Hello, this is James Lowery with James Hypnotherapy where, I with the help of a medical provider, aid adults suffering with immune disorders in relieving the emotional stress surrounding their discomfort in order to achieve a better quality of life in as little as one session.
Today’s frequently asked question is: can pain cause depression? Now, before I answer that question, I want to make it abundantly clear that the information I am presenting is not to serve as a substitute for medical advice. My role as a hypnotherapist is to serve as an effective adjunct to those already receiving medical treatment who might need additional care.
Can pain cause depression? Absolutely. Because pain can lead to grief, which can be interpreted as a significant loss resulting from a sudden change where things can no longer go back to the way they were before. If you think about how pain affects one in terms of one’s daily activities, hobbies, social interactions, ability to work, perhaps even romantic relationship, it affects them in a way where they can no longer go back to the way they were before. This brings with it a lot of emotional stress which makes the pain more apparent. When pain becomes more apparent, it increases or amplifies, and when it increases or amplifies, it brings on further emotional stress which then in turn makes the pain more apparent and so forth.
It becomes a vicious cycle that, if continued for a long enough period of time, increases this sense of helplessness which one might reasonably interpret as depression. So how does one get out of this vicious cycle? Through a branch of science known as psychoneuroimmunology, which studies how the mind, the psyche, one’s neurology, and one’s nervous and immune systems, all interact with and affect one another. At the core of psychoneuroimmunology, and its applications in the form of mind-body therapy, such as hypnotherapy, is looking at where attention is placed, the degree to which that attention is gathered and maintained and the overall emotional flavor or quality of that attention.
Mind-body therapies, such as hypnotherapy, aim to therapeutically affect attention in this way to help people get out of these vicious cycles and reestablish a healthy communication between their mind and their nervous and immune systems. Now you might be thinking to yourself, “But James, I’ve tried talk therapies before and it didn’t help. How is this different?” Most therapies aim to alter or bolster your conscious perception of the problem. But let me ask you something. If you could right now consciously decide not to have the pain, the discomfort, the problem you are experiencing, again, right now, it would only be reasonable to assume that you would consciously do so, would you not? If you could have consciously decided not to have taken on the pain, the problem, the discomfort at all, it would again only be fair to assume that you would consciously have decided to do so already, right?
So the problem, the pain, the discomfort and the maladaptive psycho-emotional responses to them do not exist primarily in the conscious mind. Rather, they exist primarily in the unconscious mind. So, if you’re looking to adopt a therapy that, with the help of a medical provider, aids you in relieving the emotional stress surrounding your discomfort in order to achieve a better quality of life in as little as one session through looking at where the pain, the discomfort, the problem actually exist, then give me a call or book a free consultation at James Lowery Hypnotherapy.