Suffering from Chronic Headaches for Years Due to Self-Suggestion — Pain Disappeared After Therapeutic Self-Hypnosis

There are pains that do not begin solely in the body. There are pains nurtured by fear, anticipation, habitual thinking patterns, and words repeated unconsciously.

Ms. Doan Thi Dung, from Dinh Cong, Hoang Mai District, Hanoi, suffered from headaches for 10 years. She sought treatment in many places, but her condition did not improve. Therefore, whenever she had to travel far, go on outings, socialize, or work somewhere outside her familiar zone, she was often very afraid that the headache would appear.

What is remarkable is that she noticed a very strange phenomenon: whenever she did not want to go somewhere and said she "had a headache," later her head would actually hurt. Or, whenever she couldn't nap for a bit at noon, she would worry that she would get a headache, and then the pain would indeed appear.

Initially, she thought she might have the ability to foresee what would happen. But after attending the "Igniting a New Vitality" course, she began to understand that this fear and the repetitive words might have become a form of self-suggestion affecting her body.

The brain doesn't distinguish between a joke and an emotional command

A very important principle in hypnosis and applied psychology is: the brain responds strongly to images, emotions, and beliefs that are repeated.

When a person repeatedly says:

- "I have a headache."

- "I'm about to get a headache."

- "If I don't sleep at noon, I'll definitely get a headache."

- "If I go far, I'll get a headache."

These are not just fleeting words. When accompanied by the emotion of fear, they can become signals recorded by the nervous system as a response program.

Over time, the brain learns a connection:

Going far → worry → headache.

Not napping → worry → headache.

Not wanting to socialize → say "headache" → body creates a real pain sensation.

The more this loop repeats over the years, the more the boundary between "I'm afraid of pain" and "I'm in pain" blurs. The body begins to react according to what the mind has predicted.

What is autosuggestion?

Autosuggestion is a process where a person, either unintentionally or deliberately, implants a belief, image, feeling, or expectation into their own mind, causing the body and behavior to gradually respond in that direction.

Autosuggestion can be negative or positive.

If a person constantly tells themselves they are weak, prone to illness, will definitely be in pain, or cannot tolerate it, the body may become more sensitive to uncomfortable signals.

Conversely, if they know how to use suggestion correctly, they can help their nervous system shift to a calmer, more stable state, less swept away by fear.

In Ms. Dung's case, when she understood that her years of headaches were related to the mechanism of autosuggestion, she began to use reverse suggestion on herself and stopped paying excessive attention to the fear of headaches.

As a result, even when she didn't nap at noon, she could still socialize and chat with people without the previous discomfort. When she returned home in the evening, she slept well.

Pain can be maintained by memory and prediction

The human body does not only react to the present. It also reacts to memory and predictions of the future.

If for many years a person has become accustomed to experiencing headaches in certain situations, the nervous system can record those situations as "triggers."

When a similar circumstance appears, the brain doesn't wait for the actual pain to occur to react. It can predict, warn in advance, and create corresponding bodily sensations.

Therefore, sometimes the problem is not just the pain itself, but the entire structure surrounding the pain:

- Memories of previous pain episodes

- Fear of the pain returning

- The belief that one is prone to headaches

- The habit of using headaches as a reason to avoid

- Excessive attention to sensations in the head

- A stress response whenever one thinks they are about to get a headache

When this structure remains intact, the pain may continue to recur. When this structure is dismantled, the body has an opportunity to return to a lighter state.

Therapeutic self-hypnosis helps change the inner loop

Self-hypnosis is not something mystical. It is the ability to bring oneself into a state of deep focus, greater relaxation, and increased receptivity to positive suggestions.

In that state, practitioners can learn to:

- Recognize which words are creating negative suggestions

- Stop nurturing old fears

- Separate present sensations from past pain memories

- Introduce new, more beneficial suggestions into the mind

- Help the body re-experience safety

When Ms. Dung understood that "the brain doesn't play jokes" and that every word accompanied by emotion can become a real signal to the body, she changed her speech, thinking, and reactions to herself.

This was a crucial turning point: instead of continuing to fear the pain, she began to withdraw energy from the pain-creating loop.

When a symptom is the tip of a deeper structure

A headache lasting many years can make people focus only on the symptom. But in many cases, the symptom is just the tip of the iceberg.

Beneath it can be many layers:

- Speech layer: Frequently saying "I have a headache"

- Belief layer: Believing that one is very prone to headaches

- Emotional layer: Fear of going far, socializing, or missing sleep

- Behavioral layer: Avoiding activities using the excuse of a headache

- Body layer: Tension, fatigue, real pain responses

- Maintenance layer: Pain causes more fear; more fear makes pain easier to trigger

If only the tip is addressed, the loop may return. But when one recognizes the autosuggestion mechanism at work, the person can begin to change from the root: change the signals sent to the brain, change the emotions accompanying the words, change the beliefs about the body.

The value of real experience

Ms. Doan Thi Dung's story is valuable because it shows a very important truth: humans can unconsciously create suffering for themselves through repetitive mental programs, but they can also learn to dismantle them through understanding and correct practice.

This is not about "imagination." For the person involved, the pain is real, the discomfort is real, the years of fatigue are real. And the change after understanding the autosuggestion mechanism is also a real experience.

When a person realizes they are no longer controlled by the pain as before, it is not just symptom reduction. It is a change in inner agency.

Conclusion

Ms. Doan Thi Dung's case demonstrates the immense power of suggestion on the human body. For many years, her words, worries, and anticipation of pain unintentionally became signals causing her body to respond with real headaches.

After understanding the operating principles of the brain and practicing therapeutic self-hypnosis, she learned to use reverse suggestion, stopped nurturing the fear of headaches, and her body changed in a positive direction.

This story is a powerful testament that words, beliefs, and emotions are not meaningless. They can become a burden on the body, but they can also become the key to unlocking relief, freedom, and the capacity for inner self-healing.

Under the Vietnam Federation of UNESCO Associations, the center trains special methods to improve health, prevent and support treatment of physical and mental issues, and provides training in learning methods, thinking, and applied psychology for communication, business, negotiation, and sales.

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