Sometimes it’s hard to relax until everything is “just so.” The thing that needs to be “just so” may change from person to person─for instance, the tidiness of a room, the details of a schedule, or the completion of a to-do list. “When this is finished,” one may think, “I’ll be satisfied/content/happy and be able to relax.”
However, the “just so” rarely or never comes if you are anything like me. There’s always one additional wrinkle in the plans, one additional interruption, one additional task. So, it can be hard to stop and wholeheartedly enjoy what has already been accomplished. But we try to do it anyway, spending time with friends or even going on vacation. Recognizing that the perfect moment may not happen no matter how hard we work to get it, we will likely conclude, “Why wait?”
Don’t wait to try clinical hypnosis to manage chronic pain.
The same idea applies to trying new approaches to managing chronic pain. I’m going to relate it here to clinical hypnosis.
Clinical hypnosis is unfamiliar to most people as a technique for treating chronic pain. Even when a person’s health care provider refers them to me because other approaches have not yet been practical, the patient may say things like, “I don’t want to mask an underlying problem by treating the pain,” or “I have to have a clear medical diagnosis before I consider a mind-body approach to treatment.” That’s the goal of having something “just so.”
However, by the time someone’s pain is chronic, they have already checked for common or obvious causes and know whether tissue damage has occurred. They may still be undergoing tests in case of a highly unusual diagnosis.
So, why wait?
In this kind of situation, starting clinical hypnosis or other mind-body techniques is like going on vacation even when there are still things on the to-do list. A person might find comfort and refreshment, and return home better able to deal with unfinished tasks─or even to the delightful realization that the problem has solved itself!
In response to concerns about treatment masking an underlying problem:
First, the underlying problem may no longer be there, as chronic pain often takes on a life of its own despite the resolution of some initial injury.
Second, hypnosis can be calibrated so that a person preserves pain related to tissue injury. It’s like treating a phobia. For instance, the goal of treating a spider phobia would be tolerance of ordinary spiders in ordinary circumstances, not tolerance of all spiders in all circumstances. Even after treatment for the phobia, we would expect a person to feel fear if they had a tarantula in their lap! In the same way, even after a person is treated for pain from irritable bowel syndrome, we would still expect them to have symptoms from appendicitis.
In response to concerns about needing a precise medical diagnosis:
The purpose of pain is to alert the brain to danger or injury. And so, once we are aware of a problem, it is safe to let that pain go. The message is received, and the individual takes the necessary actions to identify and treat the problem. If, in the meantime, while waiting for the outcome of those actions, the pain resolves, a person can decide if any additional actions are needed. But the delay of symptom management has been eliminated.
Allowing yourself the chance to try all the different approaches to pain relief, including clinical hypnosis, is like allowing yourself the opportunity to try other sorts of vacations. Staycation? Luxury resort? Camping trip? Family reunion? You may not yet have found one that really suits you. So, try something different. Why wait?