Stop Smoking For Good.net

Your One Stop Shop For All Your Quitting Smoking Questions and Problems

Home | About Me | FAQ | Contact Me | How To Quit Smoking Articles

Why Should I Use
Hypnotherapy To Stop Smoking?

Every year thousands of people try to stop smoking, but only a few succeed. And it will take most people using will power, patches or drugs an average of seven attempts before they manage to stop!

Statistics show that nicotine patches and gums etc. have a 16% success rate, and will power a 10% success rate.

But if you use hypnotherapy to stop smoking your chances of success are at least 40%!

And why is this? Well the main reason is that hypnotherapy deals with the psychological side of smoking, where as patches, pills and gums etc. only deal with the chemical aspects.

As you probably know, smoking is more than mere addiction alone. You have several smoking habits and psychological reliances that are a part of everything you do. If you really sit down and have a look at it you probably only need five or six cigarettes a day, yet you smoke more - a lot more!

So what causes you to smoke more?

Well first think about the cigarettes you had today. What was your morning routine like? What did you do on your way to work, on your break, when you were on the phone, when you had lunch, directly after your meal or coffee, in front of the TV? All of these times are likely to have involved a cigarette!

But there are more, do you have a bed time cigarette? Most smokers do. Have a think about what you do when your boss is on your back, the kids are running riot, you worry about money, you fall out with your partner and you get some bad news. These are all stressful situations and if you are like most smokers, each one of these will make you have a cigarette.

But don't stop yet, because there are more things that make you smoke! Do any of these situations make you want a cigarette?

You've got an important exam or interview, you're meeting your partner's parents for the first time, you're waiting for a friend on your own, you're going to meet a large number of new people, you're bored, you're going on a long haul flight or you're out with friends for a few drinks.

The fact is that nicotine addiction has much less to do with smoking than you believe! How many of the above situations are based on addiction? The answer is very few, if any at all. All these reasons for smoking are either habits or a psychological reliance that you have created.

You have a morning routine, you finish your meals and coffee with a cigarette and you rely on cigarettes to give you a confidence boost, relieve stress, cure boredom, make yourself feel better and make you feel better able to handle difficult situations.

This has nothing whatsoever to do with addiction! So isn't it obvious that a patch, gum or pill is going to fail completely in helping you to deal with these problems?!! Have a look at this quote:

"Hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking, according to the largest ever scientific comparison of ways of breaking the habit.
Willpower, it turns out, counts for very little."

Source: New Scientist, October 1992, Vol 136.

Well, first of all you should remember that smoking is more mental and psychological addiction that physical addiction.

If you have a real good look at the cigarettes you smoked today you will see that you really only needed a few, yet you smoked more. The rest of those cigarettes were down to habit and reliance - that is you relied on them to give you something. Confidence, composure, stress relief, dealing with emotions etc.

Unless you deal with your reasons for smoking, you are going to have a very, very difficult few weeks and months ahead of you. Why? Because a patch cannot help you with confidence, stress, your emotions or any of the other things you get from smoking.

So you can see why it takes most smokers using will power or patches seven attempts! That's six attempts that are stressful, panicky, agonizing, annoying and devastating to your self confidence!

When you use hypnotherapy to stop smoking you are going change the way you look at cigarettes and you are going to remove your reasons for smoking - habits and reliance. Patches and pills just can't do this!

One of the main reasons you are likely to relapse is because after you've stopped, you still think about cigarettes in the same way. If you've tried to stop in the past, how may times have you had these thoughts, or ones similar?

'I wish, I could have just one cigarette.'

'Oh, she looks like she's really enjoying that cigarette, I wish I could have just one drag, that would be sooooooo good.'

'I can't believe I can never have another cigarette again for the rest of my life.'

'How am I going to enjoy my life without cigarettes?'

'I'm so glad I've managed to quit, but I can't believe I'll never be able to have another cigarette.'

'I can't believe it's been 36 hours (or any amount of time) since I last had a cigarette.'

If you have had these thoughts or ones similar, you are making one crucial mistake that will no doubt be devastating to your attempt to stop smoking.

You are still focusing on cigarettes!

You are looking at them as the be all and end all of your life. By looking at cigarettes in this way you are telling yourself that you really need cigarettes, that you are punishing yourself by not smoking and you secretly really want a cigarette. How can this possibly lead to you stopping smoking? It can't!

So firstly when you use hypnotherapy to stop smoking, it helps you to change your focus away from cigarettes. It then helps you to channel your thoughts and desires elsewhere, for example, a new hobby, more time with your family or friends and gives you that confidence boost that tells you that you can do anything on your own.

Compare this to six failed attempts that destroy your self confidence and tell you subconsciously that you cannot live life without cigarettes and that no matter what you do - you just can't quit!

That is one of the main reasons why you should use hypnotherapy to stop smoking. You just cannot get self reliance, confidence, a change of focus and understanding of the problem from a patch!

