Hypnotically guiding a patient through Tramadol detox

Dear collegues, what interests me, is how the medication can be reduced by using hypnosis? At the moment I am treating a patient, who has been taking tramadol and other painkillers for the last seven years. He was first doubtful about ever being able to stop anymore. He is noticing how the medication and pain attacks are controlling his life and changing his ability to concentrate or being focused, which makes him worried. He is reading a lot of medical information in the ihternet and so far has been giving himself very negative suggestions through that. Before the first hypnosis session we were setting a common goals such as him being able to stop medication and him getting back the control of his life and replacing the pain by physical activities like swimming and walking. So far we had one session of hypnosis with remarkable results: he has been sleeping better than for a long time, he is very optimistic about the progress he has already made, he even suggerated himself while the pain was about to start again ! He even so wonderfully said in the phone that he thinks that he will eventually propably just forget to take the medicin. We did during the first session a shorter version of "awaken painfree script", since the sleeping and awakening is one of his main concerns. My question is however, what is your ( or someone else`s experience in the hypnothoughts network) of stopping the intake of opioid like drugs? Normally in the medical field it is reduced step by step, but how far can one go with hypnosis regarding the withdrawal symptoms? I would be very grateful to hear someone`s experiences with their clients with chronic pain.

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Permalink Reply by Ricky Strode on January 2, 2010 at 8:07pm

Well to change a process you have to find out what makes it work in the way it does and only part of it is shown externaly. The most important part of any process is how it affects us and first it effects of mentaly. To change a process you have to know what is the pattern of the process, you can replace it with a more useful process and bridge it to either specific situation, or any situation like it and generalize the process, but not recomended. What I would do is put them into a deep state, have them go through situation specific with this condition and watch (Noticed it helps extremely to assign a color to the feeling) themselfs and(close to the phobia cure, but works great for alot of change work) and after they have it memorized and let it fade into the distance (pre-determined outcomes work the best, find out what they would rather feel instead and for pain I always add a bit of relaxtion to the mucles around the area that usually would hurt, because most pain in any sense affect the surrounding mucles) remember times the felt (y) feeling and give them colors and how they move(remember the colors, they are associated with the feelings specifically). Go back to the the first set of situation, when the still felt the pain, run it backwards quickly and then rerun it forwards, but instead of feeling the pain we will start with making some adjust ments for your body to be able to heal it so you can feel better now. After you start that start associating all the other colors growing in the areas where the color of pain used to be, but these colors move the same way they would normally do, but move especially in the areas where the pain used to be, but the same way they would move, but all will connect in these areas. you could also add the effcects of what the drugs called without the use of the actual drug having it naturaly recreating what the brain did to recreate the response and the good part about this is that 90 something percent of side effect will not be there, because the actual drug is not in their system. The brain is very powerful thing, to feel anything, it all starts here. All processes are useful in one way, or another, but how can we make any process even more usefull than what they are ? Thats how I come up with the things I do. Its always up to you in how you handle something, but there are always new ways to look at it.

Heli Jussila-Martineau said:

Ricky,

I agree with you on that, that if one looks for restrictions, that one will find. In the medical field it is common to consult others and share experience and I am throwing questions as they arise, although I do agree and know that the patient is my best guide. As Michael says: how to motivate the client and make him believe that all this can be done.
However, there has been cases long time ago in some alternative methods that the therapist f.ex told the client to leave the diabetes drugs at once and it lead to the death of the patient. When one is dealing with the responsibility of one`s own advice to the other, one is more cautious.
Your last sentence was very interesting. "If we can understand any process in the simplest form, then not only can we replicate, teach it, but we can also change it to fit us and make it more useful."How do you see the process of pain management/ drug withdrawal - or changes made with hypnosis in general?

ricky strode said:
Who said I didn't know about the drugs and the way they work, hell I have 20 pdr's, if it isn't in one of them I can find it one the web. It's not the drugs that specifically causes the effect, it's the brains respones to it. Anything you have done, your brain can reproduce to the same effect and even remove unwanted side effects away. Funny, how ppl tend to mention education in almost anything. The question really is what do you consider education ? All I know education is learning and I am like a walking dictonary of information. My roots are science, but what areas aren't some form of science involved. I don't set boundraies for my self and if others like boundaries to what they can do then that fine with me. The only things we can know to be, "true" are the things that work. All I'm trying to say, if you always think the same way, go in the same direction and look for restriction, rather than possiblities, then you will find them. If we can understand any process in the simplest form, then not only can we replicate, teach it, but we can also change it to fit us and make it more useful.

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Permalink Reply by Heli Jussila-Martineau on January 3, 2010 at 10:51am

Hi everyone, my client has had it good; he is forgetting to take painkillers every now and then and when he needs it, he has halved the dose.He has had moments of being like he used to be before ; being able to write clear text instead of writing many papers of confused text. At some point he thought that he had lost his ability to relax, so during this session I included that he will always relax to the level needed and that if he might feel lost and unable to relax, he can just breath in relaxation and breath out tensions and that will help him further.
I taught him the light switch technique for self-hypnosis and the visualiation of pain and altering the shape, colour and size and finally making it disappear. He saw the pain as a little thin green creature and changed it to a big orange-red round creature and he put it to eat horseshit on the nearby horsestables... he had given it a name also. Thanks to all your comments and advice I felt very certain about what I was doing. We also did the session "awaken pain-free", opening the natural analgesi of the body. And now I guess it comes just to repetition and practice. I will also make a cd for him, when he wants to make the longer session. He also realized how he has been feeding himself with negative suggestions and even caught himself in the middle of saying one. He is very motivated now.

with thanks Heli