Pain and the Mind

I'm in the process of writing a book. Sometimes the task seems daunting and very slow indeed. I like to think of it as a "work in progress", and this salves the twinge of fear I have of never finishing it!

The book is about hypnosis, hypnotherapy and really is meant as a guide to those setting out in this field of work. I remember all too well the minefield of confusion and funk when you set out with your very first clients. It will however, I hope, be of interest to anyone who loves a book of interest that relates to Hypnotherapy.

So, where am I heading with this Blog? I've come to a chapter dedicated to pain, and the relief of it. In doing so, I've realised something that I thought I knew anyway. Pain is a very complex issue indeed. It's diverse, variable, chronic or acute, and occasionally, even for the sufferer a difficult condition to describe in words. It can be gnawing, burning, sharp, dull, biting, hot, cold, grinding ...... and so on. It may come and go, or it may be constant.

I won't go into the neurological explanation of it here, as I believe there's still some controversy in the scientific world as to how and why pain is sensed. The theory that pain is transmitted from specific pain receptors along dedicated pain fibers in the body, to a pain center in the brain, has withstood the challenge of time, though the "pain center" in the brain has now become a very elaborate neural network.

Of course, pain is there for a reason. It can protect us from further injury, and we also learn at a certain level of our mind that repetition of the injurious activity would be folly indeed! So pain is in fact extremely important to our well being. There are individuals whose ability to sense pain is diminished, either by disease or genetically induced. Some people, a very small number, are born with congenital analgesia. They feel little or no pain, and sadly their lives are usually much shorter due to this.

From my point of view, as a Hypnotherapist, I like to view pain as a construct. Simplistically speaking, its made up of three main portions. They are:

• Memory of past pain
• The present pain
• Projection within the mind as to how it will progress

If we can alter, remove or modify any of the three portions, we can alter the experience, moderately or completely. In hypnosis, there are several ways in which to do this of course. Also, in many cases, the basic act of relaxing deeply when in pain can alleviate much of the discomfort. A fine analogy to this is the crushing pain of a broken bone. Around the area of the break, tissues expand, tighten and squeeze in an attempt by the body to protect itself. This is pain at its very worst, when even the slightest of movements can illicit a scream of agony. But, very shortly after the limb is immobilized and put in plaster, the pain begins to subside. Why? Because the muscles, tissues, tendons and fibers adjacent to the break can now relax. So it is with hypnosis; relax the poor soul whose suffering, and the pain will subside.

Other methods within hypnosis can illicit complete anesthesia. It's well recorded now that many surgical procedures, major and minor, have been completed using hypnosis alone to create a pain free state.

The Scottish physician James Esdaile (1808-1859) is possibly the best known of "modern" utilisers of the hypnotic state to carry out surgery. Indeed, some of Esdaile's surgical excursions were extensive! Amputations of arms, breasts, penises (penises!!! I just had a twinge of pain!), scrotal tumors and so on. Esdaile claimed an incredible increase in the survival rate of his patients, lowering the mortality rate down from 40% to 5%. This huge reduction was claimed by Esdaile to be due to the relief of the horrific pain of surgery by hypnosis. Actually, Esdaile was still calling it "mesmerism", another canny Scott named James Braid later named it "hypnosis" ('hypnos' being greek for 'sleep')

Well, I just answered myself and talked me into progressing with this chapter. It's wonderful what a little self-talk can do .... isn't it Dan? Yes, it is Dan.