Distorted Images: How Hypnosis Can Recapture Confidence and Self-Esteem

Eating disorders are common among young women in particular, but a new survey suggests that issues with food and appearance are not solely those of the teenage crowd.

In a recent story from the BBC News, a survey was conducted among approximately 2,000 women over the age of 40, revealing that 70 percent of the respondents had made “serious” attempts at dieting and 58 percent of them had developed “disordered” eating patterns such as skipping meals, using laxatives or diet pills. Furthermore, according to the British Association for Plastic Surgeons, plastic surgery procedures are up nearly 20 percent in a one-year period (15,019 procedures in 2004 compared to the 19,601 in 2005).

All of these things reflect on where our society is today. Not only is there a huge emphasis on physical appearance dictating our sense of happiness, but an urgent desire for quick fixes. A spokesman from the Eating Disorders Association spoke on the topic in an interview with BBC News.

“Quick fixes and pharmaceutical fixes are likely to lead to problems…We live in a society where undue emphasis is placed on body image and shape and many people fall into the trap of imagining that changing their weight or shape will solve other emotional problems in their lives.”

And this way of thinking is not immune from any age group, race or gender, as study after study reveals a majority of men and women, boys and girls, wishing they were thinner or more attractive.

Part of the problem stems from media images that have burned their way onto impressionable minds that appearance determines happiness. But as any psychologist will tell you, the problems usually start much earlier and at a much deeper level.

In order to understand one’s obsession with body image, you have to get an understanding first on when it all started, which often has something to do with the sufferer losing control of something in his or her life. The sufferer is under the false impression, as the spokesperson alluded to, that controlling body image will re-establish that sense of control that’s longed for.

Hypnosis sessions offer several tactics that can change this way of thinking (i.e. ego-strengthening, cognitive restructuring and reframing, general relaxation, guided imagery). Not only do these sessions get to the heart of when the issue started, but it reinstalls the sense of confidence that was in the patient at one time.

Confidence is a powerful thing. It exudes the kind of bravado that not only uplifts you but those around you. It becomes contagious. The more confident you are in yourself, the more insignificant media images become.

Hypnotherapy sessions can really be a great benefit to you or anyone you love whose confidence needs to be reinvigorated, for the sake of their health and their happiness.

Steve G. Jones, Clinical Hypnotherapist
http://www.betterlivingwithhypnosis.com/