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Bruxism
Teeth grinding (bruxism, jaw grinding) usually happens at night during sleep. It can be loud enough to disturb other people sleeping in the same room, but the person doing it will probably be completely unaware of it. The telltale signs that you have been grinding your teeth while asleep are a sore, aching or clicking jaw, headaches, tender teeth and uneven wear on the teeth.
If it persists, serious teeth grinding can lead to dental problems such as wearing down tooth enamel and cracking, breaking or loosening the teeth or gum disease.
Sometimes there is a physical cause, such as a jaw disorder, an uneven bite or mal-occlusion, where the upper and lower teeth don't fit together properly. It is recommended to consult a dentist initially.
But bruxism is also often caused by stress and emotional problems. People are more likely to grind their teeth when they are under pressure, for example during exams.
Hypnosis can help you to relax, even sort out the cause of your stresses and help you develop positive strategies for coping with the pressures of life. It works with your unconscious mind, where these unconscious habits are perpetuated.
Nail biting
Nail biting is a common bad habit. It often starts in childhood and become so severe that the nails are constantly bitten down to the quick, causing pain, bleeding and often embarrassment.
Whatever the original reason was for biting the nails, the habit continues for many adults and is made worse by stress and anxiety. It is an unconscious habit and nail biters often don't even realise when they are doing it.
Because hypnotherapy can help you cope with anxious situations and those stress triggers in a different way, it allows your unconscious mind to stop the habitual nail biting.
Smoking
Smoking, like
nail biting and other habits, can be helped by hypnotherapy. The available evidence for the effectiveness of treatments for stopping smoking show that hypnotherapy is at least as good as other methods and probably a lot better.
Smoking is usually treated in one long-ish session. But this depends on whether you really have decided for yourself that you're going to stop. Nothing, hypnosis included, can make you stop to comply with someone else's agenda (such as your mum, your partner or the law).
It also depends on why you still smoke in the first place. For example, if it's to control your weight, or to cope with anxiety, then these issues have to be dealt with first. Then a course of hypnotherapy sessions (at the normal rate) will be more appropriate.
On the plus side, hypnotherapy is free from the side effects of drugs, such as varenicline, the latest on offer for smokers. Varenicline side effects include:
Nausea, Headache, Difficulty sleeping, Abnormal dreams, Sleepiness, Dizziness, Change in taste, Dry mouth, Disturbances of the gut such as constipation, diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal discomfort, indigestion, flatulence, Changes in appetite, Airway infections, Mood swings, Changes in sex drive, Tremor, Restlessness, Palpitations, Skin reactions such as rash or itching, Increased urination, Chest pain, Increased blood pressure.
It might make you feel dizzy or sleepy and could impair your ability to do things like driving or operating machinery.
When you stop taking it (for 3 to 6 months) your urge to smoke may return. Also, you may feel irritable, depressed and not be able to sleep.
It is probably more unsafe with decreased kidney function, epilepsy and a history of psychiatric illness including depression.
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