What is anxiety hypnosis? And does it really help? That's a question that many anxiety sufferers have asked. And the short answer is that, yes, hypnosis can be an effective tool for managing anxiety.
Offering Relief
How?
Well, in many cases, anxiety is learned subconsciously. We condition ourselves to react to stressful situations in a particular way. For those who experience anxiety, the natural response is a wide range of symptoms, from racing thoughts to labored breathing.
Hypnotherapy allows us to reframe and release these automatic responses, replace them with more helpful ways to thinking, and ultimately, to reduce anxiety and stress instantaneously. Through hypnosis, you can begin to gain greater control over your response to triggers and stressful situations and empower the mind to be a better friend.
Today, hypnosis for anxiety is fairly mainstream. More and more medical professionals are recognizing hypnotherapy as a viable and successful option for anxiety. For example, the British Psychological Society now recognizes hypnosis as a therapeutic option for the condition.
But what makes hypnotherapy so effective for anxiety? How does it work? What does the research say about its efficacy?
Read on to learn how hypnotherapy can you overcome the negative default thinking that fuels your anxiety and transform how your mind’s natural response.
Anxiety: A Condition that Grips the World
If you experience anxiety on a regular basis, you’re not alone. Anxiety is one of the most common psychological conditions in the world.
In the U.S. alone, anxiety affects an estimated 40 million adults – that’s nearly 20 percent of the population. Yet, even though many treatment options are available, just one-third actually seek treatment, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
In other words, many adults in the U.S. and around the world learn to live with anxiety. They may learn to manage it, but without treatment, many never truly free themselves of anxiety’s burden.
Many psychologists speculate that anxiety is a learned behavior.
In other words, our minds have natural defense mechanisms that typically manifest as emotions, like fear or panic. Over time, our subconscious mind has learned to amplify these defense mechanisms to the point that they become irrational. We irrationally feel fear or panic – in social settings, due to public speaking, or just in general in our day to day lives.
Why does this happen?
Well, for starters, it’s often based on automatic, subconscious thinking. We may have had a negative experience with public speaking, and our subconscious learned to induce fear, panic and anxiety to protect us from having a similar experience in the future. With repetition, these feelings become more and more ingrained in our minds – to the point that they can become debilitating.
Hypnosis empowers people to examine and explore these subconscious, automatic thoughts, recognize them and ultimately, remove them. In other words, hypnosis provides a method for getting down to the root cause of the anxiety – the automatic defense mechanism thinking – and remove the fear, panic or irrational thinking that fuels the anxiety.
The Subconscious Mind’s Role in Anxiety
Our minds are powerful and complex. But what we don’t often recognize: Our rational, critical thinking minds aren’t often in control. The rational mind takes a back seat to the subconscious.
The subconscious mind informs and influences many of our thoughts. For example, when you feel cold, your body reacts to the stimuli, say a cold breeze.
That stimuli essentially signals the brain to ask what it’s feeling. In other words, we don’t consciously think: “I feel cold.” Instead, that thought is created automatically, by the subconscious, and it’s based on our entire life experience – i.e. what we’ve learned, our past experiences with cold, etc.
When anxiety controls our lives, it’s a lot like that automatic feeling of cold. We experience a stimulus – say, a social situation – that triggers an automatic response, the fear and panic and ultimately anxiety.
Traditional therapeutic techniques tend to provide strategies for managing these automatic thoughts. We might learn to control the fear, for example, but they still exist. And that’s why many traditional treatments fail. The fear and panic – the root causes of your anxiety still exist.
With hypnosis, you can begin to remove the information in your subconscious that’s telling you to feel fear and panic in certain situations.
Reframing Your Subconscious Thoughts
Say, for instance, public speaking induces anxiety for someone. Often, the underlying cause is fear of failure, of facing colleagues face-to-face, of forgetting what you’re going to say, etc.
Without removing that fear, the anxiety will always remain in place. Sure, it may become more manageable. Many people who fear public speaking do, in fact, learn to speak confidently in front of crowds.
But that fear – which is irrational – remains. It’s still a burden, and even if you it can be managed, it can pop up months or years in the future.
Hypnosis works by helping clients examine the subconscious.
Here’s how: In a state of hypnosis (a highly relaxed, aware state), the mind and body are at ease. In this state, we’re able to bypass our critical thoughts, and we can move right to the subconscious.
