Hypnosis as means of drug addiction treatment

[MariaMria]

The method of non-verbal inductive hypnosis for overcoming psychological addiction.
(by Dr. Vasilenko, Dr. Sarzhevsky, Dr. Shevchenko)


The most difficult and hard to cure part in narcological treatment is the overcoming of a person’s psychological dependence on psychoactive substances. Courageously enduring the abstinence phenomenon, the patients persistently ask to clear the drug from their heads, to make them forget the craving, they describe it as a very painful condition.


The psychological defense mechanisms subconsciously interfere in the process of overcoming this dependence. This is actually kind of adaptive response of the individual. The most commonly used version of this protection is the “displacement”.
Integrated methodology applied by doctors in rehab center is centered upon the authoritative version of group hypnosis, aimed at concentration on every negative experience of abusing drugs or alcohol that a patient had.
With the help of this hypnosis sessions all states of fear, anxiety, pain, suffering that a person hides deep inside are revealed. They emotionally experience “the death from the drug”.
Daily sessions are held with the increase of hypnotic impact force that generates disgust and even "aggression towards the drug".
The effectiveness of such method suggests further greater efficiency in patients’ achievements.
This method had been under surveillance for 2 years.
Patients from different countries took part in it: Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Greece, Israel. They had different experience of abusing drugs and were of different age range (from 14 to 47 years). The surveillance allowed to define general patterns of behavior in a state of trance during the sessions.


As a rule, the state of stupefaction is partially or completely sunk, in this state the pain threshold is significantly changed. «Responsiveness» to the hypnosis is manifested as "phenomena of exclusion":
1. screams, followed by falling, functional seizures (usually tonic) with reiterations of single words, phrases, crying, sometimes with incongruous speech excitation;
2. nausea, vomiting, tremor of the limbs and severe autonomic reactions;
3. significant emotional responce with tears and remorse for what the patient did in the past;
In some cases, this condition manifested with symptoms of catalepsy, fetal position and automatic oral reflexes.

In the end of sessions the general conditions of all participants were defined with severe physical fatigue of vegetative symptoms. Everything that happens on the sessions is under control and regulation of the psychotherapist and is completely reduced after the sessions of hypnosis.

The securing of the fixed negative facts from the past and strengthening of sensations during collective sessions is held in individual psychotherapeutic conversation. The problem is solved by active memorizing of situations that happened previously due to drug intoxication. Very often they are seen as long-forgotten or very difficult to remember. The patient with closed eyes is persistently invited to relive those tragic episodes, focusing on every single image. This image is fixed, mentally imposed externally, changes in shape, color under the guidance of a doctor. Therapist observes the patient, his sensory, motor, autonomic and ocular manifestations. In order to improve the effect one is left for 10 - 15 minutes alone, in front of his own memories of the tragic result of the situation described.
The high efficiency of this integrated approach (87.2 % of patients) was tested on catamnesis during the year.
The end of sessions does not alter the presence of disgust, or aggression to the "drug".


The presence of similar manifestations of collective response to the sessions, the presence of an emotional response often facial expressions, gestures, appearance and voice modulation is primarily allowed to try work in the group of patients without the possibility of direct voice communication. The example is the patient from Greece, who absolutely did not know Russian language and spoke through the interpreter. In this case a non-verbal hypnosis takes place through collective sessions, the hypnotic impact in this case is non-verbal and is embedded inside the patients group. The interpreter only gave the keywords - "codes" that shape attitude to drugs - "drug is death», "drug is the pain," "drug is suffering."