It is surprising to many people that allergies have a big-time psychological component. For example, take someone who is allergic to a certain flower, which causes him to develop asthma flare-ups. If he is shown this flower, encased in a glass vase so that he cannot inhale any of the flower particles to which he is allergic, he might still wheeze!
The same kind of reaction can occur in patients who are known to be allergic to particular foods. For example, let’s say someone is allergic to corn. If she is given corn to eat, she will develop stomachaches. She will also develop stomachaches if she swallows a capsule that she is told contains corn particles. However, some people who develop corn allergy symptoms will not develop a reaction if they swallow a capsule without knowledge that it contains corn, even if it does contain it.
Finally, a person who is allergic to cats is taught how to do hypnosis. While in hypnosis when this person is told that his skin will be scratched with needle tip dipped in cat dander, he will develop an allergic skin reaction (swelling and redness) even when the skin was scratched with water. On the other hand, if the person is told his skin will be scratched with water, he will not develop an allergic skin reaction even when the skin is scratched with cat dander.
What accounts for these “mysterious” allergic reactions? Classical conditioning. You may recall Dr. Pavlov’s experiments with dogs in 1905. In those experiments, Pavlov rang a bell, and then fed dinner to his dogs. The dogs would salivate before they ate in preparation for digesting their food. Pavlov then found that the dogs salivated as soon as the bell was rung, even before they were served their food, because they had learned that the bell means dinnertime. Importantly, the dogs continued to salivate after the bell was rung, even when dinner was not served. Thus, they had developed a conditioned response.
People in the examples above all have developed a conditioned response to their allergen (the substance that causes an allergy). The mere thought they were exposed to something that caused their allergies would lead them to develop symptoms, just like in the case of the boy who started me along the hypnosis road when he developed asthma symptoms after he imagined eating a cheeseburger. (See the blog published on January 4, 2021).
The situation becomes more complicated in situations wherein somebody has a true allergy, which is made worse with conditioning. For example, someone might be slightly allergic to a dog, but because of classical conditioning her allergic reaction might be large and may prevent her from being around dogs at all.
The good news is that with 1-2 sessions of hypnosis the classically conditioned response can be ended. In such a situation a person who is thought to have a significant allergy can “recover” almost completely after learning how to change their “allergic reaction” through hypnosis.
Hypnosis to help someone who might suffer from classically conditioned allergies can be treated by imagining going back to the time when the person’s body learned to react to the allergen. The memory of this event can be “rewritten” in hypnosis so that the person remains calm when the reaction first occurs, and this ensures that the conditioned response never developed. Guidance of a medical professional is important for this kind of work so that the “rewrite” does not affect an essential memory, such as that which encourages continuing to be mindful and careful about exposure to potentially harmful allergens.
I have helped many people overcome or reduce their allergies and/or asthma symptoms with this therapeutic approach!
Under the guidance of a medical professional, use of hypnosis can help improve the allergy symptoms of patients who have developed classical conditioning. Patients who develop allergy symptoms at the mere thought of their allergens likely will benefit from hypnosis.
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