Whether you're a person who wants to stop drinking altogether, you're concerned with the amount you're drinking and just want to cut down to an acceptable level or you want to stop binge drinking and be able to control the amount you drink in a single session, hypnotherapy can help.
Many people like a drink to relax, unwind or help deal with stress, but when an occasional drinking habit starts to become a nightly occurrence, and what used to be a couple of glasses of wine turn into a whole bottle (or more) of wine per night, that habit can turn into something you can no longer control.
The alcohol then becomes a coping mechanism for dealing with stress, anxiety, negative thoughts and various other emotions. Many regular drinkers find that they can't relax, de-stress or switch off an overly-active mind without alcohol.
How excessive drinking habits are formed
A habit is simply an automatic reflex in response to certain triggers. Usually, a positive experience has become associated with a particular action and this is nearly always a reduction in stress, anxiety, emotional distress, agitation or boredom/restlessness. This leads to a consequent feeling of relief. Although sometimes pleasure, rather than lowering of stress, is the dominant associated emotion.
Negative behavioural habits are nearly always associated with lowering stress (self-soothing) and/or pleasure. Triggers for negative habitual behaviour are usually agitation, boredom, uneasiness, emotional distress, mild or medium levels of anxiety or stress, or sometimes simply not getting sufficient pleasure and satisfaction from other areas of your life.
How does it work?
The approach will vary depending on each individual's specific requirements, but it very loosely involves changing the automatic conditioned response in the subconscious mind that causes you to respond to certain triggers. This is something that many people cannot control through conscious thought processes because, when behaviours are so deeply ingrained in the subconscious, changes often can't be implemented at a conscious level.
Under hypnosis, the learned response within the subconscious can be changed to something more appropriate to the situation, so that in future, you will be calm, relaxed and in control in the situations where you used to turn to alcohol. This leads to a profound increase in motivation to change habitual behaviours linked to drinking excessively. You'll learn how to handle trigger situations much more effectively, replacing negative emotions and responses with positive ones and remaining in control.
If factors such as stress, anxiety or tension contribute to your alcohol consumption, learning suitable relaxation techniques and coping skills help you to respond more appropriately to trigger situations. Tension increases reactivity, relaxation lowers it. As negative habits are negative automatic reactions, relaxation gives us greater self-control, rather than be at the mercy of tension induced habitual responses.
Staying on the right path
Reverting to old behaviours is avoided by making sure that you have the resources, positive habits, new experiences and understanding to stay on your chosen path, and remain free from old habits. The whole programme fosters a deep sense of self-belief that helps strengthen and maintain the desired changes.