As a smoker, you have been thinking of quitting this habit. You're worried about dealing with the cravings, as well as feeling ill that you might experience after quitting smoking. You can visit a hypnotherapist who will help you use the power of your mind to combat the pull cigarettes exert on you.
Significance
Smoking is a physical as well as a psychological addiction. If a smoker has tried to quit smoking in the past, but has not been successful, he knows he needs some additional help so he can be successful this time. If he has made a New Year's resolution, he may be more motivated to truly kick the smoking habit.
Hypnotism uses suggestions made to the subconscious mind so that the smoker will have the subconscious thought that he doesn't like smoking, it is unhealthy and a dirty, bad habit. This should be undertaken only under the supervision of a licensed professional hypnotherapist.
Function
A hypnotherapist begins working with her client by helping her client relax so she can begin making gentle, quiet suggestions to his subconscious mind. Because he wants to quit smoking successfully, the hypnotherapist has him close his eyes and relax as he imagines himself at some point in the future when he doesn't smoke anymore. The hypnotherapist uses as many details about smoking as she can--the smell, the nicotine deposits on her client's fingers, car windows, walls and windows at home and how unhealthy and dangerous it is for his health.
The hypnotic suggestion process takes more than one session. The hypnotherapist continues to make suggestions to her client's mind about his nonsmoking future.
Features
Hypnotherapy is one additional tool the quitting smoker can use along with other strategies in order to be successful at stopping smoking. Because hypnotherapy uses the power of suggestion on the quitting smoker's subconscious, he is confronting all of his beliefs and attitudes about cigarettes and smoking. The suggestions help to take away the desire for smoking--including cravings for nicotine.
Considerations
The quitting smoker can also use other methods to help him achieve success at quitting smoking. These include using exercise to help with any cravings, eating healthy fruits and vegetables and enlisting emotional support from loved ones. When coupled with these methods, hypnotism is one more strong method the smoker can include in his strategy for quitting smoking.
Benefits
The hypnotherapist gives the quitting smoker suggestions and conditioned responses to use in between sessions when he might actually confront a craving to smoke. She helps him, in sessions, to create new conditioned responses which he uses with a conditioned prompt--like a quick inhalation of breath--to help trigger the conditioned response.
The quitting smoker can also visit LIVESTRONG's website and register for free on the Quit Smoking Dare page where he can communicate with other quitting smokers for needed support (see Resources).
