Fight Smoking Addictions with Hypnosis

Posted on April 25, 2007 in Hypnosis by byronb

If you are a smoker, you may already know that a nicotine addiction can be as difficult to break as an addiction to heroin or cocaine – you may even have experienced it for yourself.  In fact, 95% of smokers who quit without any help fail and return to the habit.Each failure makes it harder and harder to quit smoking, and the smoker starts to believe that he or she may never be able to quit.

Every smoker has a different reason for picking up the habit.  Some may have started it with their circle of friends as a social activity.  Some thought it would be fun, some get pleasure out of it, some cannot sleep without it, and others find that it reduces stress. The reasons are as varied as the people who smoke.

Behind all of the reasons, however, is the belief that by smoking you will get this or that desired result.  Each time you smoke, you add on to this belief that without cigarettes you would not be able to do that thing.  With time, even though you know the bad effects that come from smoking, you find it harder and harder to quit because your mind believes that if you stop you will also lose the reason you started – you would not be able to sleep, you would become stressed, would lose friends, etc. Hypnosis can be an effective tool for changing this belief or making new ones.  It simply helps to undo the thought patterns that you have put into place while smoking.

Hypnosis works on the root of the problem.  Your mind has been taught to think that smoking gives you pleasure, and that you cannot feel that way without smoking.  However, you only get out of it what your mind believes.  Your mind has been conditioned to need a cigarette, and hypnosis can help to recondition it. During the process of hypnosis, you slowly recondition your mind by implanting suggestions of negative thoughts with smoking and positive ones with not smoking.  By using hypnosis properly you can vastly improve your chances of successfully quitting.

One self hypnosis method that works is the deep breathing method.  This can be useful in releasing tensions and addictions.  When you feel the need to smoke, try closing your eyes and practicing deep breathing.  When you exhale, imagine your body releasing the tension and relaxing, and when you inhale picture yourself becoming lighter and more relaxed.  This can help overcome the mental conflict of the need to smoke.

As you become more relaxed and the immediate need passes, you can start to reinforce positive thoughts.  Picture yourself doing things that you can only do as a nonsmoker.  Reinforce the negative things about cigarettes.  Gradually, you will retrain your mind and your dependence on cigarettes.
If this is difficult at first, you can consider visiting a hypnotherapist to help get you started with the technique.  Keep in mind that it may take several sessions in order to get you completely smoke free.

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