Stop Smoking
People start smoking for various reasons but one thing seems to be true for many, the reason they started is not consciously the same reason they still smoke today. Helping you to stop may well (but not necessarily) include finding the reason(s) for lighting that very first cigarette way back whenever. Maybe it was wanting to fit in or impress or perhaps it was a way of rebelling or dealing with stress.
Of course it may have been something else altogether, maybe it genuinely was 'just one of those things'.
But can I ask, did you really enjoy that first cigarette? Because we now know there are thousands of chemical compounds in a cigarette (including arsenic and cyanide) so when you took those first few puffs it's likely your body responded, quite literally, as if it was being poisoned. So, when you think about it, you must have had a pretty good reason for finishing it and then lighting up a second, and then a third until you reached the point where it became difficult to do without.
Our bodies respond to these poisons by releasing (amongst other things) endorphins and adrenalin which increase our respiration and blood pressure in an attempt to clear these toxins as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, endorphins and adrenaline can also give us a buzzy feeling that we quite like. Not so good!
If you smoke to reduce stress do you take a break from whatever it is that’s causing the ‘stress’ to light up? Could this in itself be helping you to relax? If you personally get a calming effect, this can be brought about by the effect of adrenalin increasing the body's capacity to absorb the oxygen in those deep breaths (of which a fair proportion is still oxygen-rich air, even through the cigarette).
If you're now thinking a bit more seriously about your smoking habit or if you've already decided to give up for your own benefit (because doing it to please your partner is not the best of reasons) then the good news is that Cognitive Hypnotherapy can help you make that decision permanent.
And one last thing…
Weight gain and craving – Using Cognitive hypnotherapy to address the reason(s) for starting to smoke can often take away the emotional ‘need’ that makes it so difficult if you are relying on patches and/or will power alone. And it's that emotional ‘need’ that so often drives people to replace cigarettes with food. Adjusting your eating pattern to 'little and often' can also help to counter the natural drop in blood sugar level that occurs when 'coming off' nicotine.
