All of us know people who spend way too much time watching television, to the detriment of other activities like exercise, family conversation or intellectual pursuits. We joke about this and call them “couch potatoes,” but the phenomenon is serious. This article explains that television has the same effect on the mind as a drug: “Within moments of sitting down or lying down and pushing the ‘power’ button, viewers report feeling more relaxed. Because the relaxation occurs quickly, people are conditioned to associate viewing with rest and lack of tension. The association is positively reinforced because viewers remain relaxed throughout viewing, and it is negatively reinforced via the stress and dysphoric rumination that occurs once the screen goes blank again. Habit forming drugs work in similar ways.” (Ibid.)

The theories for why television is addictive vary. A psychology professor from Manchester University in England, states that TV is addictive because it presents both visual and audio stimulation simultaneously. “Television is such an effective medium because it provides a form of communication firmly embedded in our evolutionary past, the brain has after all clearly evolved to deal with speech in the context of the spontaneous images created by the human hand,” he states. (Beattie, 2002)

Regardless of what the cause of the addiction is, the results are very serious. As the Doctor’s Book of Home Remedies For Children  states, “Many studies have shown [that] children who watch a lot of television are fatter and less fit and have higher cholesterol levels than kids who watch less. Some experts think excessive tube-watching may even foster a more accepting attitude towards violence and promote aggressive behavior.” (Rodale, 1990)

The irony about television addiction is that TV creates a brain state similar to hypnosis, but with negative effects. In the book Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, people who watched excessive amounts of television described themselves as hypnotized, brainwashed, spaced out or mesmerized. (Mander, 1977) This fact is ironic because hypnosis is one of the best ways to combat television addiction.

An article on msnbc.com explains how hypnotherapy is able to circumvent bad habits like excessive television watching: “If someone makes [a] suggestion when you’re under hypnosis, it sneaks past your rational mind and into the part of the brain that influences action….Researchers at Weil Cornell Medical College in New York City found…that [during hypnosis] the part of the brain that would normally kick in to resolve conflict wasn’t active at all—hypnosis actually changed the way the subjects’ brains functioned.” (Harris, 2008)

An article in the Albuquerque Journal explains how hypnosis accomplishes this: “Hypnosis, which is a blending of relaxation, intense concentration, and positive visual suggestions, or guided imagery, can often help people get their bodies to operate in ways outside of their conscious control.” (Olmstead, 2005) A hypnosis suggestion could treat TV addiction by suggesting another positive behavior for the subject to indulge in apart from watching TV, or changing the emotional state that TV induces (substituting boredom for relaxation), or improving the underlying causes for the excessive television watching (treating anxiety or depression). In reality, successful hypnotherapy will probably employ all three methods.