In 2015, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that “15.1% of all adults” smoked cigarettes. Out of that percentage, seven in ten wanted to stop smoking and five in ten actually made attempts to quit. Thousands of smokers who attempt to stop smoking cold-turkey or find a substitute habit find themselves falling off the wagon several weeks later.
There a few problems with how people go about quitting smoking. The effects of nicotine on the human brain is only part of the addiction. There are associations that the brain connects to the act of smoking or the feel of a cigarette. People’s brains are wired differently. What works for one person may not be the most efficient or useful technique for another. Some people just need to find their motivation to quit.
Smoking is Harmful Financially and to Health in New Jersey and everywhere else.
For some people, the expense is enough to convince them to quit. Yearly, the average smoker in New Jersey (if they were to smoke a pack of 20 per day) spends nearly $3,000 on cigarettes alone. According to the CDC, tobacco companies spent $8.9 billion dollars, or $24 million every day, marketing cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products in the United States in 2015. That’s a good chunk of money dedicated to the selling of harmful and addictive substances.
Another substantial reason for people to quit smoking is health. We all have learned from an early age that smoking is bad. But what exactly is so bad about what’s in a cigarette? The American Heart Association states that “Smokers have a higher risk of developing many chronic disorders, including atherosclerosis — the buildup of fatty substances in the arteries — which can lead to coronary heart disease and stroke.” The smoke that enters the lungs makes physical activity more strenuous and makes it easier for blood to clot.
Smoking is not only harmful to the users themselves. The American Cancer Association has stated that secondhand smoke is known to cause cancer in the lungs, nasal sinuses, breasts, and other places in the body of people around smokers. Children are the most common victims of secondhand smoke. Many children of parents who smoke reportedly get sick more often, get more ear infections, and may even contract asthma.
Find Your Reason to Quit Smoking
Whatever reason is effective enough to make a cigarette smoker quit is up to him or her. It needs to be something internally motivational and meaningful. Many times, an attempt at quitting will be backtracked simply because the person doesn’t have a strong resolution to quit. He or she is quitting because someone has “told [him or her] to” or he or she feels forced by an external pressure.
Quitting smoking may seem difficult, but it’s certainly possible. Once one finds that reason to quit, there’s very little stopping he or she from doing so. The moment the user makes that conscious thought of “I want to quit”, he or she is already on the path to freeing him or her self. He or she is already a non-smoker. But where do they go from there?
Hypnosis can Help You Stop Smoking
Hypnosis is best used to modify behaviors. It can tweak the mind so that it reacts to stimuli surrounding us differently.
According to an article on CNN, Jed Rose, director of the Duke Center for Smoking Cessation in North Carolina, states, “The chemicals in cigarettes work on the structures deep within a smoker’s brain, literally rewiring it so the habit becomes deeply ingrained.” This means that the act of smoking may be more addictive than the actual drug itself. This makes complete sense. Many users keep cigarettes stored in the same place: the inside pocket of his or her jacket, in the glove compartment of his or her car, or even underneath a pillow in bed. Human beings are creatures of routine. When someone wakes up from sleep, they have a set routine, regardless of how vague it is. People who smoke create habits and triggers throughout the day for themselves, leaving them reliving the need for a cigarette in different places in the world and in different states of mind.
Nicotine is well-known for creating an addiction within the mind to the chemical itself, but it is also proven in a study to reduce anxiety, as covered in an article on Science Daily. Much of the time, smoking is utilized to reduce stress and anxiety in the user. It’s a chemical’s effect that the user is experiencing, and luckily it’s not an effect that cigarettes alone are able to help with.
Hypnosis has been used for centuries to help people relax, for general meditation-like zen, in operating rooms, or to help people relax enough to get over a fearful situation. Hypnosis is able to not only relax people to the point of overcoming stress but help them cope with it on their own, without the use of harmful chemicals.
As a hypnotist, I am able to take a person into a trance. I use the information that I’ve been given by the client to take him or her down the most effective way. From there, I use pre-discussed techniques to rid the client of their addiction. I may create a negative association with cigarettes, making them completely undesirable. I may take a person back to long before he or she started smoking, regressing the want. I may replace the triggers a person has put in place for the desire for a cigarette with the need to do something productive, like read or exercise. It all depends on what works best for the person’s mind. Everyone is different, so it’s important that discussion and understanding are achieved pre-hypnosis.
It’s important for people to realize and remember how harmful cigarettes are within their lives. It may seem like there are some obstacles to quitting, but there really aren’t. A person’s addiction to cigarettes is all in their mind. There may be layers to this addiction, but you have the tools to quit. When you are able to find your reason to quit, you are halfway to quitting. Hypnosis can break through the layers, emphasize your resolve, modify habits or routines, and show you better ways to reduce the stress in your life. You can do it. Your time to quit is now.
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