Fight or Flight?

Our brains are continuously receiving a myriad of messages to deal with. The external environment supplies every day input like news, music, jobs, relationships, weather etc. Our internal environment provides input concerning movement, digestion, tension, pain, etc.

Even though our conscious minds deal with reasoning and logic, decisions, goal planning and and other conscious activity, the subconscious mind has the greatest influence. It receives all of the social, spiritual and genetic background... plus all the daily disturbances that enter our consciousness. It simply retains the information, neither accepting nor rejecting the content. It does not evaluate. Evaluation is a function of the conscious mind.

Under threatening conditions, mankind still resorts to a primitive survival mechanism known as the fight or flight response, a means of dealing with perceived danger, threats or attacks. When the conscious mind can no longer handle threatening stimuli, the subconscious prepares us for fight or flight..... Our hearts pumps harder, adrenaline races through our systems, blood pressure rises, super strength can be generated.... We are ready for a physical confrontation. But sometimes there is nothing to fight. We can't physically fight the environment or a job, an accident, a bad decision and so on. So... now what?

Stress

Unable to fight, the reaction turns to flight, which can be equally impossible and a state of apathy or depression ensues. Negative input finds acceptance and soon futility and melancholy and overreaction to the senses develops together with a loss of tolerance. Now we begin to exhibit the effects of stress.

Thankfully, stress is not always negative, certain kinds of stress that are very desirable (for instance: the stress of romantic encounters, job promotions, athletic competitions and such, but stressors that produce debilitation, depression, excessive smoking, overeating, anger, grief and other reactions that cause dysfunction and unhappiness need to be dealt with and released; and sometimes therapeutic intervention.

Stress is a fact of life. We can't eliminate all stressful situations any more then we can create a better past. The good news is that we can alter our perceptions and reactions to stress.

Stress can be a reaction to people, places, events or things. Threats may be real or imagined. Remember... the subconscious mind does not analyze, and sometimes by the time depression appears, the conscious mind has lost its ability to do so too. However, the causes of the stress can be recognized, defined and often eliminated. Regression to cause therapy is a valuable technique in the discovery process.

What Causes Stress?

We all have different tolerance levels, coping abilities, reactions and therapeutic needs. Fears, real or imagined, leads to the symptoms of stress. Fears, when not dealt with, can expand into anxiety or phobia disorders. Unrelenting pain or worries over health situations, repressed emotions of hurt, anger grief, etc., or public speaking or performances of any kind can cause the symptoms of stress. Medical conditions and dietary deficiencies, environmental factors, such as noise or air pollution add to stress.

People who are characterized as over-achievers, the highly competitive, or type "A" personalities continually expose themselves to the ravages of stress. The biochemistry created by stress can actually become addictive. Debilitating reactions and inadequate or inappropriate coping skills related to stress are often learned early in life from role models (parents, teachers, and relatives).

How Hypnosis Can Help

After discovering and analyzing the stress stimuli and the physical and/or emotional responses, rapid change can be achieved through hypnosis. In the hypnotic state, reframing can create positive new responses to replace the continuing devastating reactions to past events. Deeply held emotions or hurt feeling can be brought to the surface and released and externally induced pressures can be relieved. Armed with new and positive re-programming to old disturbances, major positive changes in attitudes and reactions realized; and a greatly improved quality of life may be enjoyed.

Stress Related Problems That Respond Well to Hypnotism:

Pain Management, depression, anxiety, fatigue, communication skills, forgiveness, grief and loss issues, overeating, insomnia, health issues, life transitions, relationships, sexual dysfunction, speech problems, learning and memory, smoking and more.