Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a rare but painful condition, one you may never have heard of. It is pain that develops in the arms or legs after a health challenge like an injury, surgery, heart attack, or stroke. Its cause is unknown, and there is no known cure. Besides the constant pain, which may last a lifetime, CRPS is considered a gateway illness, meaning that it may lead to serious even life-threatening problems, such as autoimmune diseases. Beyond the constant pain, CRPS can produce the expected stress, anxiety, and depression for its sufferers.
A hypnotherapist will require a formal medical diagnosis of CRPS before considering therapy, but hypnotherapy in conjunction with other medical care, such as physical therapy, has been scientifically proven to reduce symptoms, and in some cases, even achieve remission of CRPS.
Hypnotherapy allows a sufferers’ Middle Mind to do its magic – reprogramming the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS is the part of the central nervous system that handles actions we do not have to think about, such as stimulating digestion, checking levels of sugar in the blood, and regulating all internal organs. The ANS network can, when operating properly, use pain to warn us of issues that need our attention. With CRPS, the pain is generating either an incorrect signal or one that cannot be interpreted, leaving the patient in agony. The hypnotherapist, through hypnosis, is able to help the client take new information in the proper form to the Middle Mind in a way that allows the mind to reprogram the ANS, offering some relief.
Of course, with this relief comes the additional benefit of less anxiety and stress, similar to what we noted with phantom pain and fibromyalgia.