We can look at our automatic thoughts. For example, we might choose to examine why that cold breeze makes us think we’re cold, or in this case, why an event or situation induces anxiety. Hypnosis for anxiety might include a variety of steps, including:
- Examining and Identifying Emotions: At the beginning of a hypnotherapy session, you might be asked to describe the feelings that trigger anxiety – like fear, panic, humiliation or shame. Starting at this point, you can begin to isolate and identify the true triggers. You’ll also be asked to find where these feelings originate from in the body – i.e. dryness in the throat, or tightness in the stomach. These emotions are just like that feeling of cold; they’re triggered automatically based on past information.
- Exploring Your Experiences with Anxiety: While in hypnosis, you open a direct line to your subconscious mind. The experiences and information that trigger your anxiety live here, and they’re often related to past experiences. A hypnotherapist may ask you to talk about one of your first experiences with anxiety, for example. This will help you get down to what’s actually triggering the irrational fear and stoking the emotions you experience when in an anxiety-inducing situation.
- Offering Relief from Past Experiences: Our minds are fast learners. It may only take one negative experience with, say, public speaking to induce a lifetime of performance anxiety. While in hypnosis, we can reframe those negative experiences. For example, a person might identify an elementary school public speaking assignment that went poorly. One hypnosis strategy would be to help the person reimagine that experience – but with a positive outcome. The imagined younger self can then release this experience, which reduces the adult self’s reliance on it as a frame of reference.
Anxiety Hypnotherapy: What to Expect
So how does hypnotherapy work? What does it entail? For starters, there are a variety of ways to practice hypnosis.
You can visit a certified hypnotherapist, who will interview you about your anxiety and provide a tailored hypnosis for you. Or you might practice self-hypnosis, in which, you follow a script or recording to reach hypnosis yourself.
Both types of hypnosis follow a similar process. The most common steps include:
An Interview or Self-Review: Hypnosis doesn’t start with staring into a swinging watch. Instead, it requires you to conduct a self-accounting of your anxiety – what’s causing it, how it manifests, and your experiences with it. When working with a hypnotherapist, you’ll be interviewed about your condition. If you’re practicing self-hypnosis, you’ll often explore and examine this on your own.
A Hypnosis Session: Whether you listen to a recording or hypnotherapist, you’ll follow steps to reach a highly relaxed state of mind. This might include breathing, closing your eyes, or visualization. Once you’ve reached hypnosis, you’ll begin to examine and reframe your subconscious thinking – and there are a variety of methods for doing this, including suggestion therapy, regression therapy, or visualization. (You can try it for yourself with an anxiety hypnosis recording inside our Grace App.)
Follow-Up Assignments: Many people see positive results after their first hypnotherapy sessions, though additional work is usually required. This usually includes additional one-and-one sessions or at-home self-hypnosis sessions.
After a few initial hypnosis sessions, you will begin to become an expert at identifying those natural defense mechanisms, the fear and panic. Plus, you’ll be given tools for pushing fears and anxiety out of your mind in certain situations — which is important. This helps you break free from the repetitive cycle and before completely removing them from your subconscious mind. This is the power of hypnosis: Over time, you can completely shed those default settings and reprogram your mind to better respond to stressful situations.
How Many Sessions Are Required? Although you will begin to notice differences after one session, you’ll likely need to continue to reshaping your subconscious thoughts. One classic study found that hypnosis had a 94 percent recovery rate after six sessions. Plus, “tune-ups” can also help to foster and encourage long-lasting results.
Is Hypnosis for Anxiety Effective? What the Research Says
If you’d look at the medical establishment, the answer is yes. A variety of medical associations and healthcare organizations recognize hypnosis as a valid treatment option for anxiety, stress and a number of other conditions.
In fact, along with the British Psychological Society, the American Medical Society and the British Medical Society both include hypnotherapy as a treatment option. A variety of research also seems to convey this sentiment. A number of researchers have found compelling evidence of hypnotherapy’s efficacy.
- Hypnosis and Stress Relief: A 1980 study, one of the first to examine hypnosis for anxiety, found that hypnosis provided relief to 75+ percent of the study’s 100+ participants after 12 weeks. After one year of self-hypnosis, nearly the same number (72 percent) reported no symptoms.
