Vitality News Health Articles

More than ever before research is proving the primary role played by stress in causing and aggravating numerous physical and emotional afflictions. A headline in a 1983 issue of Time Magazine called stress “The Epidemic of the Eighties.” The journalist also declared that stress is our leading health issue. And it is indisputable that our world has become a lot more complex and stressful in the past 25 years since that article was written.

Several surveys indicate that almost everybody perceives themselves as being under a lot of stress. Authorities in the field estimate that 75 - 90 percent of the visits to PCPs (Primary Care Physicians) are for stress related issues.

Most adults report that their job is the main cause of their stress. The levels of stress have also increased in children and the elderly population because of several reasons including: Peer pressures that often push people to everything from cigarette smoking to drug and alcohol abuse; the loss of religion and family values; growing crime rates; fear for personal security; and last but not least social isolation and loneliness.

Stress is a factor of conditions such as diabetes, ulcers, low back and neck pain, hypertension, strokes and heart attacks. This is because of the increased sympathetic nervous system activity along with a high level of cortisol, adrenaline, and other hormones. Chronic stress is often associated with lower immune system resistance. Stress can contribute to anxiety, depression, and its different effects on the body’s organs.

“Stress” is defined as follows by the American Heritage Dictionary: “To subject to physical or mental pressure, tension, or strain”

The following definition is given for “tension”: “Mental, emotional, or nervous strain”

The following definition is given for “anxiety”: “A state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties”

And the word “depression” is defined as follows: “The condition of feeling sad or despondent”

It defines “clinical depression” as follows: “A psychiatric disorder characterized by an inability to concentrate, insomnia, loss of appetite, anhedonia, feelings of extreme sadness, guilt, helplessness and hopelessness, and thoughts of death.”

We can nonetheless be sure that our thoughts are the first cause of our experience of stress, anxiety and depression. We could also say that, what we think about, and our attitudes and the way we view our experiences dictate our feelings. So if we can find a way to change our thoughts, attitudes, and points of view, we can release our stress, anxiety, and depression and attain a more positive state of being.

Since the beginning of time, people have looked for methods that would allow them to dissipate stress. The pharmaceutical industry seems to have a pill for everything. For that the industry has produced a large line of tranquilizers from Valium to Xanax. If you choose to utilize drugs for relief, please be sure to read the fine print and learn about the side effects, which usually are, among others, addiction and dependency. Indeed these kinds of drugs aim at treating the symptoms, rather than the cause. So when one stops ingesting them, the symptoms can return.

A finer method to release tension, stress, anxiety, and depression is to work on the root cause, which as I said above, is usually our thought processes. There is good news. The essence of hypnosis is relaxation. The AMA recognized hypnosis in 1958 as an effective way to cure stress or stress related symptoms. And unlike anxiolytics, there are no undesirable side effects.

When you enter hypnosis, you are in the Alpha level of consciousness. It’s the daydream like temporary psychological mindset that we feel as we’re about to fall asleep in the evening. And we feel it again when we wake up again. There are hundreds of different ways to guide ourselves into this relaxed mood, from step-by-step relaxation to visual imagery to listening to hypnosis CD’s.

Once we access the hypnotic state, we can communicate with our unconscious mind, which is the seat of our feelings. And one can more easily acknowledge new ideas and points of view which will help us to get rid of anxiety, or even prevent anxiety from occurring in the first place.

NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), which is a new form of hypnosis, has many outstanding methods for releasing stress. Maybe the most effective technique is called the “swish” pattern - or the “flash” pattern. After using this method, your unconscious will automatically use negative, stress triggering mental images, to generate relaxing mental images. In other words, what commonly makes you feel stress will automatically make you feel more relaxed!

TO SUMMARIZE Tension, stress, anxiety, and depression can be caused by our thoughts. So by changing our attitude and the way we resent our situation and what we’ve lived, we can get rid of these feelings at the source. Hypnosis and NLP are natural tools that allow us to change our attitude and point of view to quickly get rid of the root cause of our negative feelings.

Alan B. Densky is an NGH certified hypnotherapist. He offers a complete line of stress management hypnotherapy CDs, and advanced anxiety management CDs through his Neuro-VISION self hypnosis website. You can visit his video hypnosis blog, and download a free MP3.

- Alan B. Densky, CH