Hypnosis and Eating Disorders
Hypnosis and Eating disorders. Eating disorders are common around the world. There are many types, but the two most common ones are anorexia and bulimia. Feelings of being too fat affect men and women of all ages. Moreover, they are mental disorders and can be very hard to overcome.
Hypnosis is just one option that people turn to when overcoming anorexia bulimia and other eating disorders. The question is whether it really works.
How to Overcome an Eating Disorder
It’s a quest that many people focus on. This isn’t just something clients need to know. It’s something that parents, friends and loved ones are in search for on a regular basis. There are therapies and treatments available but they’re not suitable for everyone. Sometimes, the idea that someone needs to starve themselves or binge when they’re depressed is so deep in the subconscious that no amount of standard therapy helps.
hypnosis and eating disorders
Hypnosis works by getting into the subconscious. It focuses on changing those deep-rooted problems. This is worth understanding when looking into whether it really works.
Hypnosis is another form of therapy. A professional can do the therapy from their office. Clients go into a trance, which is actually a state of focused attention. Instead of reprogramming someone and making them do something out of character or think things they never really would do, the therapy focuses on the negative thoughts in the subconscious and turns them into positives.
People eventually learn everything they need to control their awareness. When they start thinking about their eating disorder, they have the tools to change their state and focus on the positive ones. Bad habits and fears are a thing of the past. All types of eating disorders have been overcome through this type of therapy, including comfort eating and anorexia.
How Hypnosis Helps Overcome Eating Disorders
There is no magic, and it does it in a set of steps. The timing between the steps highly depends on the patient and how deep the fears and negative thoughts are rooted.
The first part of the process is understanding why you believe you need to eat little or too much. It deals with your emotions and origins of the psychological disorder. By knowing the reasons and understanding your emotions better, you will be able to deal with them. Only then can you move onto actually working on turning those negative thoughts into positive ones.
Once you understand the reasons, you can focus on breaking your bad habits and that negative behaviour. The therapist will help promote good eating attitudes and habits. This often involves looking at your self-image and promoting the positive aspects of the body and helping with giving your self-esteem a boost.
As the hypnosis continues, you will start to feel more in control with your thoughts and feelings. Food is no longer a scary thing and you can focus on giving your body all the nutrients it needs.
Hypnosis and Eating Disorders
The sad fact is that hypnotherapy doesn’t help everyone overcome their eating disorders. A small percentage of patients will find that they’re not suitable, whether it is due to their own blocking or because they’re not willing to put the time and effort into changing the way they believe and think. But for most people they will benefit from hypnosis to overcome their psychological problem.
It has been proven to work in the past. People with bulimia and anorexia have gone on to gain weight and eat well. Those who comfort ate have gone onto find other ways to deal with their problems and give their bodies the nutrients they really need.
Is hypnosis for you?
Before deciding that hypnosis is for you. Firstly it is important to realise what the actual issue is you need to solve.
hypnosis and eating disorders
So many people are searching for how to overcome an eating disorder. While there is no sure-fire way, hypnosis is an extremely positive and beneficial method. Instead of treating the symptoms, it can work on overcoming your disorders by focusing on the reasons. It goes deep into your subconscious to change the way you think and feel about food, eating and your body. This is important to change those negative subconscious thoughts from dictating what you choose to do in life.
15 Comments
King-Galaxius Stravinsky
May 24, 2014You know, the subject about eating disorders is so, so sad. About a year or two ago, a set of Australian twins died of an eating disorder. I wonder if they were given hypnotherapy, would they still be alive today, if someone offered to give them hypnotherapy. Something.
aandygroup
May 25, 2014What is being extremely sad nowadays is that there begin to exist more and more teens ( especially girls ) that have these eating disorders and only a few of them really want to make something in that way . I am confident that hypnotherapy would help more than 70% of them for sure . Hopefully in the near future this kind of therapy will be more known to the ones who need it .
Yvonne Daly
May 26, 2014Yeah, hypnosis can help with so many challenges people experience and yet they are reluctant to try something different. We have helped so many people overcome their challenges with food whether because they overeat or starve themselves. Hypnosis not only deals with the actual stated problem but with the reasons associated with it ie low self esteem, anger, guilt etc By dealing with it at this deeper level using hypnosis the person doesn’t put barriers in his or her way and sabotage their own efforts to help themselves. The more people we can help the more word will spread and hypnosis will become a viable, alternative method of helping people overcome their personal challenges.
