Many people enjoy an alcoholic drink occasionally. However, if you’re starting to feel that you need to drink it regularly or you drink a lot when you do drink, then maybe you are becoming dependent on alcohol. If you decide you want to stop drinking alcohol or reduce the amount you drink on a regular basis, hypnotherapy can help.
Alcohol dependency can creep up on us, starting with the odd extra beer or glass of wine, until you find yourself turning to alcohol every day. The level at which you choose to seek help will be different for everyone. You might want help with binge drinking, but feel quite comfortable with the amount you drink at other times. Alternatively, you may believe alcohol has a grip on you and is affecting your daily life. In any situation, hypnotherapy may be able to help you to drink less alcohol.
Most hypnotherapists use a two pronged approach towards alcohol issues. There is often a counselling or psychotherapy element alongside hypnosis. The talking bit of the session will usually help you to understand why alcohol has a hold on you and how you can help yourself. The hypnosis takes you into a lovely relaxing trance state where the hypnotherapist can access the subconscious mind. The sessions will take anything from 40 to 90 minutes. The number of sessions can vary between clients, depending on the level of alcohol dependency. Around 8-10 hypnotherapy sessions can be expected to help you to drink less alcohol, or even no alcohol, on a long term basis.
Alcohol dependency can be difficult to understand, particularly when it is happening to you or someone close to you. This is because dependency on alcohol usually develops gradually over a period of time. The NHS states that there is no safe amount of alcohol and we should all drink less than 14 units per week across 3 or more days. Despite this, views of what is an acceptable amount varies hugely. What might feel normal and acceptable to you might be seen as alarming for someone else.
With alcohol dependency, you will probably feel compelled to drink regularly. You might see it as a way to switch off from the stresses of life. Sometimes, what starts out as a once-a-week thing, can develop into twice-a-week and so on, until you’re drinking every day. However, if binge drinking is your concern, you won’t feel the need to drink the majority of the time, but when you do you don’t seem able to stop.
Drinking regularly leads to changes in the wiring of the brain. Alcohol encourages the production of the neurotransmitter, dopamine, which creates a ‘buzz’. The more dopamine you produce, the more the brain wants to get the same buzz. This creates more dopamine receptors in your brain, leading to a stronger need for alcohol. The more frequently you drink alcohol – and in greater quantities – the more entrenched the wiring changes become.
Eventually, there might come a point where you feel as though the alcohol is in control of you and you want to drink less or stop completely. Thankfully these wiring changes can be reversed when you reduce or stop drinking.
It isn’t always easy to recognise when you are drinking too much, as alcohol intake often increases slowly over time. This can be complicated further as you might not drink on a daily basis, but lose control when you do.
If you find yourself being dishonest or secretive with others about the frequency of your drinking then you may be drinking too much alcohol. Other signs can include: avoiding friends and family, as you don’t want to face their disapproval; poor time keeping or regular absences at work or school and finding it difficult to concentrate while you’re there; losing time when you can’t remember what you did while drinking and when you finally remember, you feel embarrassed or ashamed; telling everyone that you can stop anytime, but you don’t want to and know you’d struggle; taking unnecessary risks with your health, safety or finances; losing interest in things that used to be very important to you.
There are a few risk factors that contribute towards alcohol dependency and binge drinking.
Hypnotherapy can initially help you to drink less alcohol by increasing your motivation to change. When you engage in repetitive behaviour, it can be easier to just keep doing what you’re doing. Finding the motivation to break free of a habit can be tough as it takes more energy than maintaining the status quo. Hypnotherapy can help you to break free of those old habits and create new, more healthy habits.
It’s likely that your self-esteem will be lower if you drink more than you would ideally like to. Hypnotherapy can help to build your self-esteem again. Your sleep is affected by alcohol as it reduces the amount of time you spend in restorative REM sleep. Hypnotherapy has been shown to help with sleep issues. If you drink regularly then it’s likely that your mental health will suffer. You might feel stressed, anxious or depressed and again, hypnotherapy can help improve your mental health.
Most hypnotherapists offer a combined approach that incorporates a talking therapy such as counselling or psychotherapy with hypnosis. These elements of the session will help you to understand more of why you struggle to drink less and what you can do. This is supported by hypnosis, which directly accesses the subconscious mind, relaxing you so you can let go of any tension and see things from a different viewpoint. Taking a mental step back from alcohol will help you to see ways to cope better with the challenges of life without resorting to drinking alcohol. Through hypnotherapy, your coping strategies will improve along with any associated mental health conditions.