Secondly when you use hypnotherapy to stop smoking you do what I believe to be one of if not the most important thing when you stop smoking - remove Your Reasons For Smoking / Smoking Triggers.

Hypnotherapy helps you to break your habits, enables you to once again rely on yourself rather than some leaves and paper to deal with difficult situations and stress, and hypnotherapy helps you to be happy as a non-smoker.

This last point is also crucial. "If you cannot be happy as a non-smoker, what is the point?! First of all you are going to be miserable with yourself and others and secondly you are likely to return to your 'happier' self and pick up smoking again.

Hypnosis helps you to see that you can be happy, much happier in fact, as a non-smoker that you ever could have been as a smoker. And this is extremely important to your success and in preventing a relapse.

The likelihood is that when you decided to stop smoking you anticipated a few problems. Namely: nicotine addiction and the withdrawal symptoms that follow. And you would have been unaware that stopping smoking is much, much more complicated than that - that's why it can be so difficult to stop!

1. You help to remove your fears / anxiety about stopping smoking

Mainly the fears that you will not be able to stop. that you will not be able to deal with life�s difficulties and the fear that you will never be able to enjoy your life again.

2. Preventing weight gain

When you stop smoking weight gain can seem an inevitability, but it's not. There are several reasons for weight gain ( I have discussed them in another article on this site! ) and hypnosis can help you to actively prevent it rather than deal with it, by helping you to once again get in touch with your appetite and helping you to only eat the right kinds of food that your body needs in the repair process.

3. Helps you to remove your initial reason(s) for smoking

When you started smoking, it was for a reason - to fit in, rebel, deal with a difficult problem, cover up an insecurity, impress a sibling or friend etc. And even though you may not think it that reason for smoking still exists, years down the line, deep in the back of your mind.

Hypnotherapy will help you remove this reason completely from your mind and reasons for smoking.

4. Put your conscious and subconscious minds back in touch

Many people believe that will power is the key stopping smoking, but I can tell you with utmost sincerity - this is a complete and utter myth and a huge mistake to make! As we have seen smoking is automatic most of the time - you smoke due to habits and reliance.

Your smoking is controlled by your subconscious mind - you don-t have to think -I-m stressed / bored / need a confidence boost so I-ll have a cigarette.- Now that just happens on its own.

But your will power is controlled by your conscious mind and can therefore have no effect on your ability to stop smoking! Will power is in a different part of the mind and both part of the mind don't usually work together without hypnosis!

When you use hypnotherapy to stop smoking you are combining your conscious mind's desire to stop smoking with your subconscious mind's ability and control.

5. Hypnosis helps prevent withdrawal symptoms

This part of stopping smoking is very important and can be overcome, once you know that withdrawal symptoms are more down to mental cues from your old habits and also the effect nicotine has on your blood sugar levels. Then the mind simply needs to be re-programmed to make a couple of small changes.

6. Preventing relapse

Relapse is caused by withdrawal symptoms, weight gain, longing for cigarettes, stress, force of habit and a negative mental attitude. Hypnotherapy proactively deals with these issues and prevents them from getting in your way - something a patch, gum , inhaler, lozenge or pill just can�t do!

It is especially effective and helpful to use hypnotherapy to stop smoking because it helps you look at life and cigarettes differently - after a hypnotherapy session - you will begin to start thinking 'cigarettes were a part of my past, but not my future.'

Where as other smoking cessation methods can leave you feeling depressed and as if you have punished yourself. But hypnosis helps to break up the smoking habit and addiction at its root - in your mind.

There are also a few other things that you can do to aid in the smoking cessation process. You can take vitamin and mineral supplements to give your body the food that he needs, further helping to prevent weight gain and withdrawal symptoms. You can find a new hobby to take your mind off thinking and focusing on cigarettes.

And you can drink plenty of fruit juices and water to flush nicotine out of your body, prevent withdrawal symptoms and also help to prevent weight gain.

Stopping smoking is a process. With hypnosis it can be done in under a month. You have been lighting up and have established routines over years, so it is unreasonable for you to expect that it can be done in a few hours or days or even a week.

There are many aspects to cover, from how you look at cigarettes, your mind set and approach to stopping smoking, preventing relapses and withdrawal symptoms, removing the smoking programme from your mind and replacing it with another one and very importantly ensuring that you go on to enjoy your life after cigarettes, rather than resenting it.

Nicotine patches, will power and drugs just cannot cover these aspects and many more, involved when stopping smoking.

If you are interested in learning more about using hypnotherapy to stop smoking click on the link below.

Daniel Fargher
Stop Smoking For Good

Click here to learn how to quit smoking with hypnosis in less than 28 Days - All Completely Risk Free!

Home | About Me | FAQ | |Contact Me | How To Quit Smoking With Hypnosis Blog
How To Quit Smoking Articles | Privacy Policy | Anti Spam Policy