Smoking

Tired of standing in the rain and the cold in the kind of draughty, smelly places that are often reserved for smokers outside workplaces, pubs, clubs and restaurants? Do you want to feel richer, healthier and more relaxed? If so, you could be among the many people who want to get rid of the smoking habit.

Much has been written about smoking, including this article by the World Health Organisation, which contains the stark statistic that tobacco kills up to half its users. To put it in a nutshell, getting rid of smoking is undoubtedly one of the best things you can do for your own health, not to mention the people you share your life with. In fact, according to this report, the children of people who smoke are three times more likely to smoke than the children of those who don’t.

The New Scientist has reported on a study covering more than 70,000 smokers/ex-smokers from America and Europe. It concluded that hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking. The Which? Report has previously reported that of all the methods available for stopping smoking, hypnotherapy was the most successful, and the only one without cravings, irritability and weight gain. However, smoking cessation therapy (like all therapies) is an interactive process and the client is ultimately the person who decides to get rid of smoking or not. 

The main reason a smoker will continue smoking despite the many reasons for giving up (Cancer Research UK) is because of subconscious impulses. Hypnotherapy deals directly with those subconscious impulses, often helping people transform their lives in less than two hours.

As a typical cigarette contains dozens of cancer-causing chemicals, there is no safe level for smoking, as this link illustrates. If you’re a smoker, the best thing you can do for your own health is to stop the habit. When you do, you can look forward to better health (mental as well as physical), longer life and more wealth.

For a stark illustration of the potential dangers of smoking, click on this link.

This in-depth study from the University of Minnesota concludes that smoking is even more dangerous for women than men when it comes to the risk of heart disease.

This BBC story highlights the benefits for young women of kicking the habit. However, giving up is good for both sexes and all ages – regardless of how long you’ve been smoking.

Unfortunately, TV and the media have played their part in promoting smoking, whether it be the overt promotion of smoking in Hollywood classics or by lazy plot devices in soaps where a character has a stressful time and reaches for a cigarette and/or a shot of whisky. In fact, far from relaxing people long term smokers are up to 80 per cent (my emphasis) more likely than non-smokers to suffer from depression and/or anxiety by the time they reach middle age. Additionally, of the 4,000 or so chemicals found in a typical cigarette, none have been shown to be relaxants, rather stimulants or poisons.

Vaping: For the minority of smokers, vaping can be helpful, but unfortunately for most it is simply swapping one addiction for another, and there is always the danger that the user will go back to using cigarettes. Vaping, too, has its own hazards and ongoing research is likely to unearth more. Interestingly, the following Guardian article indicates how the inventor of the e-cigarette has gone back to using cigarettes, which undermines the premise of vaping in the first place.