Louisa
May 26, 2014I do comfort eat and then there are massive pangs of guilt when I don’t lose weight ( I’m 5ft 6 and 200lbs).
I know I have a problem as I mark my whole 30 odd years on this planet by weight. You ask me about any event or age of my life and I know how much I weighed. I know I’m not normal but I don’t know why I am so controlled by my weight.
Yvonne Daly
May 27, 2014Louisa, you are definitely not alone. How many people actually eat because they are hungry? When you sit down at 9pm in front of the tv with a chocolate bar and a glass of wine maybe 2hrs after dinner – is it because you are hungry? Of course it isn’t – it’s comfort, it’s habit, it’s boredom and it tastes good at the time! The guilt comes afterwards but by then it’s too late so we feel bad, worthless, unattractive, despising ourselves then eat more – and the downward spiral continues. Hypnosis helps by addressing all these other issues and getting to the root cause. Diets work while you are on a diet but they are unsustainable and once you stop the weight piles on even faster than before. When I think of the word diet I think ‘Diet = Deprivation. I used to think of food all the time when I was on a diet, my whole focus was on what foods I couldn’t eat and how delicious I they would taste once the diet was over. Since hypnosis I can still eat my favourite foods but there is no guilt as I am not hung up about foods and they are not my main focus. I don’t know where you live but look out for Biodun’s live webinair on getting rid of weight. Good luck and keep us posted!
Jen
May 28, 2014I believe hypnosis can help those who suffer from an eating disorder. I used to be anorexic in my teen age years, though I did not use hypnosis, I believe it works because so many people out there seem to get over it these days. I think it’s worth a try for many people out there who suffer from eating disorders.
Pierce
May 30, 2014My husband and I are working on caring for our daughters whose been diagnosed with EDNOS. I was curious: Does hypnosis tend to work well across spectrum of eating disorders, Or does it work better for some than for others?
Tracey
May 30, 2014Interesting post. If hypnosis can help with unhealthy eating behaviors (e.g. eating disorders) can they help with dieting?
Biodun
May 31, 2014Thanks for your comment Pierce, Yes hypnosis works well across the spectrum of eating disorders, however everyone is an individual and is treated that way. So what works for one person may not necessarily work for another person.
Thanks
Kellie
June 1, 2014Eating disorders are one of the toughest problems to get over, especially for those suffering from image problems, well as they see it. I do wonder if hypnosis can actually help out, it’s quite possible I imagine.
Amy Hamilton
June 8, 2014Eating disorders are such a depressing thing to deal with. My sister dealt with it a lot when she was in high school, thankfully she got out of that addiction as many would call it. I hope to see more kids and adults with eating disorders actually get help, and I hope they consider hypnotherapists when going to a specialist of sorts.
Mark Pliskin
June 12, 2014I can truly see myself trying hypnosis to curb my appetite. I like to eat, mind you, I’m not fat or underweight, I just like to eat too much sometimes to the point where I’d get sick. It’s not often, but it’s during events like Holidays or something.
Greg Jackson
June 13, 2014Eating disorders are one of the hardest things to actually get over. From obesity to anorexia, there are many problems one is faced with. Hypnosis may be a good way of getting through to someone, but there is probably an underlying cause as to why someone is overeating or not eating at all. So general therapy should be considered as well. But still, hypnosis could help I imagine.
Maggie West
June 15, 2014One of my good friends had a nasty eating disorder, she sadly passed away because of her problem. I just wish there was a way to have helped her, back in middle school and high school I had no idea of what to do. If I knew of hypnosis back in those days to treat such a problem, I would have told her parents to give it a try.
Jeremy
June 15, 2014I hear eating disorders are bad these days. What I think needs to be done is to stop the way the media advertises to people. Women are advertised to look thin, while men are advertised to look fit and everything. It’s okay to look skinny and be healthy, but a lot of people follow the wrong rules, especially with losing weight. As for people who eat too much, they really need to realize they’re killing themselves by eating so much. Hypnosis is a thing that should be done for all people with eating disorders.