ttcycle said:
I knew someone who said hynotism was useful for helping him quit.
If it's any use I tried hypnotism and this is what I was told and how it went. I opted for individual therapy and it cost £300, I had a longish chat/consultation, about 45mins, where the therapist laid out the theory behind her methods and the goals. The treatment was 'guaranteed' in that a return to smoking would be met with further sessions free of charge. So:-
theory - she believed that smokers weren't addicted to nicotine but were addicted to a learned habit akin to an autonomous function. She explained this by asking if I'd enjoyed my first cigarette? obviously the answer was no. But, in order to become a smoker, you have to persevere. To do this you are overcoming your rational mind which is constantly sending signals telling you this isn't any fun. You want to do this, so those signals are ignored and your habit is formed.
strength of addiction - she explained that there are no activities, other than blinking, breathing etc, that a person carries out with more frequency than the actions of a smoker. This was why rational arguements against smoking, and even acknowledgement of these by the smoker themselves, had so little impact. Because your subconcious mind overode the concious in this matter. You'd worked so hard to aquire the smoking habit, and repeated it so often, that it had ingrained as a subconcious mind routine. All attempts by your concious mind to overide your smoking habit were foiled by the subconcious. Because the deeper part of your mind knew that smoking was a good thing. Otherwise you'd not have worked so hard to aquire the habit, nor repeated the same actions so often.
treatment - the idea was that, in a hypnotic state, she'd be able to deal directly with your subconcious. The closest analogy I can give is re computing so kind of like rewriting the core programming. I was very sceptical around the idea of being 'put under', but it seemed to work. The only noticeable impact was the passage of time, an hour passed and I'd have sworn it was no more than 15 minutes.
results - I didn't smoke for 13 days, I felt no withdrawal, no mood changes and didn't resort to sweets or anything. I began smoking again because my subconcious sneaked up on me. After 13 days I decided that I was obviously not addicted, no withdrawal etc, and so I could choose to smoke occasionally. Big mistake!!!! one cigarette and I was straight back to previous habits. Returned for another session but the hypnosis didn't take.
follow up - this was several years ago and I haven't been back since.
