Quit Smoking Today! How Can Hypnotherapy Help You Achieve That?

To win in the game of life, we all need a healthy mind and body. And smoking is not a good example of that, so how to help yourself and quit smoking?

Quitting smoking can be a real struggle but also a challenge.

The majority of people find it extremely difficult to quit smoking, in fact, recent research suggests it can take around 30 attempts to successfully quit smoking. But the benefit from it is the best thing you can do for your health.

The dangers of smoking

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), over 1.1 billion people smoke worldwide. Smoking is defined as a dangerous habit, but also as the leading cause of lung cancer, so you better quit smoking today!

Smoking has been linked with cancer in almost every part of the body including:

• Blood (acute myeloid leukemia)
• Cervix
• Colon and rectum (colorectal)
• Esophagus
• Kidney and ureter
• Larynx
• Liver
• Oropharynx (includes parts of the throat, tongue, soft palate, and the tonsils)
• Pancreas
• Trachea, bronchus, and lung

Additionally, it causes many diseases, such as:

• Heart failure
• Lung diseases
• Strokes
• Cataracts
• Infertility

What are the benefits if you quit smoking?

The sooner you quit smoking the better your body can recover and your risk of health condition will reduce:

• Higher energy levels‍
• More youthful skin
• Better breathing
• Less stress‍

What is hypnosis?

The word hypnosis may call to mind a swinging watch or an entertainer getting people to believe they are naked on stage for an audience’s amusement. But the real definition is that hypnosis is defined as a well-established practice in the medicine in which you appeared to be asleep or in a trance. Clinical hypnosis may be used to treat certain physical or psychological problems.

Using hypnotherapy to quit smoking

When a person sees a hypnotherapist for smoking or nicotine addiction, they have often already tried to quit with other cessation methods. Although nicotine gum, patches, counseling and other methods can be effective, hypnosis has also been found to be helpful to some people. In one study, as many as 48% of participants reported abstinence from smoking after one year. Other patients said that they haven’t quit but they smoke about half of what they used to.

During hypnosis for smoking cessation, a patient is often asked to imagine unpleasant outcomes from smoking. For example, the hypnotherapist might suggest that cigarettes smoke smells like truck exhaust, or that smoking will lead to lung cancer.

With hypnosis you can be aware of choices. It's like a mixture between relaxation therapy and a counseling session.

Spiegel’s method is one very popular smoking cessation hypnosis technique that focuses on three main ideas:

• Smoking poisons the body
• You need your body to live
• You should respect your body and protect it (to the extend you want to live)

This method is supposed to work by working on a smoker's impulse to lessen the desire to smoke, strengthen the ability to stop, and improve their ability to focus on their treatment.

Is hypnotherapy effective for quitting smoking?

Hypnosis generally does not work for everyone. Although there is some evidence to suggest that hypnosis is an effective treatment to quit smoking, there is a debate as to whether or not the data is definite.

That being said, there have been numerous studies that show that hypnotherapy-both by itself and in combination with other modalities can be an effective treatment for nicotine addiction. When successful, the intensity of hypnosis can vary from person to person.

Studies that show the effectiveness of hypnotherapy alone or combined with other treatments include:

• A 2014 randomized controlled trial of 164 patients with serious cardio-pulmonary illness compared the efficacy of hypnotherapy alone, hypnotherapy with nicotine replacement therapy, and conventional nicotine replacement therapy alone. The study found that hypnotherapy patients were more likely than nicotine replacement therapy patients to be nonsmokers at 12 weeks and 26 weeks after hospitalization.
• A 2012 meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials concluded that acupuncture and hypnotherapy may help smokers quit. However, they suggest that more evidence is needed to determine if such therapies are as effective as pharmacotherapies.
• A 2005 study showed that 40% of the control group reported abstinence from nicotine 24 weeks after they attended 8 hypnosis sessions over the course of 2 months.
• A 2010 Cochrane review evaluated the findings of 14 separate studies on the effectiveness of hypnosis and concluded that hypnotherapy was as effective as other behavioral interventions such as counseling.

How to find a hypnotherapist?

If you want to try hypnosis to help you quit smoking, ask your health provider to recommend a good hypnotherapist.

Make sure they’re licensed, trained, and credentialed. Hypnosis for smoking cessation and other medical or behavioral reasons should only be done by someone who has a current license in a health care field, such as medicine, psychiatry, psychology, or nursing.

Remember, it’s never too late to quit smoking. Breaking an addiction can be difficult, particularly if it is a lifelong habit, but it’s certainly worth a try.