subject: Hypnosis As A Way To Quit Smoking [print this page] Hypnosis or Hypnotherapy is being promoted as the most effective way to quit smoking. Almost all of us think of Hypnosis as someboby on a stage barking like a dog whenever the hypnotist utters the secret phrase. This is not, by any means, an accurate depiction of true hypnosis. In reality it"s more a form of organized relaxation techniques that use the power of suggestion to retrain your thought processes. You don"t pass out and you"re always aware of what"s happening.
The reason hypnosis is an effective way to quit smoking is that it deals with the main reason that most of us who try to quit cold turkey fail: our habits and mental cravings. While your physical cravings usually go away after a week or less, your mental desire to smoke continues on for quite some time and we usually find our self in a situation like a funeral, a fight with our family or coworkers, or maybe a night of celebration with our friends where we can"t fight the desire to "light up".
If we can remove that mental desire to smoke, the physical addiction becomes easy to overcome. This is why hynotherapy is often cited as the easy way to quit smoking. Many people have been successful at quitting smoking with this method, the success rate being as high as 65% or more depending on where you get you data from while cold turkey usually only has a success rate of only 5-6%.
How does hypnosis work as away to quit smoking? Two ways: first it teaches your subconscious to relax without the aid of a cigarette and secondly it use behaviour modification to stop your subconscious mind from associating certain habits and situations with smoking. Most smokers light up as part of their daily routine, to the point that most of your friends could tell you in advance when you"re going to smoke today. With that morning coffee, one on the way to work, etc. Some things just don"t feel right without smoking.
Hypnosis works as a way to quit smoking because it breaks those habits and associated behaviour. Most subjects find themselves missing a habit smoke without even realizing it. Before they know it they"re no longer smoking at all without even missing it.
Why Stop Smoking Aids Don"t Work And Hypnosis Does
If you"ve used one of those physical aids, the cigarette replacements, you know that you"re just replacing one crutch for another and if you"re going to suck on some fake cigarette you might as well go back to the real thing. Let"s be honest here; for most of us smoking is a crutch: we"re afraid to not smoke. Afraid we"ll get fat, afraid we"ll not be able to cope, afraid we won"t know what to do with our hands. If you can remove that dependence on smoking from your thought process you can quit smoking. That's where hypnosis succeeds.
