How Can Hypnotherapy Help With Sugar Addiction?

Sugar is a highly addictive drug, some studies have even found it to be more addictive than cocaine. Sugar affects your brain in a similar way to other highly addictive drugs by activating the opioid receptors, it also causes  the release of serotonin and dopamine. The more sugar you consume the more sugar you need, your brain will quickly become dependent on sugar to function. Sugar withdrawal can cause headaches, anxiety, insomnia, depressed mood, dizziness, trouble concentrating, fatigue and nausea.  

Sugar is hard to avoid especially when buying ready made or processed foods, it makes things taste better. Conspiracy theorists might say food manufacturers know how addictive sugar is and so slip it in as much as possible to keep you coming back. Pasta sauces, cereals, ketchup, yoghurt, salad dressing, drinks, tea, dried and canned fruits are foods you might expect to be healthy but are in fact surprisingly high in sugar.  

Why Should You Avoid Sugar? 

You might want to overcome sugar addiction because you don’t like the idea of being controlled by a highly addictive substance. That’s a great reason but a better reason is the health effects of sugar consumption. Sugar is known to cause high blood pressure, weight gain, fatty liver disease and diabetes. Sugar increases risk of stroke and heart attack. Sugar decreases cognitive performance and a lot of research associates it with dementia. 

Sugar feeds cancer cells, your body converts all carbohydrates into another type of sugar called glucose. Cancer cells use glucose to grow, cancer cells use 200 times more glucose than any other cell in your body. 

Cutting sugar out of your diet might mean you have to buy whole foods and cook more but it will be worth it. You will not only reduce your risk of all the above health issues, you will also be able to maintain a healthy weight, have more stable energy levels, improved mood, improved mental health, have healthier teeth and better skin. Some people even report skin conditions like eczema completely clearing up when they cut sugar out of their diet. 

How Can Hypnotherapy Help You Overcome Sugar Addiction? 

Hypnotherapy can be very helpful for people suffering with addiction issues including sugar addiction. An experienced hypnotherapist will be able to help by addressing both the conscious and subconscious aspects of the habit. Below are details of how hypnotherapy can help you overcome sugar addiction.

Identifying Triggers: Hypnotherapy can help individuals explore and identify the emotional and situational triggers that lead to sugar cravings, allowing for better awareness and management of these triggers.

Breaking Patterns Developed In Childhood - Childhood often creates negative unconscious patterns and impulse control issues. A dysfunctional childhood will cause a child to develop toxic shame, to suppress toxic shame a child will learn to either act in or out. Acting in may cause a person to self harm or develop addiction issues. The use of hypnosis makes inner child work highly effective. 

Changing Thought Patterns: Through suggestion and visualisation techniques, hypnotherapy can help reframe negative associations with sugar and promote a healthier mindset towards food. Hypnosis make visualisation very easy, the more a person visualises theirself they way they want to be they will start to become that person. 

Reducing Cravings: Hypnotherapy can help to increase mindfulness, becoming more mindful will diminish the intensity of sugar cravings by reinforcing a person's ability to resist them, making it easier to choose healthier options.

Improving Self-Control: Through mindfulness and visualisation hypnotherapy can enhance willpower and self-discipline, empowering individuals to make healthier choices and adhere to dietary changes.

Building Motivation: Hypnotherapy can strengthen an individual’s motivation to adopt a healthier lifestyle, encouraging them to focus on the benefits of reducing sugar intake.

Stress Management: Hypnosis can be a very relaxing state, the more a person takes time to relax the easier it becomes to relax. Since many people turn to sugar as a coping mechanism for stress and other negative emotions, hypnotherapy can teach relaxation techniques and healthier coping strategies.

Promoting Healthy Habits: It can help instil new, positive habits and routines that replace the old behaviours associated with sugar consumption.

Developing New Associations: Hypnosis can help create positive associations with healthy foods and negative ones with excessive sugar.

Improve Self Esteem: Hypnosis, inner child healing hypnosis in particular can be very effective in helping a person increase self esteem. By promoting a more positive self-image, hypnotherapy may reduce the need for sugar as emotional comfort.

Overall, hypnotherapy offers a supportive approach that addresses both the psychological and behavioural aspects of sugar addiction,