Enduring the Unendurable: What Chronic Pain Teaches Us About the Mind

The Agony of Being Left Behind

In ancient Greek myth, the warrior Philoctetes was a man of strength, loyalty, and fate. On his way to the Trojan War with the other Greek heroes, he suffered a venomous snake bite. The wound festered and grew foul. Day after day, he cried out in pain. His companions, overwhelmed by the stench and sound of his suffering, made a devastating decision—they left him behind on a deserted island.

Philoctetes’ story has long been told as a tale of abandonment. But it also captures something deeper: what it feels like to live with chronic pain. The isolation. The disbelief of others. The way pain can strip away identity, leaving a person alone with their suffering.

Modern chronic pain sufferers may not be stranded on a literal island, but the emotional and social exile can feel just as real. Pain doesn’t simply hurt—it exhausts, isolates, and distorts one’s relationship with their own body. Tasks that once seemed effortless become monumental. Time stretches. Hope thins. And like Philoctetes, many are left to endure in silence, their experience invisible to the outside world.

Yet, there is a way to reach that island—not with ships or soldiers, but with a tool as ancient as storytelling itself: hypnosis.

Pain, Perception, and the Power of Hypnosis

Pain is not merely a physical sensation. It’s a complex experience shaped by the brain’s interpretation of signals from the body. We’ve all had moments when discomfort seemed to vanish during deep focus or emotional intensity. That’s not magic—it’s the brain filtering what to prioritize. Hypnosis builds on that very mechanism, helping people access an altered state of awareness where pain can be reshaped, reduced, or even removed.

This isn’t new-age mysticism—it’s documented history. In the mid-1800s, Scottish surgeon James Esdaile performed over 300 major surgeries in colonial India using only hypnosis as anesthesia. His patients—under trance—endured amputations, tumor removals, and deep incisions without chemical sedation. What’s more, their mortality rates were far lower than those who underwent surgery with conventional methods.

Today, hypnosis is still used in surgical prep and dental procedures. But perhaps its most remarkable—and underutilized—application is in chronic pain relief. From fibromyalgia to TMJ, endometriosis to migraines, hypnosis is being used to not just manage but rewire the pain response itself.

One widely used technique is called glove anesthesia. The client is guided into a trance and experiences deep numbness in one hand, like wearing an invisible glove. That sensation is then transferred to other areas of the body. For many, it’s a revelation—their first experience of agency over pain.

But hypnosis goes even further. For migraine sufferers, for example, the hypnotic state helps the body relax muscle tension and blood vessels, short-circuiting the spiral before it begins. Hypnosis lowers stress triggers, reframes fear around pain, and trains the brain to interrupt old, automatic responses.

The key difference? Pharmaceuticals dull pain. Hypnosis transforms it.

Reclaiming the Self Beyond Pain

The Mexican artist Frida Kahlo painted through agony. In her haunting self-portrait The Wounded Deer, she presents herself as an animal pierced by arrows—each a metaphor for injury, illness, surgery, and heartbreak. The deer stands in a barren forest beneath a stormy sky. Blood drips, but she doesn’t collapse. Her gaze is steady, even defiant.

Kahlo, who lived with disabling chronic pain following a traumatic accident and dozens of surgeries, captured what many pain sufferers know: pain is not just physical—it shapes identity, art, and one’s relationship to time and space. The arrows are cumulative, not singular. Pain lingers in memory, shadows anticipation, and alters mood. Over time, the self may become defined not by joy or passion, but by survival.

Yet, like Kahlo, we are not without tools of expression—or transformation. Hypnosis offers a path not just out of discomfort, but out of identification with suffering. It gives people back a sense of sovereignty over their own bodies and experiences. For some, a single session brings lasting relief. For others, it’s part of a broader journey toward healing.

Unlike medications, hypnosis carries no risk of addiction, no fog of sedation, no diminishing returns. It engages the most powerful organ we possess—the mind—in reshaping the way we experience the body.

Imagine:

• Turning down the intensity of pain like lowering the volume on a radio.

• Releasing emotional tension that worsens physical symptoms.

• Moving more freely, with confidence instead of caution.

• Rediscovering the activities and relationships that give life its color.

Pain may be part of your story. But it doesn’t have to be the whole narrative.

If you’re ready to explore how hypnosis can help you reclaim your comfort, confidence, and joy, it may be time to go deeper. The first step is waiting.