Addiction vs Habit
Stopping smoking can seem a very daunting task when thinking of it in terms of an addiction. To be addicted assumes you're powerless to the physical dependence that has been created. If your body needs the nicotine, then of course it is likely to cause intolerable withdrawal symptoms. But does you body need nicotine? Are you really physically dependent?
Consider these points for a moment:
- A heroin addict is physically dependent on heroin. When going 'cold turkey' they will literally be climbing the walls as their body really does need its 'fix'.
- When going without nicotine for 8 or so hours every night when asleep, do you suffer withdrawal symptoms? Are you climbing the walls?
- If you run out of money to buy a packet of cigarrettes, does your physical dependence drive you to steal to feed your habit?
- Have you ever heard of someone overdosing on cigarettes?
The fact is, your body doesn’t actually need nicotine, it is just used to it. Over the years of smoking you have learnt to associate cigarettes with certain activites and situations, which has then just become an automatic part of who you are.
It's like when you learn to do something in a particular way, such as driving on the left-hand-side of the road. If you were to go to a foreign country where you had to drive on the right, you would find this awkward and difficult. Even though you'd know that you now had to change gear with your right hand, you would most likely find your left hand reaching down automatically for the gearstick instead. But of course, driving on the right is no more difficult than driving on the left, it's just that you're used to doing it one way rather than the other.
This is really all that's happened with smoking. It has become a habit that is hard to break through willpower alone, because your autopilot – your subconscious – is just so used to having a cigarette at certain times.
With our stop smoking hypnotherapy programme, we will discuss your individual smoking patterns during the first part of the session. Using this information, Susannah will enable your subconscious to unlearn those associations enabling you to walk out at the end of the session, thinking, feeling and acting like a non-smoker. No withdrawal symtpoms. No need for substitution. No weight gain. No cravings. Just one decision from you, and a nice deep state of relaxation stands in your way...
So if you're ready to stop smoking easily and enjoyably, then contact us at the City Hypnotherapy Centre.