How To Quit The Smoking Habit - Separate The BS From The Facts

States across the country have banned smokers from public areas. Numerous professional companies have demanded that their employees quit smoking, and are disciplining workers if they smoke during work hours. Smokers huddle in bad weather, and smoke away as hurriedly as they are able in order to return to work.



In some cities, smoking has become as negatively perceived as using illicit drugs. Since the public has become so educated about stop smoking benefits, a significant number are making a strong effort to find ways to stop smoking.



Three elements constitute an addiction to smoking:



1. People smoke for relaxation and pleasure. This makes up about 45% of the smoking habit.



2. A subconscious connection between a pleasurable activity or location and smoking is part of the reason people continue to smoke. Then, when people find themselves in these situations, they desire a cigarette. For instance, an individual may come to associate smoking with their bedtime ritual. They will come to associate smoking with sleep so strongly that it is almost impossible to go to sleep without having a cigarette first. Example: If you watch TV and smoke, the smoking will become a conditioned response to watching TV. So each time you watch TV, you'll feel an urge to smoke. This component is responsible for nearly 45 percent of the smoking habit.



3. The final reason people continue to smoke is that they become physically addicted to Nicotine. About ten percent of the reason people smoke is because of this addiction.. Within about three days of quitting smoking, all of the Nicotine has been cleaned from a person's system!



Several strategies are available to assist individuals find ways to stop smoking. The least expensive way to stop smoking, which is paid for through most insurance companies, is the nicotine patch. These easily applied patches are worn for one day and can be secreted beneath a person's clothing. The problem with these patches, however, is that patches are not very useful. Since these products only help treat the physical addiction, which makes up only about 10% of the smoking habit, only about seven persons in 100 succeed with this method.



An identical level of success characterizes nicotine gum or lozenges. Not even one in ten clients who use these strategies is able to these ways to stop smoking for at least six months. In addition, these products have adverse effects. Nicotine gum or lozenges, may be irritating to a person's mouth tissue as well as the lips, while many people have skin rashes beneath the patch. Again, these items treat only the physical addiction, which only makes up approximately one-tenth of the habit.



Another alternative is the development of counseling and smoking cessation classes. Such sessions include behavior modification techniques together with intensive education regarding the adverse results of smoking. These strategies are three hundred percent as beneficial as nicotine replacement therapies; the success rate is 22% at six months.



Numerous smokers have tried laser treatment programs to help stop smoking. This technique is sometimes paid for by insurance, although it is new. Clinical trials held by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), however, have found that these sessions are no more effective than placebo. (Placebo is when people believe they are receiving therapy, but actually are not.)



One of the ways to stop smoking seems to be somewhat more useful than these previous methods. In one study, smokers received shots to help them stop smoking by eliminating the pleasurable effects of the nicotine rush. This strategy, in the preliminary stages of testing for effectiveness, thus far seems to work for 15 percent of the persons who used it.



Hypnosis is an alternative approach to helping persons to stop smoking. Hypnosis concentrates on re-teaching the unconscious mind to instantaneously employ alternative activities to provide contentment and pleasure, as opposed to the nicotine dependency. It can also be used to eradicate or "extinguish" behavioral responses such as the link described between smoking and activities mentioned earlier, so the smoker is relieved of the desire to smoke when in the environments that formerly trigger it.



Men appear to have a higher success rate with stop smoking hypnosis than female clients do. One positive aspect resulting from self hypnosis stop smoking, however, is that, unlike persons employ nicotine replacement as strategies to stop smoking, there are no irritating side effects.



Another benefit of hypnosis is that it is effective against the nine-tenths facet of the dependence that is psychological, as opposed to the other strategies that just work against the 10% element of the dependence that is physical. This is why hypnosis offers a much higher effectiveness than the previously discussed methods of smoke cessation. Conventional hypnosis approaches can offer a 35 percent likelihood of success, while Ericksonian hypnosis can offer a 50% or greater effectiveness.



A newer, innovative, and far better alternative that allows persons to obliterate a cigarette habit is Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP. This strategy is far more beneficial than established styles of quit smoking hypnosis because it avoids reliance on post-hypnotic suggestions at all. The majority of clients, especially clients who are critical thinkers, are resistant to post-hypnotic suggestions. Professionals who use NLP coach the client's unconscious mind to use the very thought processes that result in the psychological problem with cigarette use, to obliterate it!



A well thought out NLP smoking cessation program organized by a trained NLP professional can produce an effectiveness rate of as high as 70 percent or more.



Summary: The majority of smoking cessation courses try to employ nicotine replacement products as ways to stop smoking. Alternative techniques, such as smoking cessation and cognitive or behavioral treatment programs, work to help the mind use ways to stop smoking.



Even though hypnosis works much better than alternative approaches, particularly with male clients, most people do not rate it as the most helpful way to stop smoking. NLP, which focuses on the mental facets of nicotine addiction, actually coaches individuals to redirect their mindset to help them stop most successfully.



Since nine-tenths of a person's problem with smoking is psychological in nature, these treatments are incomparably more successful than just replacing the nicotine and addressing the 10% component of the addiction that is physiological.



Conclusion: Several smoking cessation programs, including nicotine replacement products and counseling are available. These programs frequently are often less than 20 percent successful. In comparison, hypnosis offers a significantly greater likelihood of success. NLP is the most successful of all in assisting persons to successfully combat the mental component of their dependency and experience immeasurably more success in realizing their goal of becoming smoke-free.