- Hypnotherapy and Anxiety: In 1999, researchers published results of a study of 20 participants who utilized self-hypnosis and relaxation to manage anxiety over a 1 month period. Following the experiment, both groups experienced significant reductions in symptoms, with those who used self-hypnosis reporting higher levels of confidence and positivity.
- Anxiety Hypnosis Review of Literature: A 2001 review of literature, published in the British Medical Journal, found both hypnosis and relaxation to have positive impacts on reported levels of anxiety. The review examined both randomized clinical trials and systematic reviews.
Free Yourself from Anxiety: Get Started with our Grace App Today
Hypnosis can be a powerful tool for overcoming the automatic thoughts and responses that trigger your anxiety. Get started today!
What a well-written, informative article! I am a hypnotherapist, and work with anxiety , fear and panic
a lot. This is information I can use. I did want to check out the work book, but did not seem to be able to download it. I am also interested in the recording but am not sure if that comes as an MP3 or what.
Can you give me a little info on this before i continue?
If i am under constant anxiety for a two years where medication cant help.
Can hypnosis remove the subconscious memory caused by a health trigger?
urgently need help.
I have been focusing on breathing techniques and as an anchor to distract my mind persistent attention on the head sensation. But the anxiety can be made stronger once I let go of this technique
It wasn’t until anxiety floored me that I realized I couldn’t always control what was happening to me and when I felt stuck with it, I couldn’t avoid it or run away. This article provides a detailed explanation of what anxiety actually is and makes it brilliantly clear how hypnosis can effectively treat it. I don’t just want to manage my anxiety, I want to get rid of the root causes of why I’m experiencing this in the first place.
I’ve been using the hypnosis tools for anxiety and stress relief for the last year…and it has radically cut down my overall stress levels. I’ve been able to derail any incipient panic attacks, and I’ve been able to cut stress and overwhelm off very quickly. Fewer and fewer things get to me, and when they do, I can short-circuit the freak out. Yay — I love GSHypnosis!
I love the direct path to overcoming anxieties outlined here. Facing them, feeling them. Experience. Then seeing where it is impacting me. Then going back in time to overcome them. Having a game plan to overcoming anxiety and thoughts that are triggering anxiety is so useful. I had anxiety from the age 9 and possibly before – completely debilitating. I don’t remember why it started, but it’s something that has tagged along with me on and off through adulthood. Hypnotherapy is working to help.
I’m so happy to read this. This is the kind of manual that needs to be given and not the accidental misinformation that is at the other blogs. Appreciate your sharing this greatest doc.
Regards
Alisha Ross
As a performer, utilizing hypnosis has been key in me staying relaxed and centered before an audition and quelling any anxiousness!
Hypnosis has helped so much with anxiety now it has become second nature to practice hypnosis on daily bases. It has now my daily ritual. By the excellent article, going share it with my FB friends.
“Hypnosis provides a method for getting down to the root cause of the anxiety – the automatic defense mechanism thinking – and remove the fear, panic or irrational thinking that fuels the anxiety.”
Society is learning that bandaids for problems are not long term solutions and can often actually make the problem worse over time. Hypnosis is a long term, means of attaining a permanent solution for many mental and physical problems.
There is a saying, “Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway”…well I say When you “Feel the Fear, Do Hypnosis”….You won’t have to feel the fear any longer!
Now that hypnosis is as mainstream as a yoga class on every corner; it is exciting to hear about all the benefits people are experiencing just from incorporating daily self-hypnosis into their lives and live life anxiety and worry-free. It is hard to see family and friends struggle in this area’s when they just don’t have too.
I love how these automatic responses are talked about in this post. It is so clear that they are happening before the conscious mind can even become aware so of course, it would be useful to stop them at the source… the subconscious mind!
It’s wonderful to learn that it’s not like anxious people are doing anything wrong/bad – it’s just that their brains have been programmed with incorrect/outdated responses.
our subconscious mind has learned to amplify these defense mechanisms to the point that they become irrational. We irrationally feel fear or panic . I love the findings on how hypnosis as helped people find relief. Very informative. Thank you!!
Long before I learned about hypnosis, I realized that self awareness is really key to personal growth and overcoming our biggest obstacle in life – our own non-productive choices or behaviors. (By productive I mean supporting the goals we set for ourselves.) Hypnosis is like a power-up for self awareness; you can really excavate the beliefs you have buried underneath your behavior that you can’t understand on a conscious level or don’t feel like you can control. I can really see how this can help dial back the physiological anxiety symptoms. For me, that is key in reducing the *feeling* of anxiety. I can consciously know that I am not in danger, but it’s so incredibly challenging to behave that way when my body is screaming otherwise at me.
