Can Hypnosis Help Me Quit Smoking?
Can Hypnosis Help Me Quit Smoking?
Can Hypnosis Help Me Quit Smoking?
Smokers are very often people moving in waves. At every end of December, start of January, I get new waves of smokers who want to become ex-smokers and who have heard something about "hypnosis being really effective to stop smoking". But, is it true?
The short answer is: Yes, it is true, hypnosis can help you quit smoking. I keep a statistic of the result I obtain. And I have about 80 % who have stopped smoking and who, after two years, still aren't smoking. Since my patients recommend me to new patients, I can easily keep my statistic updated. So yes. It works. The question is: How and why?
There are many possibilities and every hypnotist will have his method. I have developed mine over the years and came to a good result. However, even though my method is working, it doesn't mean that it is the only one working and that a therapist using another method will fail. On the contrary, I believe that one of the most important things is that the therapist trusts himself and his method. Only by doing that, he will be able to obtain a positive result with a patient. So take the following as one explanation, but not as the explanation.
First of all, the question to ask is: Why is it so difficult to quit smoking? Of course, there is a physical addiction, but this addiction is not the problem, in fact. The biggest problem is the psychological addiction. It is the fact that smokers believe they just need to take this cigarette. That if they don't have it, they will feel bad, they will feel withdrawal symptoms, they will become nervous, sweat a lot or experience other physical symptoms.
I don't believe it is a good idea to give the patient an aversion against cigarettes. Everybody will be able to overcome any repulsion if it is believed to be needed. In fact, for those of us who have smoked or who are smoking, we know perfectly well that the first cigarette was terrible (sometimes the many following cigarettes were just as terrible). We couldn't breathe, eyes crying, coughing, the head spinning around... Nevertheless, we became smokers. So of all people, a smoker knows perfectly well that he can overcome an aversion. If the smoker feels withdrawal symptoms, it is neither nausea nor other repulsive feelings that will stop him from taking a cigarette.
When I help someone to quit smoking, I work on two distinct areas at the same time. First, we work on different hypnotic techniques, so the patient learns self-hypnosis, how to use it and how to help himself. In fact, I give the patient the necessary tools to be able to live without the cigarette... and without me!
The second part is cognitive work. We work on the thoughts the patient has: What does he believe cigarette gives him? Why did he begin to smoke? Was it to prove he was independent? Is he independent now or dependent (of the cigarette)? We work on the patient's way of thinking.
Yes, it is disagreeable to have this urge to smoke and not to do it, but it is no catastrophe. He won't die or won't be sick not to smoke. However, the opposite is true. Together, we remove this irrational thought that he believes, he has to feel good, or that cigarette deprivation is terrible, and that he just can't stand these feelings. We work with the idea, that it is not necessarily a comfortable situation, but that it is not terrible in fact, and the fact that you are not able to take a cigarette when you want one is no big deal or no tragedy. You can live just fine without taking the next cigarette.
Besides this work, we focus a lot on the future: How he will feel good by being able to breathe, the money he will save, how his health will be better, his teeth, his skin and some pictures, we (the patient and I) will have worked out together. These are also the pictures and thought the patient will work under auto-hypnosis and that will help him through an eventual withdrawal symptoms.
Most patients I spoke with afterwards said almost the same thing: Either they totally forgot anything about cigarettes or the thought would cross their mind but just go away very quickly.
We generally worked together three or four sessions. I have made it in less, but I found out that the patients are generally more comfortable if it goes a bit slower.
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