Hypnosis can help allergy sufferers

Can an allergy really just be in the mind? Is it possible to train the brain into overcoming an allergic response to certain substances? Some reactions have psychological triggers so in answer to those questions the answer would be ‘yes’. While it’s not possible for hypnosis to cure an allergy, hypnotherapy can certainly help reduce the symptoms of an allergy and your reliance on remedies. Hypnotherapy may even uncover the root cause of the problem.

Allergies are rooted in the immune system whereby we ‘react’ to a substance that our body believes is attacking it. Pollen for instance is a harmless substance, yet for a hay fever sufferer their body believes it’s under attack and initiates a reaction to prevent it causing any harm.

Treating an allergy with hypnotherapy techniques

Many cases of allergies are seen as being caused by psychosomatic factors. Merely trying to cope with the thought of an allergy is enough to raise stress levels which can make symptoms worse or trigger a reaction in the first place. And when an allergy is triggered, stress can also prevent the body from coping with it. You may also be causing an allergic reaction as a way of coping with another stressful situation that you want to escape from. So you see, an allergy has a psychological trigger attached to it as well as a physical one and this is where hypnosis can help.

Stress can cause the brain to set off an involuntary action of the immune system. This is done subconsciously and the subconscious mind is where hypnotherapy works. The subconscious holds onto behaviours that have become conditioned through years of internal and external factors. An allergy may have developed through a past traumatic experience or an emotion that is repressed. A hypnotherapist can help you to discover the root cause of your allergy and then use techniques to help reprogram the way you think about the substance that causes your reaction. Relaxation methods used in hypnotherapy can also prevent your stress levels from making allergic reactions worse.

There are some physical effects that hypnotherapy can have on allergies. Many allergic reactions result in inflammation of some description. This is due to an increase in blood flow to areas that the body believes is under attack. Hypnosis can have an effect on the vascular system reducing blood flow and in turn reducing symptoms. For instance, nasal congestion in hay fever sufferers is down to blood vessels expanding from increased blood flow to the nose. Antihistamine drugs work to reduce swelling blood vessels and hypnosis may be able to do the same.

Hypnotherapy techniques to help allergy sufferers

While hypnotherapy can’t treat all allergic reactions, hypnosis, and self-hypnosis, can be used alongside medications or other complementary therapies to treat allergies. Working alongside therapies such as nutrition, a person can use hypnotherapy to reduce their reliance on conventional drugs (that have unwelcome side-effects) and treat their allergies in a natural way.

Article submitted by
Daniel James Alexander, GoToSee Journalist

Date published
02/12/08

Information about allergies and therapies that can help here

Further information about hypnotherapy is available here