain thus protects us from further injury
until the condition has been improved.
The other side of the paradox - pain that is not useful - pain
that comes to late. Many of the gravest diseases strike without
prior warning of pain. The famous French surgeon Leriche said
that an illness is a drama in two acts, of which the first goes
on in the silence of the tissues, without a warning sign of
pain. The second act is then a denouement in which pain announces
a disease condition already far advanced, perhaps beyond remediation.
The tumours of cancer do not announce themselves in the early
stages of their growth. Heart illness may reach the stage of
a coronary accident before pain is felt, and ulcers may cause
no pain until perforation has occurred.
Chronic pain serving no useful purpose may go beyond being unpleasant.
It may indeed be destructive and incapacitating, disregarding
for the moment the source of the pain, what can the prolonged
experience of pain do to the sufferer? It may produce severe
depression, have deleterious effects on the heart and kidneys,
disturb gastric and colonic processes, and upset heart regularity
and blood pressure. The price of such pain is reduced efficiency
at work and in lessened enjoyment of life, is hard to measure,
most people can find illustrations from their own lives or those
or their acquaintances of the damage that continuous pain can
do.
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 A
way out?
What can we do with pain, which like the
burglar alarm that can't be disconnected, continues to irritate
us?
The sources of many types of pain may be chronic
and ongoing. Migraine headaches, back pain, arthritis, and
gout are among the chronic pains that people suffer. Certain
cancers, and even many treatments for them, can produce unnecessary
pain. Dental pain, postoperative surgical pain, or discomfort
from illness can be unneeded pain.
You can control any type of non-useful
pain while leaving your alarm system intact. It is very important
in the field of pain control not to try eliminating all pain,
but to be selective. With self-hypnosis you can learn to control
unwanted, unnecessary pain, but still experience any new sensation
that is alerting you to take a new problem or a change in
the existing one, whenever pain out lives it's usefulness,
it is time for it to be squelched. No drug, on apparatus,
no electrical connections are necessary with self-hypnosis
as the only anaesthetic.
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Using self-hypnosis to manage pain
Hypnosis has played some part in pain reduction
for over a century in modern medical practice, at the same time,
hypnosis has been confused with the mystical, the occult, and
faith healing, creating obstacles to it's acceptance in science
and in the healing arts.
Some pain, even of long duration and deep
intensity, will be positively changed with one's first self-hypnosis
work. More commonly relief occurs in the first few sessions.
In other cases, it may take several practice sessions before
results are noticed. The relief you experience may or may
not come at once. some people notice that their pain subsides
immediately, others feel results hours after their self-hypnosis
session. If you have had chronic pain for many years, it will
take longer to build the level you may be seeking.
Success with self-hypnosis techniques is a
matter of practice. Self-hypnosis, unlike drugs, reduces only
unnecessary hurting with self-hypnosis you leave intact your
"alarm system," should further injury, disease,
degeneration or some other problem occur, you will be alerted.
How long will pain relief last? Generally,
a person can learn to control pain for as long as he or she
desires and works with it. Control may require self-hypnosis
every day, or twice each day. Or one may need self-hypnosis
for pain only once or twice a week. This is a highly individual
matter unlike with drugs there is no tolerance level. With
self-hypnosis the benefits build and get stronger with practice.
More likely, as time passes and experience with self-hypnosis
grows, the intervals of relief will increase too.
Most of us understand how hypnosis can
help emotional and psychological disorders but what is les
easy to understand is how it can relieve physical conditions.
Using self-hypnosis to help the mind achieve it's healing
potential has been found to be a much safer option because
there are no side effects and deep hypnosis is a potent means
of healing
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 About
endorphins
In this age of enlightenment so many of us are still totally
unaware of the great potential for healing within ourselves,
we all have our own doctor within us. But nowadays it's so easy
for us to reach out for a pill every time we have a pain or
life gets a bit to hectic. We've become a nation of pill popping
junkies poisoning our systems with chemicals. One of the abilities
of the brain/mind is self-healing, and through the agency of
endorphins, it is possible to reduce or eliminate physical pain.
Endorphins are the body's natural opiates; they both reduce
the perception of pain and increase the experience of pleasure.
They are powerful substances and under the right conditions
the brain can be coaxed into producing them in large quantities.
The endorphins are very similar to morphine when analysed, and
twenty times more powerful, having no side effects. Animals
also secrete endorphins if we tread on the paw of a cat or dog
it will scream. Then very quickly although it will limp, it
will show no more sign of being in pain. In humans the endorphins
come into play with extreme pain. Talk to anyone who has been
shot, they feel nothing for twenty four to thirty six hours
then the pain comes in. Acupuncture is successful in removing
pain for a while; the needles are put into the painful parts
of the body and endorphins are immediately released from the
brain. With self-hypnosis you can teach yourself how to produce
them without the aid of needles. |
How we work with pain
Under hypnosis, we teach you self-hypnosis techniques for managing
your discomfort level. These techniques are easy to use and
can be practised at home. We also teach methods of increasing
your endorphin levels. Three or four sessions would normally
be sufficent. |
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Our Mission
Statement
To help you achieve your goals and
improve your quality of life |
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Whatever you hold
in your mind, your body moves towards.
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Our mind is the most
amazing computing
device ever made. Unfortunately, no-one gave us an owner's
manual. |
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