Hypnotherapy for smoking is all about one thing: putting a distance between you and the thought of a cigarette (it’s the same process for a vape, or a nicotine pouch).
It’s to get you to a point where quite simply even the thought doesn’t bother you. It passes you by.
You’ve formed a new habit. And having a cigarette isn’t the answer.
You’re a complete and utter non-smoker.
You walk past a group of smokers outside a pub and it means nothing.
You smell cigarette smoke on someone’s clothes and it doesn’t bother you.
Someone offers you a cigarette and they say, “Go on, it’s just the one” and you simply say, “No.”
There’s no conflict in you: it’s just nothing to do with you any more.
What I’m saying is that you and me work on putting an emotional distance between you and the thought of a cigarette. You become a non smoker. Smoking means nothing to you.
Hypnotherapy for smoking means you accept that you used to smoke, but moving forward it’s nothing to do with you.
Why do you smoke?
At some level there’s a thought that somehow a cigarette relaxes you.
No such thing.
Smoking actually causes stress. Nicotine is a chemical stimulant, like caffeine, and causes the body to release adrenaline and other stress hormones. People who feel they are using a cigarette to calm their nerves are being duped by the marketing man’s con.
A few moments after inhaling the body reacts by becoming more tense and agitated than it was before. Smokers as a whole are more prone to stress, anxiety and depression than non-smokers.
Think about it. If cigarettes made you calmer, smoking would eventually make you fall asleep or pass out, as alcohol can. But smoking does just the opposite. It makes you more tense, stressed, irritable and agitated than you would have otherwise been.
The effect is temporary. Nicotine only gives the most fleeting sense of calm before the withdrawl kicks in.
Enough of this. Here’s some good news.
I don’t want this to turn into the usual hectoring and finger wagging.
You already know smoking’s bad.
I want to focus on the fact that stopping can give you a level of health back.
Even if you’ve been a die hard smoker for, say, 40 years there can be healing. Your lungs can begin to repair themselves. You get better lung function and cut the risk of further damage.
According to the NHS this is how a non smoker starts to benefit. And the benefit is fast.
After 20 minutes your pulse and blood pressure become normal.
In only eight hours your blood changes for the better. Your oxygen level increases and your carbon monoxide drops.
It takes just a day to lower your chance of a heart attack.
Within two days there’s no carbon monoxide left in your body. The mucus in your lungs reduces and you get your sense of taste and smell back.
Give it 72 hours and your breathing eases as bronchial tubes relax, and energy levels increase.
After somewhere between three to nine months and your lung capacity grows by up to 10% while coughing, wheezing, and breathing problems fall away.
Stick with it and after a year your chance of a heart attack halves.
And after 15 years the risk of heart attack is the same as someone who has never smoked.
You’re never too old.
As I mentioned above even with 40 years of non-stop smoking you can get a level of health back.
The American Cancer Society has found that even stopping smoking at 65 can give you years more life. Although I wouldn’t recommend leaving it that late.
So, how does hypnotherapy work?
It’s a way of you relaxing and me ‘talking’ to your subconscious. In effect landing a message deep inside you that you can change your habit.
And it only works with your consent. You have to agree to be hypnotised. This isn’t mind control, it’s you relaxing to let in a new message to change your behaviour at the very deepest level.
Basically hypnotherapy boosts your motivation and dials down any reasons you may have for smoking such as:
Work pressure
Home stress
Relationship troubles
You feel a social pressure to smoke
You like a cheeky one when you drive alone - you don’t feel judged.
We can dial down the cravings.
How effective is hypnotherapy for smoking?
New Scientist Magazine found hypnotherapy to be the most effective method for breaking the smoking habit.
In 2021 they concluded that 86% of participants who used hypnosis to quit smoking were still smoke-free after six months.
What’s my success rate?
Based on feedback from clients, about 80% for just smoking.
Dealing with underlying stresses - your reasons for smoking - and hypnotherapy for smoking then effectiveness rises to about 90%.
How many sessions of hypnotherapy do you need to quit smoking?
The 64 million dollar question. It can be as few as two. It depends how long you’ve been smoking for, your belief in the process and what else is going on in your life (see above).
Stopping smoking. My story.
I have never smoked, but my dad did.
Some of my earliest memories are of him bent double over the sink coughing and spitting.
In fact some of my earliest memories in general are being surrounded by smokers. I remember watching the moon landing with tears in my eyes, not because of man’s great achievement, but because the room was so full of smoke.
My first ever flight was from East Midlands to Jersey. I could hardly see out of the window for the smoke.
Every few years we had to re-paint the ceiling in the front room to get rid of the yellow/brown stain that the nicotine had built up.
I also remember every car ride being smoke-filled - as well as plastic seats that burnt there back of your legs in hot days.
Then, in later years, dad got oesophageal cancer because of his smoking. He had part of his gut removed. That was his get out of jail card. But it didn’t last
Ten years later I moved home to help mum nurse dad until he died. His death certificate said his cause of death was “a high-grade glioma”.
In layman’s terms it’s a malignant brain tumour. It was aggressive and invaded the surrounding brain tissue. On his very last scan it was as big as a grapefruit. It filled the area where his brain should’ve been.
It was basically a smoking-related death.
I don’t wish this on anyone.
Where will you find me?
If you want to stop smoking come and see me in Leeds, Harrogate or York.
And I call my business The Gentle Mind. Why? Because you’re a better version of yourself when you’re calm. You make better decisions.
*When I asked ChatGPT, "Where is the cleanest air in Yorkshire?", it came back to me with Hambleton District (North Yorkshire) — Hambleton District Council say that air quality is among the cleanest in the country, citing reductions in Nitrogen Dioxide (NO₂) levels over recent years. Hence the image. No need for smoking chimney metaphors.
