| When someone is confronted by the specter of a cancer diagnosis, the fear of the unknown begins to take over, both for the patient and the family. This alone can contribute to an enormous level of anxiety and worry on top of the normal stresses of day-to-day life.
Many times, someone facing the prospect of aggressive medical treatment protocols will feel a sense of helplessness and a loss of control over his or her own life. Hypnosis is a powerful tool for creating new, more effective coping mechanisms to manage these stresses with a sense of control while in the healing process. Regaining that all-important sense of control and reducing the associated stress and anxiety of coping with cancer allows the perspective of hopelessness to become one of hopefulness.
From the pain of surgical recovery to the resulting nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and loss of appetite from chemotherapy, modern medical research is beginning to uncover the advantages and effectiveness of hypnosis as a tool in managing these issues.
Serious research into end-stage cancer treatments and hypnosis was first conducted in 1978 and noted in the best-selling classic, Getting Well Again. While using a variety of hypnotic techniques, many of the symptoms of nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and pain were reduced or eliminated. More recently, in eight separate studies published in the International journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis regarding pain management using hypnosis, 75 percent of the people experienced pain relief, compared to the control group that did not have access to hypnosis. In another controlled study published in the Journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society, patients who received hypnotherapy before surgical procedures experienced less anxiety, reduced pain, less blood loss and a lower incidence of post-operative nausea and vomiting.
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