hypnosis and alcoholism

THE HYPNOSIS IN ALCOHOL DEPENDENCY

The use of alcohol has become a very common and shared habit in everyday life, as it is associated with social rituals. Unfortunately, however, we realize late that a constant, excessive and prolonged intake can cause different types of problems: toxic effects on the body, ability to induce dependence, physical, psychological and social damage.

Alcohol is an important risk factor for human health. The damage that it creates, as well as severely affect the individual, extends to his family and society.

The DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) introduces changes in the concept of addiction, calling it addiction, precisely to underline how the dependence on substances is to be considered as a constant active research of substance by the subject despite all its obvious impact. In this regard, 'craving' is inserted, described as a strong desire to take the substance belonging to a class of specific characteristic symptoms that affect the individual dependent on the use of substances, such as:

    the excessive priority to the situation of alcohol intake compared to all other social, work, family activities, etc .;
    spend the day solely for the purpose of finding and taking the substance of interest;
    the impossibility of the individual in controlling the quantity taken and the frequency;
    addiction and abstinence.

The new edition of DSM abandons the distinction between alcohol abuse and addiction to follow a dimensional approach; alcohol addiction is included in the substance-related category in the chapter entitled "Addiction and substance-related disorders", in addition to making a diagnosis a distinction is made in mild, moderate or severe.

People often start drinking alcohol to escape from a reality that they do not like and mistakenly think that alcohol can function as a mask, able to hide introversion and social shyness, to improve performance, to free oneself from fear and from relational insecurity, since it possesses the anesthetic function of inhibiting the control mechanisms of the Central Nervous System. This effect, however, is simply apparent, since the damage caused by alcohol abuse is chronic and dependent on various organs and systems, including the digestive system, the Central and Peripheral Nervous System.

A study has shown that hypnosis is a treatment modality able to solve the problems arising from alcohol dependence, managing to improve the management of stress and reduce the strong desire to take the substance (craving), thanks to the learning of new behavioral models.

Moreover, this methodology intervenes on the acute symptoms that arise from abstinence, such as:

    inability to think clearly;
    memory problems;
    excessive emotional reactions and numbness;
    sleep disorders;
    problems of physical coordination;
    stress sensitivity.

In recent years, there have been more and more studies that see hypnosis as an effective psychotherapeutic methodology for substance dependence, precisely because of its ability to ease the expression of potential often latent to the individual himself and, moreover, to break down those rigidity that prevent the person from observing their abilities and using them to their advantage.

Bibliography

    Goodwin DW: Alcohol: clinical aspects. In: Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook 2nd ed. Lowinson JH, Ruiz P, Millman RD, Langrod JG, eds. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1992.
    Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health 2011. World Health Organization (WHO). 2011.

 
  Guideline on the development of drug dependence. 2010.

  MANNA V., LATTANZIO M., 2000, Diagnostic aspects of the syndromes and disorders associated with pathological addictions to substances. Social Defense, Italian Institute of Social Medicine, LXXIX, 1-2, 119-134.

  dsm5.org
  Greg Potter. Intensive Therapy: Utilizing Hypnosis in the Treatment of Substance Abuse Disorders. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis 47: 1, July 2004 


 twitter icon About Dr. Maria Novella Grimaldi The passion that I have for hypnosis was born, by chance, about 20 years ago from that moment on I dedicated myself to the deepening of the techniques, the phenomena and the manifestations connected to it. Thanks to hypnosis, during my clinical experience, I have seen shy people hold conferences, people stuttered to speak perfectly in public, people affected by the phobia for mice stroke them, people who never left the house to take the plane. I could continue to tell other episodes, but I think it is more useful to highlight how all the examples made have one factor in common: the ability acquired or recovered of people to be able to exit, thanks to the therapeutic relationship and hypnosis, from their behavioral patterns old and dysfunctional and behave as if the problem was already solved. Strategic hypnosis, which I use in my work, together with other types of hypnosis, refers to Ericksonian hypnotherapy, dynamic hypnosis and regressive hypnosis. After the Degree in Psychology - ind. application - at the University of Rome "La Sapienza", I specialize in short-strategy approach psychotherapy, which is characterized by short and effective interventions. For years I have been using this approach together with hypnosis on a daily basis. During the therapeutic process, attention is not focused on the past but on the present and on the future. This type of intervention makes use of specific techniques including the Autogenic Training, systematic desensitization, hypnosis etc. Hypnosis in particular has proved to be a privileged means to combat anxiety, to deal with eating and sexual disorders, to counter depression and to face other types of psychological dysfunctions such as obsessions, insomnia and asthenia. Neo-Ericksonian hypnotic psychotherapy, moreover, enhances the internal resources of the individual, and thanks to this the person puts into being a restructuring of his world. The real strength of hypnosis consists in allowing the person on the one hand to access the totality of his resources, on the other to experience how it is possible to go, without the help of drugs or other substances, beyond their behavioral patterns often obsolete and dysfunctional. Hypnotic psychotherapy can be applied to children, adolescents and adults, and to the most varied discomforts and problems, always respecting the patient's will. In addition to using relaxation techniques and hypnosis in the clinical field, I conduct courses at the Institute for the Study of Psychotherapies, reserved for doctors and psychologists, for drivers of Autogenic Training, Hypnotic Techniques and R.A.T.