Maybe you feel that alcohol is something you can’t function without. Or, maybe you have a problem quitting drinking once you’ve started. Maybe you want to be completely alcohol-free. Or, maybe you only drink casually and want to ensure you never have too many. Regardless of what your relationship with alcohol may be, hypnosis can help you set limits on your drinking.
If you or someone you love is struggling with an alcohol problem, hypnosis can help. Hypnosis can help you improve all aspects of your life, including helping you manage your alcohol consumption. Unlike other programs, hypnosis doesn’t require total abstinence or weeks of support therapy. Instead, hypnosis is a natural and easy way to reduce your alcohol consumption or quit drinking altogether. If you’ve tried other solutions but were disappointed with the results, you’ve come to the right place. Keep reading to learn how hypnotherapy can help you manage your alcohol consumption.
Hypnotherapy Techniques to Stop Drinking
Hypnotherapy has a long-standing history of helping people overcome various bad habits. Maybe you’ve heard of hypnosis to stop smoking, or hypnosis to eat better. Just like those other hypnosis types, hypnosis to quit drinking is about altering habits and beliefs. There are quite a few ways hypnotherapists can help you with your alcohol problem. Here are some of the most common alcohol hypnotherapy techniques:
Aversion Therapy
Traditionally, hypnotherapy used aversion therapy to help people quit drinking. With this type of hypnosis, a hypnotherapist would help you avoid drinking by making you feel ill every time you drink.
Aversion therapy is a time-tested practice in many areas of mental health. It simply links the action you want to change with a negative feeling. An example of aversion therapy to stop drinking could be placing a chemical in each drink to induce nausea.
While aversion therapy is effective, it can be quite drastic. It’s not the best route for everyone, and it’s not the only option hypnosis has to help you stop drinking. Hypnosis is all about helping your mind make new connections. It can help you link the old behaviour (drinking) with a new response (avoiding it) without the discomfort of traditional aversion therapy.
Alcohol Suggestions
Another way hypnotherapy can help you reduce or stop your alcohol consumption is with alcohol suggestions. Suggestion therapy really is a time-tested framework where a hypnotherapist nudges your mind to get you the results you’re looking for.
These suggestions are often scripted enough to give you great results, and flexible enough to tailor them to your life. Hypnotherapists have created many protocols that can aid you with your drinking problem. Some methods focus on the underlying emotions that cause you to drink. Many people use alcohol to numb emotions that they don’t want to feel.
Hypnosis can help manage those difficult emotions in a healthier way. With these suggestion methods, the hypnotherapist dives into memories dealing with the root cause of the problem.
However, hypnosis for drinking doesn’t have to dive back into a traumatic memory to overcome it. Sometimes you simply need help to associate drinking with a negative response. And some hypnotherapists even teach their clients self-hypnosis protocols to help prevent a relapse.
A 2004 study with veterans fighting alcohol abuse showed that self-hypnosis techniques helped them fight the urge to drink. Those who used self-hypnosis reported, “…the highest levels of self-esteem and serenity, and the least anger/impulsivity, in comparison to the minimal-practice and control groups.”
A Desire to Change
This is a technique that doesn’t come from the hypnotherapist’s toolbox. This one must happen inside of you. Hypnosis is a powerful tool to enact change in your life, but hypnosis cannot change you if you’re not ready to change. A hypnotherapist can provide you with new anchors and positive suggestions, but if you aren’t fully committed to making that change in your life, the change won’t happen.
You have to own the fact that you want to change. Otherwise, you’ll unconsciously work around the hypnotic suggestions, finding loopholes that allow you to drink to excess.
Decreasing Alcohol Consumption
Maybe you don’t want to give up drinking entirely, but rather you want to stop binge drinking. Maybe you have a problem drinking to excess, or you drink out of habit. Hypnosis can help you reduce your alcohol consumption. It won’t force you to go cold-turkey, but you’ll learn how to alter your drinking habits, so they’re not negatively impacting your life.
Clinical hypnosis can help you get to where you want to be in life. As you alter your habits, remember that it doesn’t have to be an immediate, all-or-nothing change. If you have concerns, speak with your hypnotherapist before the session.
Are You Ready to Make a Positive Change?
You don’t need to hit rock bottom before you make a change. Whenever you’re ready to make a positive change in your life, hypnosis can help you get there.
Hypnotherapy is a non-invasive and effective treatment for reducing drinking. Also, it’s very affordable. Hypnotherapy can help you reduce your alcohol consumption quickly. While many hypnotherapists and hypnosis audios recommend multiple sessions, you may see results after your very first one. Most importantly, hypnosis should give you hope. It’s an all-natural, alternative treatment that can help you improve your relationship with alcohol, no matter how big its role in your life.