It is always important to contact your GP about your alcohol intake before seeing a hypnotherapist. This is because sometimes other symptoms will be present along with the alcohol issues.
Online hypnotherapy is as effective as when it is carried out in-person. Even before lockdown many hypnotherapists were running online hypnotherapy sessions for alcohol issues. The good news is that there is now evidence to support the effectiveness of online hypnotherapy sessions. Although this research isn’t specific to alcohol misuse, it does show that there is little difference between online and in-person hypnotherapy generally. All you would need, to take part in an online hypnotherapy session, would be a laptop, tablet or smartphone, possibly some earphones and somewhere quiet where you can relax.
The amount of sessions you will need to help you drink less will vary from person to person. The questions that your hypnotherapist will ask to help them calculate the number of sessions you might need might include : “How much alcohol do you currently drink?” or “How long has it been a problem?’ Another question might be ‘How much less would you like to drink?’ Another factor to consider will be the level of your commitment. You might be expected to listen to an MP3 download every night or to perform some other task in between sessions. You will see results much more quickly if you do the things suggested by your hypnotherapist.
The cost of hypnotherapy for drinking less alcohol can vary from one hypnotherapist to another. This will often depend on your location and the qualifications and experience your hypnotherapist has. To give you a rough guide prices can vary from £40- £150 per hour.
Hypnotherapy works in two ways. Most hypnotherapy approaches use a blend of talking therapy plus trance. The talking element of the session will help you to look at your alcohol issues from a different perspective. You might explore your current behaviours or thought patterns that are getting in the way of drinking less. The talking element might be some form of Counselling, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or a Solution Focused (SF) approach. The aim is to help give you a better understanding of how to get better. This will then be followed by a trance session where the therapist will use hypnosis to relax you into a trance state. While in the trance state, which is a natural state of focused attention, you will be able to let go of any tension and relax fully. This allows your brain to view your drinking from a different viewpoint and see things differently. When you are in a trance state the predominant brain waves change from Beta to Alpha and Theta, these allow you to change the way you think and to problem solve more effectively.
Much depends on the level of your commitment. The more committed you are to the hypnotherapy process, the sooner you will see a reduction in the hold that alcohol has on you. You can expect to see some improvement in your motivation and anxiety related symptoms after the first hypnotherapy session. Your sleep pattern might improve a little, particularly if you’re listening to an MP3 download every night. However, you’ll probably need 3-4 sessions before you experience fewer urges to drink alcohol. After around 8 sessions, you should see a consistent reduction in the urges to drink alcohol. Depending on the level of your alcohol dependency and your commitment, this might be the point at which you feel ready to go it alone.
As hypnotherapy is considered to be a complementary therapy in the UK, we are not allowed to publish success rates for drinking less alcohol. Your commitment to the hypnotherapy process is also very important. If you engage with your hypnotherapist and follow their advice, such as listening to an MP3 download or any other tasks set, then your treatment will be more effective than if you don’t. Very little research has been done to show that alcohol issues improve because of hypnotherapy. However, if you have an addiction the likelihood is that you also have anxiety or stress related symptoms. A recent meta-analysis carried out in 2018 found that participants in receipt of hypnosis for anxiety improved more than 84% of the control groups who had no hypnotherapy. As many people drink to alleviate the symptoms of stress, this may help you to let go of your alcohol issues.
Unfortunately, you will probably be unable to access hypnotherapy for drinking less through the NHS. This is despite the British Medical Association’s assertion, in their submission of evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on science and technology in the year 2000, that ‘Hypnotherapy and Counselling may be considered as orthodox treatments’. However, your GP might suggest hypnotherapy as an option to help you drink less alcohol, but it will be up to you to source and fund your own treatment.
Self-hypnosis can help with alcohol misuse as all hypnosis is technically self-hypnosis. This is because it is your brain doing the work, with the hypnotherapist as the facilitator. However, it can be difficult to achieve on your own and therefore finding a qualified hypnotherapist to help you initially can be the best solution. Once you have experienced going into a trance state a few times with their help, you will find it much easier to go into that same state on your own. It is worth pointing out that the counselling or psychotherapy element of the hypnotherapy session would be missing from any self-help approach and the research has suggested that hypnosis is more effective alongside it.
Start out with the basics, Search for “hypnotherapy for alcohol issues” in Google or Bing. The results will contain a map with local hypnotherapy businesses. Start looking through their reviews either in the search engine or on their social (Facebook) pages.
The best hypnotherapists will be registered with a professional association and with organisations that are accredited by the professional standards authority. There are only two in the UK and they are the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC) and the National Hypnotherapy Society.
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