Dangers of Hypnosis (Don’t Abuse It)

Hypnosis is a great way of improving your overall health, but there are some drawbacks that can hinder your progress.


Hypnosis is a great way to benefit your life. It allows positive suggestions to enter into your subconscious mind and change your life. It has many benefits from helping with anxiety and depression, changing old thought patterns, overcoming phobias and addictions, among others. But, there is a negative aspect to it that we may overlook, especially if we do hypnosis regularly.

Young woman during hypnosis session in psychologist's office
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While hypnosis is safe and highly effective for many people, one of the drawbacks for some individuals is the inability to be hypnotized. Some people aren’t very suggestible and thus have a hard time with hypnosis and will often become frustrated and angry that it’s not working. Likewise, someone who is hypnotizable, who has given their subconscious mind plenty of positive suggestions may also run into a roadblock where their suggestions didn’t hold or work, causing them to feel frustrated and doubtful.

If hypnosis does work on an individual, dependency may be an issue. It’s possible that some people use hypnosis as a coping mechanism and become so dependent on it that it interferes with their day to day life. They may forget basic ways of dealing with stress that they have a hard time living a productive life as a result, and rely on hypnosis to fix them. As a result, they abuse hypnosis and will over do it, resulting in negative experiences.

With hypnosis, you can never do anything against your will. There always has to be an agreement before a suggestion is accepted. However, just as you could give yourself positive suggestions, you could also give yourself negative suggestions as you accept them as true. We’ve all actually done this. Think about times you’ve told yourself that you will never win, succeed, or accomplish something. You are giving yourself a suggestion as you truly believe it to be true. This changes your mind to accept the suggestion you’ve given it.

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Another downside is that when hypnotized, you could give yourself a trigger that will cause you to do something when you encounter a particular word, sound, sight, smell, or touch. Imagine if whenever you heard someone snap their fingers it would make you hiccup. You thought it was fun, or maybe consumed online hypnotic audio recordings, and formed this trigger. So whenever someone snaps their fingers, you hiccup and what was once a fun game is now a terrible idea. So, give yourself positive triggers instead.

And finally, some individuals become so consumed by hypnosis that reality and fantasy begin to blur. Their real world and hypnotic state becomes harder to differentiate. While this is an extreme example of someone who has used hypnosis as a coping mechanism for a long time, in addition to having triggers, it may be hard for them to figure out what is and isn’t real.

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These are just some of the downsides of hypnosis, but the good news is that they are rare. Hypnosis is a safe process that can help you in so many ways. So, use it to your advantage and better yourself.

Let me know how this works for you. Have a great day!

Additional Info

Hypnosis has been one of the greatest tools I’ve used to overcome many of the obstacles in my life. The first time I used it was for public speaking. I was terrified of speaking in front of a crowd, but once I did the hypnosis recording, my anxiety diminished tremendously. I was actually able to stand up in front of the group of people and speak with more confidence. It helped with my transition from male to female, as well as find my true self. Overall it’s been a great thing. But, I know the limits of how far I want to take it and do not wish to abuse it.

Published:

Philosophy / Spirituality / RelaxationHypnosis

About the Author

Autumn Asphodel
My name is Autumn Asphodel (also known as Elle Stone) and I am a motivator and coach to help others live a better life through natural means, hard work, and dedication.

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