You Can Stop Smoking

For most people, the absolute worst way to attempt to deal with a smoking habit is through the use of willpower. Like moods and emotions, willpower fluctuates. One day, it is strong. The next day, may be a down day, and willpower fades. It is usually neither consistent nor effective.

Among stop smoking procedures, there are countless methods, programs, substitute products, pills, chewing gums, self-help tapes, and books, etc. Many are designed to help build up the personal power to resist or overcome the addiction. Hypnotherapy does not work at achieving the strength to resist. It is designed to eliminate the desire. Instead of giving up something that a person enjoys (a sacrifice), the individual's goal is to be rid of something that isn't wanted, a much more agreeable position, psychologically.

There are two principle reasons for smoking: Identification and replacement. Identification is a situation in which a smoker indulges in the habit because others whom he admires do so, parents, peers, entertainment or sports figures, etc. Identification smoking is the most common, and the easiest to eliminate.

Replacement smoking occurs when smoking is used to replace some deficit in life, lack of companionship, love, acceptance, self-esteem, security, independence, etc., or to replace some pre-existing habit, such as overeating, reaction to anxiety, or boredom, etc. Replacement smokers often derive sensual gratification from smoking. They enjoy touching or feeling the cigarettes, tapping the pack, seeing the flame of the lighter or the curling of rising smoke, or the smell of the burning tobacco. Often, the lighting of the cigarette (or cigar, or pipe), in itself, becomes a ritual. Replacement smoking is quite often a true and severe addiction.

Since smoking is both physical and mental, success in a stop smoking effort must change not only the mental attitude, but the physical reaction. Through hypnosis, it is possible to change the taste of a cigarette from pleasurable to unpleasurable. When this is accomplished, problems often related to the cessation of smoking tend to be avoided. Castor Oil (or other bad-tasting medicine) may serve as an example. When a person gives up the ingestion of Castor Oil, there are no withdrawal symptoms, and there is no need to compensate for the lack of the medicine through overeating, sucking hard candies, etc.

In some case, a gradual reduction in the number of cigarettes smoked proves successful. Of many procedures available, the hypnotherapist will select that which is most appropriate for the individual client. In some cases, effective cessation of smoking can be achieved in a single session.

Individual sessions have the advantage of being adjustable to deal with the causes of the habit, the gratifications provided, the characteristics of the clients, and similar matters not fitting group work.

It's important to determine just what personal need is satisfied by smoking. Some smokers seek to fill a need to nurture themselves, lessen loneliness, or get a pick up at the start of, or during the day. Others feel smoking will relieve stress, or provide moments of relaxation. Still more feel cigarette smoking makes social contacts more comfortable. The problem is, that a habit adopted to meet a special need often proves destructive, eliminating the need by destroying the smoker.

The risks entailed in smoking have been stressed and analyzed for years. The aversion techniques of psychotherapy when utilized in hypnotherapeutic applications can produce dramatic results. Data on why, when, and where smoking is indulged can reveal information helpful in planning stop smoking strategy.

One of the most powerful attributes of the human psyche is the visualization ability. Many hypnotherapists working with many types of problems, program clients to accept the belief that what the mind can conceive, you can achieve. This concept is common in fields of meditation, positive thinking, spiritual faith, and others.

Hypnotherapy can help develop and focus the powers of visualization, and since visualization is frequently undeveloped in clients, and since it can be learned, hypnotherapy can serve as a teaching modality.

In stop smoking programs, the ability to visualize one's self as a non-smoker, free from past effects of the habit, filled with new health, energy, and vitality, is a major asset. Visualization enables a client to picture in the mind cigarettes as unappealing, bad tasting, foul-smelling, and otherwise, revolting. Likewise, it's possible to picture an otherwise sense of clean breath, healthy appearance, and sensitive taste.

Through visualization, a smoker can see himself/herself as looking healthier, more active, in better physical condition, with easier breathing, stronger lungs, and similar advantages. Through hypnotherapy, senses of sight, touch, smell, hearing and taste all can be enhanced and used to modify reactions as necessary to achieve goals.

Once a smoker has achieved success in a stop smoking program, it is necessary to reinforce the programming that led to the cessation of the practice. Smoking habits are required over a long period of time. Even though the smoker may have ceased smoking, the habit is likely to still be active. But, like most activities, if not used, it tends to fade and disappear.

© 1999 National Guild of Hypnotists, Merrimack, NH 03054

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