Smoking is a harmful and addictive habit that affects millions of people around the world. We now know the dangers of cigarette smoking and smokers are urged to find ways to quit smoking for the benefit of their own health. This is not an easy task, as smokers begin at an early age. The average age of a new smoker is thirteen years old.
A habit formed at that age is not easily broken. Nicotine affects many parts of the body and it is hard to pull free without some help. Nicotine addiction is only one of many diseases which can be caused by smoking. Most smokers require some help on how to quit smoking and a variety of methods exist for this very purpose.
There are many reasons why people begin smoking and develop an addiction to cigarettes. The main reason that people start to smoke is peer pressure. Some young people believe smoking will make them seem more mature, and be popular with their peers. It also is forbidden which makes it all the more attractive to rebellious teenagers, hence the low starting age for many people. This young age makes quitting smoking more challenging in your later years.
Media can also have an impact on the decision to begin smoking. Smoking portrayed on television or in movies can lead someone to believe that smoking is a safe activity. Parents can wield the biggest influence over their children by setting a good example and not smoking, or quitting smoking. Parents who smoke are much more likely to have children who start smoking.
Smokers begin to crave nicotine, a drug within tobacco. Nicotine can affect your body and mind in many negative ways. Nicotine, once inhaled into the lungs reaches the brain in a matter of just eight seconds. Once there, nicotine affects your blood pressure and heart rate. Over time it can increase your bad cholesterol and cause the narrowing of your arteries. Nicotine in concentrated doses is a lethal poison, so you can imagine the effects on your body. Nicotine is also addictive and one of the reasons many smokers cannot quit smoking.
Smoking can affect your health on a variety of levels. Low stamina is one side effect of smoking. More serious smoking related diseases include emphysema and cancer. Strokes and heart disease are also closely linked to cigarette smoking. A person who quits smoking will dramatically reduce their risk of developing these diseases for every year they go without smoking.
The outcome of these medical conditions caused by smoking is grim. Lung cancer is almost always fatal unless caught very early and a full 80% of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking. Lung and heart disease can take years from your life unless you learn how to quit smoking. Emphysema cannot be cured but only managed, plus the damage to your lungs cannot be repaired. Stop smoking benefits include a longer life span and a better quality of life.
There are several different ways to quit smoking, and you must pick the best method for you as an individual. Nicotine patches and gums are designed to help you slowly withdraw from the nicotine addiction. Only about 10% of the people who use them quit smoking. Going cold turkey is another option and this works for up to 11% of the smokers who choose this option. Other frequently used methods to quit smoking include an herbal kit that can show you how to quit smoking. It has a success rate similar to that of nicotine patches and gums.
Hypnosis for smoking cessation is a popular and effective option for those who want to quit smoking without weight gain or withdrawal. Hypnotherapy has a high success rate with smokers who are trying to quit smoking. Quit smoking hypnosis might sound like an extreme solution but it delivers solid results up to 70% of the time. This success rate is many times that of other methods.
The reason hypnotherapy is so effective is that it while the addiction to nicotine makes up only about 10% of the cigarette smoking addiction, the emotional and mental aspects of the habit make up a full 90% of the smoking addiction. Hypnotherapy treats this aspect of the addiction.
In addition, 45% of the smoking behavior is caused by stress, and hypnosis has proven to be a safe and effective tool that can help reprogram the mind to divert away from stressful thoughts, and towards more positive and relaxing thoughts. In addition, the practice of hypnosis therapy incorporates a deep state of relaxation.
Another 45% of the smoking behavior is caused by conditioned responses. This occurs when smoking is associated with other activities and events at the unconscious level of mind. For example, if you smoke while watching TV, your unconscious will associate the image of a cigarette in your hand with the image of the TV. Every time you watch TV, your unconscious flashes an image of the cigarette in your hand, and you experience the compulsion to smoke.
Stop smoking hypnotherapy is regularly used to “extinguish” the conditioned responses by disassociating the unconscious links between cigarettes and TV, driving, coffee, working on your computer, or any other environment where an unconscious association has been created.
In summary: Although most smokers believe that their inability to quit smoking is due to their addiction to nicotine, in truth it’s the mental aspects of a smoking addiction that present the largest barriers. Hypnotherapy was accepted by the American Medical Association in 1958 as an effective tool for quitting smoking. Hypnosis for quitting smoking is the second most common use of hypnotherapy today.
While hourly rates for hypnotherapists continue to skyrocket, there are excellent self hypnosis programs on the market that can greatly reduce its cost. Since everyone is unique, there are no specific “magic” words or post-hypnotic suggestions that will work for everyone. So when choosing hypnosis CDs, look for programs that incorporate a broad variety of hypnotic and NLP techniques in a series of at least six or more sessions to enjoy the best possible outcome. In any case, the cost of the very best self hypnosis programs equates to much less than the amount that an average smoker spends each and every month on buying cigarettes.
Alan B. Densky, CH developed the Video Hypnosis stop smoking technology that helps smokers easily break the habit. He also created many ways to quit smoking using Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and NLP. Visit his Neuro-VISION self development hypnosis site for free hypnosis videos and MP3s.
– Alan Densky