Smoking, hypnotherapy and a personal story

I found this entry which describes the advantage of hypnotherapy in helping to quit smoking.

Worthwhile a read.

It is clearly correct to say that it is tough if not impossible to quit smoking with willpower alone. And that hypnotherapy is extremely valuable as a tool for those who want to quit smoking.

I remembered when I stopped smoking about 10 years back. It was like starting a new life. New habits needed to form. Behaviour rectified. Imagine that anything related to smoking needed to get rewired. The cigarette after the morning coffee. The cigarette while driving my car. The cigarette after food, during discussions, to smooth conversations, to gain confidence, to hold on to something. No more of such things. The first time I went to a pub to meet with friends was like hell. We drank, had fun, but then, as the urge for a cigarette started to grow, i had to leave. This wass the worst day of it. I paced up and down in my living room, and simply longed for a cigarette. I got over it!

A friend once told me that there is hardly any picture or photo available of me without a cigarette in my hand. I stopped, from one day to the next. By chance, it was a day when Mahatir, Malaysia's former prime minister, called onto the nation to stop smokine, make it a non-smoking day. Thank you, Tun! I followed your advice.

There were a couple of incidences when I nearly started to smoke again. One was the death of my father and the guilt in me that I hadn't seen him for a longer while. I just started to work in Malaysia on a 2 year contract and didn't want to go back to Germany for my leave but instead took the chance to travel around Asia. I thought that after the two years, i would go back to Germany and see him again anyway. I never did. He died, after a long fight against Parkinson's disease.

The day my mother called to tell me that my father died was the day I wanted to smoke again. It didn't happen, thanks to my wife (I dated her at that time) and her "handholding" at that time.

The next time was when I actually had a big argument with my wife-to-be. I was so angry that I told her that I need a break to throw the remaining cigarettes (yes, I kept some spare, just in case!) away, otherwise, I would start to smoke again. When I came back, we had lost our the feeling for the fight, didn't know what the fight was about anymore, had a good laughter and moved on.

I still like the cigarette smoke, every now and then. And every now and then, I still feel the urge to smoke. I don't because I know that I wouldn't be able to control the habit and would be back to my 30 or 40 sticks in a day.

And no "Tak Nak" campaign would help me then!

I believe that hypnotherapy is one way to overcome addiction.

It is simply instilling new values, new beliefs into the system. I won against my addiction because I was able to change my behaviour and had a good fight for a different behaviour and strong, very strong willpower (hey - I am a German, okay?).

But behaviours operate at a lower level of your neurology and are often directed by values and beliefs. The subconscious belief that a cigarette helps to strengthen confidence is strong. It is entrenched deeply in the sub-conscious mind, more than the behaviour that consciously says cigarettes are bad for your health.

Values and beliefs influence behaviour but changes in behaviour are pretty much challenged to change values and beliefs - in fact, a changed behaviour might not influence beliefs at all if left at that.

Only "extreme" behavioural change is able to change values and beliefs - for example, a lot of my beliefs changed after I moved from Germany to Malaysia, thus even the environment is able to ultimately change behaviour and beliefs - but who is willing to change so dramatically to change values and beliefs? Strong group pressure is another possibility to change beliefs and then, following, values and beliefs.

Ultimately, it is easier to directly go into the belief system. A good hypnotherapist is able to identify those original secondary gains - e.g.; the need for confidence - that come with the consumption of cigarettes.

Once this gain is identified in an initial session, a certified practioner hypnotherapist can easily eliminate the habit and behaviour. Send me a mail - I am more than happy to help or coach you.

(NLP in Asia)

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