Stop Smoking with Hypnosis
There are two fundamental problems when it comes to giving up smoking. First there is the problem of overcoming the physical addiction to nicotine and secondly there is the problem of breaking the habit of having a cigarette after dinner or first thing when you wake up.
Of course you know all this already, but let’s get to the bottom of the reasons why it can be so difficult to give up. When you give up something like television or your evening bowl of ice cream you only miss it at the time when you would usually have it. With cigarettes it’s a little different at yes, you do miss them when you would usually have one (with a morning cup of coffee, after each meal, whilst out walking the dog etc.) but then when you give up there’s the constant nagging craving that says ‘you haven’t had a nicotine hit in X hours, where is it?’. This craving doesn’t set itself a time and stays until you give in.
So what scientists reason is that you need to have the willpower to overcome the mental habit which allocates a certain time or situation to have a cigarette, and then you need the physical relief I.e. a hit of nicotine without smoking. This nicotine substitute usually comes in pill, gum or patch form, but this doesn’t stop the person being addicted to nicotine and if they’re tempted they’re very likely to start smoking again.
What hypnotherapy offers smokers is that mental relief from habit and a way to train the brain to not be addicted to nicotine all in one package.
The incredible thing about hypnosis is that it can treat physical problems as well as mental ones, so with nicotine addiction hypnosis is the ideal way to beat it. What’s more, hypnosis to help give up smoking allows the individual to do so painlessly and without having to deal with the cravings, whereas patched, gum and inhalers simply substitute the cigarette product, meaning that individual then has to go through nicotine withdrawal at a later stage. So how does it work?
Hypnotherapists use a combination of relaxation techniques and suggestive questions to bring an individual into an altered state of consciousness where they are fully awake, yet very concentrated on just one subject or issue. What this does is that it eradicates any confounding attitudes or irrational thoughts surrounding the issue such as ‘I’m scared of it’ or ‘I just can’t give it up’. It gives the person a subjective view of themselves as if they were someone else who doesn’t have this problem, looking at it.
Without all the interrupting thoughts and ideas, this is the ideal time to introduce new and much more helpful ideas such as ‘I am a strong enough person not to need this’ or ‘all I need to do to give up, is give up’. They are highly suggestible at this time, meaning that they will believe that the ideas are true and helpful. As they enter a normal state of consciousness these new attitudes stay with them and their lives can begin to change.