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Smoking is an addictive and harmful habit that affects millions of people around the world. Today, we are aware of the dangers of smoking, and smokers are encouraged to quit smoking for their own health. This is not an easy task, as most smokers start at an extremely young age. The average age of a new smoker is thirteen years old.

A habit formed at that age is not easily broken. Nicotine affects the body in many ways and it is hard to break this addiction without assistance. There are many diseases which can be caused by smoking. Most smokers need assistance on how to quit smoking and many different methods exist for this very purpose.

There are many reasons why people start smoking and develop a smoking habit. The main reason that people begin to smoke is peer pressure. Some young people think it looks ‘cool’ when portrayed on TV, in movies, and in advertisements. It also is forbidden which makes it all the more alluring to teenagers, hence the low starting age for many people. This young age makes ceasing smoking more difficult in your later years.

Media can also influence the decision to start smoking. Smoking portrayed in movies or on television can lead someone to believe that smoking is a safe activity. Parents can wield the biggest influence over their children by setting a good example on how to quit smoking. Parents who smoke are much more likely to have children who start smoking.

Nicotine is the drug within tobacco that smokers crave. Nicotine can affect your mind and body in many negative ways. Nicotine, once inhaled into the lungs reaches the brain in a mere eight seconds. Once there, nicotine affects your heart rate and blood pressure. Over time it can increase your bad cholesterol levels and cause the narrowing of your arteries. Nicotine in concentrated doses is a lethal poison, so imagine the damage it does to your body. Nicotine is also addictive and one of the reasons many people cannot quit the habit.

Smoking can impact your health on many different levels. Getting winded playing a game is one side effect of smoking. More serious smoking related diseases include emphysema and cancer. Heart disease and stroke are also closely associated with cigarette smoking. A person who quits smoking will greatly reduce their chances for these diseases for every year they can go smoke free.

The outcome of these medical conditions caused by smoking is grim. Lung cancer is nearly always fatal unless detected very early and a full 80% of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking. Lung and heart disease can subtract years from your life unless you are able to quit smoking. Emphysema cannot be cured but only managed, plus the damage to your lungs cannot be repaired. Stop smoking benefits include a longer, healthier life and a better quality of life.

There are many different methods to quit smoking, and you must pick the right method for you as an individual. Nicotine gums and patches are designed to help you slowly withdraw from the nicotine addiction. Only about 10% of the people who use them are able to quit smoking. Another option is going cold turkey, and this is effective for up to 11% of the smokers who try to quit this way. Other well known methods to quit smoking include an herbal kit that can guide you through quitting. It has a success rate similar to that of nicotine gums and patches.

Hypnotherapy is a popular and effective option for those who want to quit smoking without experiencing weight gain or withdrawal symptoms. Hypnotherapy has proven to be highly effective with smokers who are trying to quit smoking. Hypnosis for smoking cessation might sound like an extreme solution but it delivers positive results up to 70% of the time. This success rate is far greater that of other methods.

The reason hypnotherapy is so effective is that it while the physical addiction to nicotine makes up only about 10% of the cigarette smoking addiction, the mental and emotional aspects of the habit make up about 90% of the smoking addiction. Hypnosis treats this aspect of the addiction.

About 45% of the smoking behavior is caused by stress, and hypnotherapy has proven to be a powerful, non-invasive tool that can help reprogram the mind to divert it from stressful thoughts, and towards more positive and relaxing thoughts. In addition, the very essence of hypnosis is that it incorporates a deep state of relaxation.

And about 45% of the smoking behavior is prompted by conditioned responses. This is where smoking is associated with other situations at the unconscious level of mind. For example, if you smoke while watching TV, your unconscious will associate the image of a cigarette in your hand with the image of the TV. Each time you watch TV, your unconscious flashes an image of the cigarette in your hand, and you feel the compulsion to smoke.

Hypnotherapy is routinely used to “extinguish” the conditioned responses by disassociating the unconscious links between cigarettes and TV, driving, coffee, working on your computer, or any other situation where an unconscious association has been created.

In summary: Although most smokers believe that their inability to quit smoking is due to their addiction to nicotine, in truth it is the psychological aspects of a smoking addiction that present the largest barriers. Hypnotherapy was accepted by the American Medical Association in 1958 as an effective tool for quitting smoking. And hypnosis for smoke cessation is the second most common use of hypnotherapy today.

While hourly rates for hypnotherapists climb higher and higher, there are excellent hypnosis CDs on the market that can greatly reduce the cost of obtaining hypnosis treatment. Since everyone is unique, there are no specific “magic” words or post-hypnotic suggestions that will work for everyone. So when choosing hypnosis CDs, look for programs that incorporate a broad variety of hypnotic and NLP techniques in a series of at least six or more sessions to achieve the best possible results. In any event, the cost of the very best self hypnosis programs equates to much less than the amount that an average smoker spends each and every month on cigarettes.

Alan B. Densky, CH invented the Video Hypnosis stop smoking program which helps smokers easily break the habit. He also created other ways to stop smoking with Ericksonian Hypnosis and NLP. Visit the Neuro-VISION self improvement hypnosis site for free hypnotherapy videos and downloads.

- Alan B. Densky, CH

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