Stopping Smoking

Just stop smoking! To non-smokers sounds so easy and yet it is one of the hardest things to do. I know - I smoked for years myself - starting at 12 years old. Despite what some may say, stopping smoking is also one of the more difficult things to do using hypnosis. Too often people are not prepared to work at it: "Fix Me!" They expect the Hypnotherapist to take away all the withdrawal symptoms and, for the majority of the population, this is a bit unreasonable! You can be helped, but deep down YOU have to be determined to stop.

Perhaps 1 in 10 of the general population is particularly easy to hypnotise. These people tend to do achieve good results relatively easily, no matter how good the therapist. They are the ones who tell their friends to go to "the such-and-such hypnotist in town because he stopped me in ONE SESSION!" The trouble is most of his or her friends who then try it find that it takes a lot more than one session. (They tend not to tell anyone that they've been to someone who guaranteed results, but it didn't work.)

Another aspect of smoking is that it satisfies a deep need for comfort in the same way as a baby feels safer sucking a dummy, or people bite their nails. It is an oral habit. For many people, it is important to address why they need this comfort, and this means looking at their past to find out what happened that can still cause problems now. This takes time.

Many clients expect to get a quick "blast" of hypnosis and ("Tada!") they're non-smokers. Many hypnotherapists out there (almost) guarantee that they will make you stop, often after only one session. This creates an unrealistic expectation as to how easy it is to stop with hypnosis. Whilst some people are very responsive to Hypnotherapy and may actually quit after one session, they will often start again after a few weeks. This is because nobody has tackled the reason why they couldn't stop by themselves. Whatever was going on in their minds is still there. For this reason, you are well advised to avoid any therapist who guarantees that you will stop smoking.

There is nothing rational about smoking! There is not one good reason to smoke, or not to stop. There are, however, scores of reasons not to smoke. You really don't need me to tell you again. If the need to smoke was coming from a rational part of your brain, you would stop in a heartbeat. There is no point in doctors banging on about why people should stop smoking by explaining what can go wrong! People know all this already. It may motivate them to want to stop, but it doesn't help to achieve it.

The need to smoke comes from the Unconscious Mind. This is the very secret, private part of your mind where all your feelings come from; all your memories; everything that's ever happened to you. This part of your mind is not rational. It doesn't respond to logical argument. (Consider the situation where you meet someone ... and you just don't like them. They don't feel right, somehow. There is no reason to dislike them - it just happens.) This feeling comes from somewhere. Something negative must have happened in the past: some event that is being triggered by something familiar. It could be the colour of the person's shoes, or the way he or she stands.

Another peculiar problem with the Unconscious Mind is that it doesn't really understand time. You feel feelings now! You're not hungry last year or next week - you're hungry now.

The trouble is, this same part of your mind also thinks that you need to smoke. It feels that something bad will happen if you don't keep having cigarettes. There is no logical reason for this either - again, it just happens.

The chances are that something happened, often in the dim and distant past, which created anxiety. If the event wasn't properly dealt with, it's still kind of "in the queue" to be dealt with - along with all the genuinely new stuff. In other words, traumatic events often remain stuck in the short-term memory. This means that the feelings of anxiety, fear, hurt, etc., feel as if they are in the present. Because the Unconscious doesn't understand what's happening, it associates the anxiety with the fact that you're not currently smoking.

It sounds weird - but there it is.