Hypnosis can be a powerful intervention for drug and alcohol problems for people who are amenable to this kind of treatment. It is hard to say how long time or how many hypnosis sessions it would take for a person to get rid of his or her alcohol addiction, because this will vary from one individual to another. It will partly depend on the severeness of the patient’s alcoholism and partly how eligible the patient is to hypnotherapy.

Can Hypnosis Treat Alcoholism Successfully?

To be honest, there hasn’t been published very much research or study reports about this kind of alcoholism treatment. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, from July 2004 refers to a study where 18 clients were followed over the last 7 years. It showed a success rate of 77 percent. They define success as living without drugs or alcohol for at least 1-year. 15 of those clients were classified as alcohol addicts or alcohol abusers, while the rest of them were addictive to other drugs.

The effectiveness of hypnotherapy depends on several factors, such as

- how long time the patient has abused alcohol

- the seriousness of the alcoholism

- whether the patient have been hypnotized before and the effectiveness of this treatment

- whether the patient is suggestible or tend to be resistant and hard to cooperate with

- the amount of alcohol consumed

- whether the alcohol is consumed alone or in a social setting

- which specific beverage consumed (liquor, wine or beer) in relation to the amount

- last, but not least: how committed the patient is to stop drinking

If a person really wants to quit drinking alcohol, he or she has to find out

- why they drink or to put it another way; which positive functions does the drinking have for their everyday life, and

- how can they find other and more healthy ways to deal with these functions or cope with their problems.

Drinking alcohol could very well be seen as a way to cope with your life and the emotional problems you face in your everyday life. You can not just get rid of this without substituting it with something else. If you undergo a hypnosis without finding alternatives to substitute your previous unhealthy behavior, you will not gain anything but an empty hole in your life. The absence of alcohol must be replaced with the presence of new skills to handle the situations in your life that you previously handled by drinking.

The most important question is, how big of an effort are you willing to give to get rid of your alcohol problems? Don’t be tempted to think that hypnosis is an passive and painless shortcut to get rid of your problem. Some people think they can just lay down on a sofa a few times and passively get hypnotized and the cravings for alcohol will disappear. In addition, you need to develop some new ways of thinking.

For patients amendable for hypnosis and at the same time are willing to go some extra miles to get rid of their bad habits and replace them with new and more healthy ways to cope with their everyday problems, the prognosis is good for this kind of treatment. The treatment will most often last from two to four weeks sometimes more, sometimes less.

Author: David Richards

David Richards is a publisher of alcoholism facts and articles. You can go to alcoholism treatment for more.

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