Irritable Bowel Syndrome
I.B.S is a condition which does not have a clearly defined medical
reason for it's occurrence, other than that it seems to be related to
stress. For a person who is actually experiencing I.B.S, the experience
can seem like a nightmare. At a certain point when the symptons have
become quite severe it really feels as if your digestive system is acting
totally independently with a view to sabotaging your life. Normal social
situations with partners, friends, work associates, any form of socializing
begin to be seen as a potential disaster area. Diarrohea, constipation
severe cramping, massive attacks of flatulence, nausea, bloating can
occur.
There are obviously dietary factors to be considered and it makes
sense for the person to look at what they are eating and take out anything
which might be overstimulating the gut such as coffee, or any volatile
combination of foods and to research this area fully. However, in my
experience the onset of the condition is indeed related to stress. It
is actually the persons habitual way of responding to stress that eventually
begins to create an adverse reaction in the gut. The condition signals
this fact after a long period of time, probably most of the person's
adult life, when finally the adverse response to stress has grown so
strong that any sustained pressure above and beyond normal will cause
an extreme response which manifests in the gut. It manifests in this
way because the person has never really allowed the whole process by
which they relate to stress to come fully into conscious awareness.
The result is that it appears in the body in a way which so obviously
says not that there's something wrong with the gut itself but there's
something wrong with the way the person is dealing with self in relation
to problems thats hurting them, They are not acknowledging this and
as a result, it's manifesting in the gut. In fact this process has been
going on much longer than the symptons themselves.
One of the most important things we do in a session for I.B.S is to
bring the feelings and thoughts and beliefs that are behind the stress
response very strongly into the persons conscious awareness and to discern
why they are hurting the person. This is to do with beliefs feelings
and emotions that prepare the person for a potential disaster or catastrophe
in situations where no such threat is present. For example John has
got a job managing a team for an international advertising agency. He
has considerable skill in this area which he has demonstrated in previous
jobs. In his new job, he has a much bigger team to head and is working
with international branches worldwide. He finds that he really is in
unfamiliar territory and is having to feel his way into his new role.
Every body is giving him good feedback about his performance. Despite
this he feels that he is floundering and is experiencing so much anxiety
about the performance that everybody approves of, that I.B.S symptons
appear. The level of anxiety that he experiences means that at a gut
level he doesn't believe the feedback. This is because he actually believes
something different about himself - i.e. he believes that he is inadequate.
This is a core belief that has been built up from childhood even though
it is not supported by his actual experience. Believing this means that
he feels he has to put a stratospheric level of effort into his role
and he really feels that he needs to have his hands on the whole operation,
not just the steering wheel, all the time even at 2 in the morning when
he wakes up thinking about emails he has to send and goes on the computer.
Because of this belief he feels that the higher profile he now has means
that he has to be on guard the whole time to ensure that the image he
gives of being super competent never cracks, as that would expose what
he feels is the real him, the not good enough one. He has to be in control
of everything all the time. So his life has become one roller coaster
of anxiety. His gut starts to express this. It's not that he needs to
take medication to suppress these symptons or that they shouldn't be
there and should somehow be got rid of. It's that he's being asked by
his body to look directly at what he is doing internally and change.
The symptons need to be owned rather than seen as some alien invader.
Accepted, because the strong averse reaction only causes the focus on
the symptons to increase and actually pulls the person more strongly
into the destructive belief that is generating the whole cycle of negative
responses which have become automatic.
The direct suggestions in hypnosis are aimed at disidentifying with
the old emotions. In fact using them as a trigger for a relaxation response
so that when symptons appear there is no fight or flight reaction, instead
they are simply acknowledged along with the old reactions, but there
is an immediate release into a deep alert relaxation which the person
begins to consciously cultivate over time. So the process involves a
change in perspective that takes the top heavy focus off the symptons
and shifts into releasing the flow of energy rather than connecting
it very strongly into a negative, catastrophizing, panicked response.
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