Hypnotherapy for Stress

Stress comes in many forms, some people thrive under stress, as it helps them to get the job done, but others find that stress triggers particular physical responses in them: like migraines, headaches, grinding teeth, lack of sleep, triggers skin issues such as psoriasis and acne, increases their anxiety and lowers their mood, makes them eat more or lose their appetite, increased blood pressure and perhaps even sets off their IBS.

What is Stress?

Stress is a situation that triggers a particular biological response. When your brain perceives an emergency or crisis, that there is a threat or a major challenge, stress hormones surge throughout your body, such as adrenaline and cortisol.

This triggers your fight-or-flight response to deal with the emergency or run away from it. Usually, after the response occurs, your body should relax. Too much constant stress can have negative effects on your long-term health.

Is all stress bad?

Stress isn’t always a bad thing. It’s what helped our hunter-gatherer ancestors survive, and it’s just as important in today’s world. It can be beneficial when it helps you hit a deadline, avoid injury, work in a chaotic environment, or catch that flight!

We call this challenge stress, it helps us to complete the challenges life presents us with – it has a topping-off point when we complete the challenge – essentially it helps us to get the job done!

We all feel stressed at times, but what one person finds stressful may be very different from what another person does.

An example of this would be public speaking. Some thrive under the pressure of it and others are terrified and freeze at the thought.

But stress should be temporary. Once you’ve passed the peak stress, your heart rate and breathing should slow down and your muscles should relax. In a short time, your body should return to its natural state without any lasting negative effects.

When does stress become a problem?

Stress only becomes a problem when you find it interferes with your day-to-day life affecting your ability to do what you want to do, causing physical symptoms you don’t want to have and preventing you from living your best life.

Just as we each have different things that cause us stress, our symptoms can also be different.

Although you’re unlikely to have them all, here are some things you may experience if you’re under stress:

• Chronic pain
• Migraines and headaches
• Disturbed sleep, inability to get to sleep, feeling like you are not getting a restful night’s sleep.
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and other digestive problems (Chrones can be aggravated by stress) like heartburn.
• Skin problems like psoriasis, acne, and eczema.
• Increased alcohol intake
• Lower sex drive
• Eating too much or too little
• Difficulty concentrating 
• Impact on your mood – making you feel irritable or have low mood/depression
• Poor decision-making decisions
• Fatigue

Hypnotherapy helps to reduce the stress hormone, Cortisol, which causes us to experience physical symptoms and encourages more of the happy hormones so we feel better, sleep better, cope better with what life throws at us and make better decisions.

If you would like more information about how Hypnotherapy can help you to feel less stressed or to cope better with the stress you are currently experiencing please get in touch