Become a true non-smoker
When it comes to giving up cigarettes, the mind may be willing — but the part of you gripped by two powerful urges usually can’t overcome the craving on its own. Those two urges are habit and nicotine addiction.
Smoking is, first of all, a pattern of behaviour — one that usually started when you were very young, often as a way to belong to a group of friends or to establish your own identity. The media sold the idea that smoking meant freedom and independence, but that seduction leads instead to a lifetime of addiction and, for many, to chronic illness.
The second, more powerful problem has nothing to do with that original habit: the addiction to nicotine. Like most psycho-active drugs, nicotine is a chemical addiction, and it keeps you ‘hooked’ long after you think you’ve broken the habit — until it is gently trained to do otherwise.
It’s not about quitting. This is something very different — but it works.
— J. Porter, Ulverston, Cumbria
The problem with simply “stopping”
Everyone knows someone who has quit smoking but still says they’d love one with a drink, or after a meal — and what a difficult place that is to be, forever denying yourself something you still want. That’s why I use an approach that helps you become a genuine non-smoker, not just someone resisting a cigarette.
The ‘stopped smoker’ bravely resists, while the true non-smoker couldn’t think of anything worse than lighting up — if they think about it at all. My approach to smoking-cessation hypnotherapy gently moves the unconscious mind from that addicted state to complete freedom, addressing every psychological trick the addiction plays on you.
No longer will you be controlled by the need to smoke: no more planning your day around it, no more standing outside at work or at parties, no more counting how many you have left, no more worrying about what it’s doing to your health. Call me, and I’ll explain exactly how I can help you make changes that last.
How hypnotherapy can help
For those who have tried everything — will-power, patches, e-cigarettes, tablets — and still gone back to it, hypnosis may be the answer. With hypnotherapy we train the mind to outgrow the original habit and update those subconscious ‘files’ that still want to smoke, so your whole perception of cigarettes shifts.
What if you could be surrounded by cigarettes and simply not notice them — walk past your packet each day and see it as just another object? No more craving. No more yearning.
At the Cumbria Hypnosis Stop Smoking Clinic we find that, whatever the nicotine in your system, once you’ve patterned three full days of smoke-free behaviour and supported the body with a gentle de-tox, the mind can outgrow the need to smoke — and, most importantly, sustain the change. As with any change of behaviour there are no absolute guarantees, but hypnosis of this kind is generally effective for around 85% of people.
