How to Stop Smoking « advancedhypnosis.org.uk Blog

How to Stop Smoking

How to Quit smoking

If you are a smoker you will know only too well that what was once a social habit is now an anti-social one. Where it was once frowned on by anti-smokers it is now frowned on by everyone, even other smokers! If there was ever going to be more reason to quit other than for the myriad of health and financial reasons then this is it, it has become an ’evil’ in our society now and smokers have never been so pitied and scorned.

Giving up smoking is not easy. I know I was a smoker years ago, I thought I loved smoking I thought I enjoyed it, it was my friend when I was down, stressed, bored, happy… Come to think of it, pretty much every other feeling and emotion you can have is a good time for a smoke when you are addicted to nicotine! It is not the circumstance that makes you want to smoke a cigarette it is the need to top up your nicotine levels which constantly decrease when you are not smoking. When you do give up you realise the idea of enjoying smoking is actually a trick of the addiction. You only enjoy the cigarette you are smoking because it is alleviating your desire, your yearning, your craving. It is topping you up and as the levels drop gradually you will need another cigarette to top you up yet again. It is a pattern that feeds upon itself. There is no real intrinsic enjoyment in smoking in itself. The only escape from this vicious circle is to stop smoking.

There are different types of smokers. Some only smoke as a habit rather than compulsively and for those lucky people giving up will not be nearly so hard….but it will still be hard! Compulsive smokers need their cigarettes and the psychological addiction is strong, well grounded and hard to eradicate. Giving up smoking is possible for everyone, for some it will be easier for others, harder. Much of the experience will rely upon the choices of the individual, the method of quitting, the life circumstances and the strength of the addiction.

There are many ways to stop smoking but there is no foolproof quitting method that works 100% there are pros and cons to all methods. The old fashioned ‘cold turkey’ method of just stopping with no support methods has a very low success rate. Many try over and over and get nowhere and this can ultimately become unusable as a method of quitting when there have been repeated failed attempts.

Smoking cessation products such as nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) has success rates of around 16% at one year. One of the problems of this method is that you do not experience a clean release from cigarettes and nicotine as you are still taking in the nicotine. It is expensive, there are side effects including insomnia, vivid dreams and more. Additionally with these methods once you feel able to face giving up the nicotine replacements patches you will feel some withdrawl – its like giving up twice! Personally I do not recommend nicotine replacement products.

Prescription drugs are available which remove the desire to smoke. The medication usually takes around two weeks to kick in. With this method again there are side-effects, and again you have a two stage quitting process where you have to come off the medication usually around 2 months after quitting cigarettes. Success rates are higher for these treatments but many people do not want to take medicines for this purpose.

As a Hypnotherapist I see many smokers, it is one of the areas I specialise in. As an ex-smoker myself I can understand and empathise with smokers. Hypnosis is a gentle method where no adverse reaction will be experienced. Cravings can be reduced and even eliminated. The desire to smoke is reduced significantly. Results vary from person to person, but for those serious about quitting hypnosis with NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) can be the effective method of quitting. For more information please visit www.advancedhypnosis.org.uk

After successfully quitting smoking, it is important to avoid potential relapse, you do not want to end up back on the cigarettes again . Often there is a temptation to have just one perhaps a week or two after successfully quitting, after all, now you’ve quit there’s no harm in it, you wont get hooked again you are in control. Of course the nicotine re awakens the desire again and one cigarette becomes two becomes three and you are back on 20 a day before you know what happened! Newbie ex-smokers beware! Never be tempted to have a taste of it again, it is highly addictive and you are susceptible to that addiction. There will be times when you will be tempted but you must resist, see it as a constant battle with you winning each time and getting stronger, flexing your non-smoker muscles in the face of filthy cigarette addiction.

Many people worry that giving up smoking will result in weight gain, many will put off quitting smoking for fear of gaining weight. This need not be a problem for two reasons, one exercise is an excellent aid in quitting smoking encouraging the body to regain a health balance and two, simply by choosing not to replace smoking with eating will result in little or no change in your weight. Indeed, eating snack is no substitute for smoking and will have no effect on your cravings, sipping water or taking deep breaths will be just as effective if not more effective in alleviating cravings. There is no reason to gain weight when giving up smoking, but if this is a fear for you and you are quitting smoking through hypnosis then you can ask your Hypnotherapist to put in some suggestions for you to ensure you have no desire to eat as a substitute to smoking.

The motivation to quit is entirely individual, it may be social pressures, worries about the ever increasing financial burden of being a smoker, many smokers fear illness and consequently have a fear of death through smoking related illness such as cancer. Whatever your reasons you motivation will push you towards your goal to become a permanent non-smoker.

Getting free of cigarettes is hard and you must accept that and have the courage to do it anyway. Quitting smoking is worth the effort though and you will look back in a few short weeks and feel so proud of yourself and so much more confident about yourself, it may be one of the best decisions you ever made.

Make a list of all the benefits of quitting smoking. Decide which support method you will use. Decide the date you will stop. Set a date to stop smoking, quit smoking and congratulate yourself on making one of the best decisions in your life.