Smoking

My apologise for the delay since my last blog, it has been a busy time and I will update you all in the next couple of weeks on what has been happening.

One of the major events over the last few months was the article published in the Liverpool Echo about one of their reporters, Katie Mcloughlin participating in a Stop Smoking Session with me, which I am pleased to say was very successful. If anyone would like to read the article I have attached the link below.

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-entertainment/best-of-liverpool/2010/01/11/katie-kick-the-habbit-smoker-katie-mcloughlin-puts-hypnotherapy-to-the-test-100252-25573729/

I am always pleased to help my clients quit smoking, to me it is as though I am saving them from all the nasty stuff that smoking can do. So what I thought I would do is to put some further information on Smoking, and how hypnotherapy and NLP can help people quit. Hopefully, this will give those people thinking of quitting that little extra reassurance that stopping smoking with hypnotherapy is painless.

First of all, lets talk about the smoking habit. The so called addiction is caused by an ingredient of cigarettes called Nicotine. Nicotine is a powerful chemical which speeds up the brain and central nervous system.

Over a period of time your brain gets used to the stimulation and lowers the body's natural energy and mood level. You then begin to crave cigarettes in order to give yourself a boost. The more cigarettes you smoke the more you need to make yourself feel normal and so the cycle begins. Some people kid themselves they are doing no harm or they only smoke when they drink, because of the way the brain gets used to the stimulation, they very soon need more cigarettes to get that same level of boost.

In essence, a smoker has forced their unconscious mind to accept nicotine as part of the body's chemical balance and whenever Nicotine levels are running low the unconscious begins to tell the rest of the body it needs Nicotine.

The Smoking habit - This is where a lot of Nicotine Replacement therapies fail. The need for Nicotine is fairly easy to get over with a little willpower, in fact Smokers spend vast amounts of time not topping up their Nicotine levels, i.e. when they are on long haul flights or sleeping. The habit part of Smoking seems to be the most difficult part for Smokers to get over. After a while, smoking becomes a part of a person's life, they have a cigarette first thing in the morning or after a meal without even thinking about it. This is all done unconsciously! Smokers may even use cigarettes to enhance their mood, they will smoke when they are bored, stressed or angry thinking it will help.

What is Nicotine and what are all the other nasties in cigarettes?

Nicotine is described as a poisonous, oily, pale yellow substance that turns brown on exposure to air. Concentrated Nicotine is a highly effective insecticide! There are other nasty chemicals in each cigarette that are far worse than Nicotine, such as Arsenic and Cyanide, as well as many others. Other chemicals include;

Benzene (Petrol Additive) A colourless cyclic hydrocarbon obtained from coal and petroleum, used as a solvent in fuel and in chemical manufacture - and contained in cigarette smoke. It is a known carcinogen associated with leukaemia.

Formaldehyde (embalming fluid) A colourless liquid, highly poisonous, used to preserve dead bodies - also found in cigarette smoke. Known to cause cancer, respiratory, skin and gastrointestinal problems.

Ammonia (toilet cleaner) Used as a flavouring, frees nicotine from tobacco turning it into a gas. Often found in dry cleaning fluids.

Acetone (nail polish remover) Fragrant volatile liquid ketone, used as a solvent, for example, nail polish remover. Found in cigarette smoke.


If this doesn't make people want to quit, I would now like to talk about the health risks involved. I know a lot of smokers have seen the warnings on the cigarette packets and are pretty blaise about it, however, gone are the days of Aunty Maud living to the ripe old age of 86, smoking 40 woodbines a day. The effects of smoking are real and it's only a matter of time before they catch up on people.

I myself, have seen first hand the effects of smoking when my triplet brother was diagnosed with Non Hodgkinson's lymphoma in his late 20's. Thankfully he survived, but being in the Oncology ward was a real eye opener for me and brought home the true effects of Smoking.

Rather than list the myriad of harmful things cigarettes can do to a person's health I have attached another link for you to look at for yourselves. It makes some pretty grim reading.

http://www.quit-smoking-stop.com/harmful-smoking-effects.html

So what can people do about their smoking habit

There are a number of products designed to help you quit smoking at the moment, nicotine replacement gums, patches, etc as well as inhalators, all of which help to reduce the nicotine addiction. The downside is they don't actually deal with the habit. What most smokers miss is the ritual of smoking, they miss something to do with their hands and the associations they have with smoking.

There are prescription medicines such as Zyban, you can obtain from your local GP or Practice Nurse, however, there have been reports of side effects including insomnia, irritated or runny nose, dry mouth, dizziness, nausea, trouble concentrating, constipation, joint pain, nightmares, muscle pain, diarrhea and nervousness. And yet again they don't deal with the actual habit.

This brings us to hypnotherapy. It is with good reason that smoking cessation is one of the most popular reasons people seek out the services of a hypnotherapist. Hypnotherapy doesn't just deal with the 'addiction' but also deals with the habit, associations etc.

How does hypnotherapy work?

Stop smoking hypnotherapy uses a different approach. Instead of trying to give something up, you use hypnosis to tell your subconscious mind that you don't actually want to smoke.

If you don't want to smoke, you're less likely to suffer side effects, mood swings, anxiety at living without it, or gain weight.

It's not about giving you the will power to break the addiction either. Will power means that you're wrestling for control with your subconscious mind. That battle will end in one of two ways;

•You lose and the subconscious wins, meaning you stay with the addiction.

•You spend your whole life thinking that you're "giving something up", or making a sacrifice. You might stop smoking but it'll be a struggle and you may always have the nagging suspicion that you might still want a cigarette.

The unique combination of Hypnotherapy, NLP & EFT destroy this feeling. Working with the therapist, you teach your mind that you don't want or need to smoke, so the subconscious stops the signal to "have a cigarette". Without that signal, you have no desire to smoke, so quitting becomes natural and easy.

If you would like further information on quitting smoking or any other addiction, why not give me a call or drop me an e-mail and I will answer your questions personally.

Until next time,


Neil