I have worked with anxiety in my practice with amino acid therapy. I look forward to getting finished with this training to use hypnosis ,also.
I suffered from anxiety for way longer than I realized! It was just the water I was swimming in, and since it has been a familiar feeling since childhood it was hard to know life without it. I am really grateful for the tools to address issue with deep roots in the subconscious mind. Just because anxeity was our norm in the past, anxiety doesn’t have to be our future norm!
What a world we would live in if everybody knew how powerful this is!
I love this blog. Thank you!
I’ve used hypnosis as a tool for anxiety over so many things – self sabotage in my professional work, relationship fears, and many other things and it has produced such a change!
This is a wonderful blog that not only helps explain the cause and effect of anxiety but a very clear step by step examination of the hypnotherapy process. Very well done and inviting!
ugh… anxiety… I suffered and learned from this teacher from far too long. this article breathes hope for people who want a way out.
I love the application of hypnosis for anxiety because this is SUCH a common issue that so many of us face! Thank you so much for sharing.
The article points that: “Many psychologists speculate that anxiety is a learned behaviour”, and this absolutely makes sense. The moment we are born, we start learning new behaviours from the world surrounding us. I can clearly recall, how anxious I could get at school during maths, knowing it wasn’t my strongest subject. Those feelings were especially evoked during test or exams, and if only the world around me knew about the power of hypnosis.
I love that there is a pathway to overcoming anxiety that anyone can do on their own, at their own time, as people who have anxiety typically feel like they are out of control and helpless. While anxiety isn’t something that plagues me very often, many of my loved ones do suffer, especially with social anxiety. I am going to make sure they know about Grace Space so they might begin their own journey with hypnosis.
I never knew I could use hypnosis back when I use to have anxiety attacks. I healed my anxiety with daily meditation where I would visualize myself as the healthy person I was before and how I would be that person again (plus a magnesium supplement), but knowing what I know now about hypnosis and having experienced the most amazing peace after my first session, I can only imagine how wonderful it must be to add this safe healing tool to your anti-anxiety protocol and truly expedite this process.
This is such an important article.
We can found out what anxiety is and how hypnotherapy can help the person. It is crazy, how hypnosis is so powerful and is able to change a person.
I love that… it is so important!
Post partum anxiety has been prevalent in my life since the birth of my first child. It is interesting and I would love to know more about the triggers for that. When did the subconscious be aware of and fearful of all the different moments that can arise? Am going to make a note for my next hypnotherapy session!
I have always been intrigued by hypnosis. The more I read and the deeper I dig, it’s astounding what this simple and painless technique can do! So many are plagued with stress and anxiety and to think that we can take control of our own healing is amazing. Thank you!
So informative!
Very helpful to know that the reactions in our body are completely automatic and they come up even before the conscious mind begins to understand what’s going on. The subconscious is so powerful, and the good news is, it’s malleable and flexible, so if you want to reprogram it, you totally can!
Hypnosis is just amazing!
The idea that anxiety could be a conditioned reaction to unhelpful thoughts is promising and empowering for people looking for complete and long term relief. Why live with it if you truly do have the power to change it?
Anxiety is really something we all experience nowadays but when it starts taking over our lives is when we have to stop and really think of how to find a way to manage it. I look forward to working Anxiety with clients once I am certified. I see people around me every day with anxiety attacks and feeling miserable. Hpnosis can help everyone and anyone.
This is a great article that simply articulates anxiety, it’s causes and how hypnosis can help. I will certainly be sharing this one with my clients. Thank you.
I’ve found hypnotherapy to be one of the best tools to combat my anxiety, great article thanks!
HI I’M SABYASACHI SEN FROM KOLKATA IN INDIA. I SUFFER FROM ANXIETY. ARTICLE IS VERY VERY INTERESTING. NOW I KNOW WHY MY ANXIETY DOES NOT WANT TO GO AWAY DESPITE TRYING EVERY DAMN THING IN THE WORLD.
AS I SEE IT, IT’S ESSENTIALLY A BAD HABIT WHICH ONE HAS TO MAKE THE
BRAIN UNLEARN.
This is really helpful for us. thank you for sharing