On Pain Control

Dear reader,

I've had a bit of a headache on and off over the last couple of days and weeks. I think it came because my eye sight has changed so dramatically and I still wore my glasses, because I didn't know taking them off would be better for my head as well as my eyes. Anyway, it seems appropriate to pick this up and write about how I do pain control here.

I was born what qualifies as "disabled" or "handicapped". Nothing serious. I live a normal life with no difficulties because of my being born "different". When I was born my right foot was missing. I have a prothesis now and can walk long hours with no problems. And I ride my bike on a regular basis, too. The only rather strange thing is when I go swimming. I take the prothesis off. Something about the way it would float in the water and also it has sort of stockings and other soft material on that wouldn't do all to well in the water. Three times I think the bones of my right leg grew faster than the skin would tolerate. It caused an infection and they had to shorten the leg, cut off the bone a bit. Hurt quite a lot the first two or so days. I remember one of the first times, my grandma came to visit me with my sister and my dad. My mom at that time was with me anyway. At one time they left me alone with just my grandma. I can't remember what she talked about. I only still very much remember that when the others came back, the pain came back, too. Not that my family was a trigger for pain, mind you. I think my grandma, without formal knowledge about hypnosis, knew how to occupy my mind.

I also remember that the first two times, they made me take some pain killers. The third time I refused. I don't like to take those bitter juices they have and to this day I don't like to become sleepy. I didn't want to sleep, so I didn't take the pain killers. I know the last time I pretty much slept through the first two days. I woke up every now and then and then went back to sleep again. Even with the pain killers however, it would have been a different sleep. It would have been a "forced sleep". I don't like that. As I mentioned in my last blog, with my current knowledge about hypnosis, I'd also refuse those sleeping pills they give you the night before the surgery. If I want to sleep, I can go to sleep easily without drugs.

I'm writing all of this to let you know that I've been through some bad pain before. A part of me is curious to have another surgery to cut off my leg. Just to see how well I'd cope with the pain this time, knowing about hypnosis and trance and better pain control than I did the last times. The last time I had to go through this was in 2001 or so, I think. I won't grow any further, so I don't think another operation would be necessary and I haven't been through too much of pain since.

I'd like to tell you what I do for pain control anyway. You may have a headache or something some time and want to try this out yourself. The basis for what I do now in case of headaches and the like was this video with Michael Watson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEKcsdVmdcA
The idea is really simple: we think of pain as endless (or at least can't see an end to it now) and we think it's uncontrolable. But wait! What is pain really? It's a kinesthetic sensation. So... how about giving it some shape and/or colour? You take control over it now. Watson suggests placing it in your hand and throwing it away (literally, if you like). The first time I did it, it was enough for me to sit there and hold my hand on my lap as if there was something in it and imagining the shape floating away to the other side of the room. I did it a couple of times. As for the endlessness of the pain, well... let's say it with Charlie Chaplin: "Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles." This includes pain. It may take some time, yes, but eventually all the bad things, situations and feelings end. We tend to forget that and instead get absorbed in the troubles and pain.

So this is how I do my pain control most of the time: I let the pain give itself the shape and colour. That is I don't imagine a shape and/or colour and say "that's it, that's my pain now". I go ahead and feel what shape could cause the pain I feel. Most often the shape is a triangle or rectangle. Those have nice corners to sting your body. The colour comes by itself as I imagine the shape. Mostly it's something yellow, orange or brown like. The first time, as I wrote, I placed the form in my hand and let it float away. Recently it's enough for me to imagine the shape in front of me. I guess the fact that this way, I'd "taken" the pain out of my body, is enough for me. You don't have to give it a colour. For me it just happens with a colour, so I change that, too. My eyes are blue and people say that blue cloths fit them nicely. Since I've learned that Erickson's favourite colour was purple, I've grown to take it as my favourite colour, too. Because of the connection to Erickson, purple has a calming, smoothing effect on me. So that's my colour for the pain. As for the shape, I turn it into a circle or egg-like shape, something round with no edges or corners. Sometimes to feel better, I imagine something like a purple light around me a couple of inches thick. Something like an aura around me, I guess you could say. Or if I have a headache, I may not take the pain out in front of me, but imagine my head in this purple "bubble". Maybe the simple act of concentrating not on the kinesthetic feeling but the act of keeping the pain in shape and colour - and most importantly in front of me - makes it be less already.

 I told this shape and colour pain control to my parents once. My dad suggested that probably the complementary colour to the "pain colour" would work best. I haven't tried that yet. For one thing I keep forgetting about it when I have some pain and also purple works nice enough for me. In the end, I think, it doesn't matter much what shape and/or colour you give it, if only it gives you relieve of the pain. ;-) One thing you should keep in mind however: if you pick a colour, make it something far away from your "pain colour". That is if that colour is orange, don't turn it into yellow or red. They're too close. Blue or green for example are more likely to have a positive effect.

One advice if you do pain control: keep some of the pain. That's what many hypnotherapists, including Stephen, say. Pain above all is a way of telling you to take care of yourself. Respect that and don't just "hypnotise away" all the pain you have. Also most of the time it's not necessary to get rid of all the pain. I don't visualise the purple circle until the pain is gone. I do it for a short time only. Just enough so the pain doesn't bother me anymore.

On one of his videos Richard Bandler says that people ask him what he does for headaches. They expect him to explain some hypnotic pain control method. His response? "I take aspirin." Toothache? Bandler says, "I go to the dentist." There's not reason, he says, to do hypnosis, if taking aspirin or a walk to the dentist can relieve you from the pain just as well.

I'll keep you posted! Stay tuned!
sarah

(original post 1 November 2011)