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Smoking is an addictive and dangerous habit that affects the lives of millions of people around the world. Today, we know about the dangers of smoking, and smokers are encouraged to quit smoking for their own health. This is not an easy task, as most smokers begin at an young age. The average age of a new smoker is thirteen years old. A habit formed at such a young age is not easily broken. Nicotine affects the body in many ways and it is hard to break this addiction without some help. Nicotine addiction is only one of many different diseases associated with smoking. Most smokers will need some help on how to quit smoking and many methods exist for this very purpose. There are many reasons why people begin smoking and develop an addiction to cigarettes. The main reason that people begin to smoke is peer pressure. It is deemed cool to be able to smoke. It also is forbidden which makes it all the more attractive to rebellious teenagers, hence the low starting age for many people. This young age makes quitting smoking more challenging in your later years. Media can also influence the decision to begin smoking. Smoking portrayed in movies or on television can lead someone to think that smoking is harmless. 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 to smoke. 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 matter of just 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 you can imagine the damage it inflicts on your body. Nicotine is also addictive and one of the reasons many people cannot quit smoking. Smoking can affect your health on many different levels. Low stamina is one side effect of smoking. More serious smoking related diseases include cancer and emphysema. Strokes and heart disease are also closely associated with cigarette smoking. A person who stops smoking will greatly reduce their risk of developing these diseases for every year they go without smoking. These smoking-related medical conditions often have grave consequences. Lung cancer is almost 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 learn how to quit smoking. Emphysema cannot be cured but only managed, plus the damage to your lungs cannot be repaired. The benefits of quitting smoking include a healthier, longer life and a better quality of life. There are several different methods to quit smoking, and you must pick the right method for you as an individual. Nicotine gums and patches are made to help slowly release you from the nicotine addiction. These only work for about 10% of the people who use them. Going cold turkey is another option and this is effective for up to 11% of the smokers who try to quit this way. Other frequently used methods to quit smoking include an herbal kit that can show you how to quit smoking. It has a success rate similar to that of nicotine gums and patches. Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation is a popular and effective option for those who want to quit smoking without withdrawal or weight gain. Hypnotherapy has proven to be highly effective with smokers who are trying to quit smoking. Hypnotherapy 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 stop smoking hypnosis is so effective is that it while the physical addiction to nicotine makes up only about 10% of the smoking addiction, the psychological aspects of the habit make up about 90% of the cigarette 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 safe and effective tool that can help reprogram the mind to divert you from stressful thoughts, and towards relaxing, positive thoughts. In addition, the practice of hypnosis incorporates a deep state of relaxation. And about 45% of the smoking behavior is caused by conditioned responses. This is when smoking is associated with other stimuli at the unconscious level of mind. For example, if you smoke and simultaneously watch television, your unconscious will associate the image of a cigarette in your hand with the image of the TV. Every time you see the TV, your unconscious flashes an image of the cigarette in your hand, and you feel the compulsion to smoke. Hypnosis therapy is regularly used to "extinguish" the conditioned responses by disassociating the unconscious links between cigarettes and TV, drinking coffee, working on your computer, driving, or any other environment where an unconscious association has been created. In summary: Although most smokers think that their inability to quit smoking is due to their addiction to nicotine, in truth it is the psychological aspects of smoking that present the largest barriers. Hypnotherapy was accepted by the American Medical Association in 1958 as an effective tool. And hypnosis for smoke cessation is the second most common use of hypnotherapy today. While hourly rates for hypnotherapists continue to skyrocket, there are some effective self hypnosis programs on the market that can greatly reduce its cost. Since everyone is unique, there are no specific "magic" words or post-hypnotic suggestions that will work for everyone. So when choosing a self hypnosis program, 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 case, the cost of the best self hypnosis CD and DVD sets equates to much less than the amount that an average smoker wastes each and every month on buying cigarettes.
By: Alan B. Densky, CH
Alan B. Densky, CH developed the Video Hypnosis stop smoking program that helps smokers easily break the habit. He also created many ways to stop smoking with Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and NLP. Visit his Neuro-VISION self help hypnosis site for free hypnotherapy videos and MP3s. www.neuro-vision.us/Products/NeuroVISIONSmokingDvd.htm
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