Cigarette Smoking And How To Easily Kick The Habit

Smoking is a harmful and addictive habit that affects millions of people around the world. Today, we know about the dangers of smoking, and smokers are encouraged to find ways to quit smoking for their own health. This is not easy to do, as most smokers start at an extremely early age. The average age at which many people begin to smoke is thirteen years old.

A habit formed at that age is not easily broken. Nicotine affects many parts of the body and it is hard to pull free without assistance. Nicotine addiction is only one of many different diseases which can be caused by smoking. Most smokers need assistance on how to quit smoking and a variety of methods exist for this very purpose.

There are many reasons why people start smoking and continue to smoke. The main reason that people start to smoke is peer pressure. Some young people are led to believe that it looks "cool" when portrayed on television, in movies, and in advertisements. It also is forbidden which makes it all the more attractive to teenagers, hence the low starting age for many people. This young age makes quitting smoking more difficult in your later years.

Media can also have an impact on the decision to start smoking. Smoking portrayed on television or in movies can lead you to believe that smoking is a safe activity. Parents can wield the biggest influence over their children by setting a good example on how to quit smoking. Mothers and fathers who smoke are much more likely to have children who start to smoke.

Smokers begin to crave nicotine, a drug within tobacco. Nicotine can affect your body and mind in many negative ways. Nicotine, once inhaled into the lungs reaches the brain in a mere eight seconds. Once there, nicotine affects your blood pressure and heart rate. Over time it can increase your bad cholesterol levels and narrow your arteries. Nicotine in concentrated doses is a lethal poison, so imagine the effects on your body. Nicotine is also addictive and one of the reasons many cannot quit smoking.

Smoking can impact your health on many different levels. Getting winded playing a game is one side effect of smoking. More serious smoking related diseases include emphysema and cancer. Heart disease and stroke are also closely associated with cigarette smoking. A person who stops smoking will dramatically reduce their risk of developing these diseases for every year they go without smoking.

These smoking-related medical conditions often have grave consequences. Lung cancer is nearly always fatal unless detected very early and 80% of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking. Heart and lung disease can take years from your life unless you are able to quit smoking. Emphysema cannot be cured but only managed, plus the damage to your lungs cannot be repaired. Stop smoking benefits include a longer life span and a better quality of life.

There are many different methods to quit smoking, and you must pick the right method for you as an individual. Nicotine gums and patches are designed to help slowly release you from the nicotine addiction. Only about 10% of the people who use them will actually quit smoking. Another option is going cold turkey, and this is effective for up to 11% of the smokers who choose this option. Other frequently used methods to quit smoking include an herbal kit that can show you how to quit smoking. It has a success rate similar to that of nicotine gums and patches.

Stop smoking hypnosis is a popular and effective option for those who want to quit smoking without withdrawal or weight gain. Hypnotherapy has a high success rate with smokers who are trying to quit smoking. Hypnosis might sound like an extreme solution but it delivers positive results up to 70% of the time. This success rate is many times that of other methods.

The reason hypnotherapy is so effective is that it while the physical addiction to nicotine makes up only about 10% of the smoking addiction, the psychological aspects of the habit make up a full 90% of the cigarette smoking addiction. Hypnosis treats this aspect of the addiction.

About 45% of the smoking behavior is caused by stress, and hypnotherapy has proven to be a powerful, non-invasive tool that can help reprogram the mind to divert it from stressful thoughts, and towards relaxing, positive thoughts. In addition, the very essence of hypnosis is that it incorporates a state of deep relaxation.

Another 45% of the smoking behavior is caused by conditioned responses. This is when smoking becomes associated with other activities and events at the unconscious level of mind. For example, if you smoke and simultaneously watch television, your unconscious will associate the image of a cigarette in your hand with the image of the TV. Each time you see the TV, your unconscious flashes an image of the cigarette in your hand, and you feel the compulsion to smoke.

Hypnosis for smoking cessation is regularly used to "extinguish" the conditioned responses by disassociating the unconscious links between cigarettes and TV, driving, coffee, working on your computer, or any other situation where an unconscious association has been created.

In summary: Although most smokers believe that their inability to quit smoking is due to their addiction to nicotine, in truth it's the mental aspects of a smoking addiction that present the largest barriers. Hypnotherapy was accepted by the American Medical Association in 1958 as an effective tool for quitting smoking. And hypnosis for smoke cessation is the second most common use of hypnotherapy today.

While hourly rates for hypnotherapists continue to skyrocket, there are effective self hypnosis programs on the market that can greatly reduce its cost. Since everyone is unique, there are no specific "magic" words or post-hypnotic suggestions that will work for everyone.

So when choosing hypnosis CDs, look for those that incorporate a broad variety of hypnotic and NLP techniques in a series of at least six or more sessions to enjoy the best possible outcome. In any case, the cost of the very best hypnosis CDs & DVDs equates to much less than the amount that an average smoker spends every month on cigarettes.

Alan B. Densky, CH developed the Video Hypnosis quit smoking program to help smokers easily break the habit. He also created many ways to quit smoking with Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and NLP. Visit his Neuro-VISION self help hypnosis site.
http://www.neuro-vision.us/Products/NeuroVISIONSmokingDvd.htm