I was just thinking about this whole stopping smoking situation again, as I am lot at the moment! And wondered what others thoughts might be on the topic.
I've managed to quit in the past, once for 6 weeks before starting again, but recently I've not had so much luck, bailing out after just a day max.
Anyway, I saw an advert for some hypnotherapy, claiming to stop smoking in an hour guarnteed. Great I thought, whats to loose.
So I made an appointment to see the guy, becuase I was traveling around a bit before hand and then had some visitors after the appointment wasnt until about 3 weeks in the future, plenty of time to get my head ready for the big day.
So I went to the appointment, had a chat with the guy for an hour or so while he told me a few bits and peices, most that I knew about the chemicals in the ciggies, about the 'habbit' being the real 'addiction' etc, etc. And then telling me that it was all in my head and if I saw that then I would never have any craivings etc... me being a very cinical person was thinking mmmm, right, wait till I get out of this office and then we'll see... we also did a bit of a hypno thingy for about 30 mins, during which I'll add my phone went off which I'm sure didnt help the situation. so basically I wasnt feeling too good about the situation when I left.
Right, so hypno and chat out the way, the guy was paid and I went on my way, I went straight round to my dive shop to have a chat with the guys in there, most smokers, and didnt have any desire to smoke at all, well almost no desire anyway, so of course was thinking, maybe there is something to all this hypno stuff, great!
Later that night though I was starting to feel a little weaker and one of my good friends had asked me out for a few drinks and something to eat, this usually ends badly for me as she can drink me under the table any day of the week... so we went out and sure enough 4 or 5 drinks later those ciggies were starting to look very good indeed, and not too much later I was straight back to where I started and a good half a pack gone in the course of the night.
So, Sat morning (my quit day you'll note) I was nursing my hangover and pondering the situation, 'well the hypnotherapy obviously didnt work too well did it?' so thought to myself, right, this is it, I know I have to quit sometime and if paying someone loads of cash doesnt work then I'll just have to do it the hard way.
So here we are, day 5 and the problem I have is deciding how much good the hypnotherapy has actually done for me. It certainly feels easier than it has done in the past during the first week, of course I would still pull out each of my toe nails to have a single ciggie but there seems to be something more stopping me, something that wasnt there before stopping me from thinking 'sod it, lets just have another...just one'
Has anyone else had something similar to this or would I be fairly unique in this experience, would be very keen to hear others views on the topic.
Sorry this is so long by the way, amazing how much energy you get for things once you have nother better to do (i.e. a smoke!).
Cheers..!
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Trust me, I'm the most sceptical when it comes to this alternative stuff.
I told my hypnotherapist I did'nt believe in it and he was not going to get me eating raw onions!:rolleyes::rolleyes:
I had a very odd afternoon listening to him, I never 'went under' or not that I remember anyway.
Whenever I have tried to give up in the past I get to the point at about a month where the brain says 'I know now I can give up so I may as well have one':eek: Well that happened this time, I tried to smoke a roll up, absolutely hated it, hurt to try to smoke, deffo no euphoria moment, threw it away. Now this must be something to do with the hypnotherapy I reckon.
I studied hypnotherapy for a year - so I although I am not an expert on hypnosis - I know a little bit.
Hypnotherapy is a tool - which only works if you really want to quit smoking - if you don't want to quit 100 % the chances of success are little to none.
No hypnotherapist in the world can give you any guarantee - if anybody claims to be able to do so - please don't waist your time or money.
There are a lot of fairytales about hypnosis circling arround - for example that one can get stuck - that's not possible - worst scenario you fall aslepp and sleep cancels the hypnotic state.
A lot of people being the first time hypnotised will say 'oh I did not go under !'- cause they expect to be knocked out - which is generally not the case ( only very few can reach that deep state of trance ) which is for a non smoking session anyhow not wanted.
There are books on autohypnosis which are really good - one is 'hypnosis for change' by Carol Staudacher and Josie HAdley
You can save yourself a lot of money if you do it yourself.
One more thing - any serious therapist will call her/himselef a complementary therapist - not an alternative one.
well i have been looking into bioresenance and hypno combined ........ i will be doing this in 2 weeks sghould i fail this time round ......bioresenance supposedly detoxs the body and removes all the nicotine and the hypno to change habits -----does it work i dont know..........anyone tried this one.
I had hypno for nerves/driving test and it worked! I did not go under or anything like that though what seemed like 10 mins was an hour.......
So who knows!
The above is £195.00 for the combination ----so considering it even to complement the cold turkey bit.
here is a bit of information on bioresonance click for info
to be honest Imho I am slightly sceptical about it - sceptical specially because a mashine is involved - a mashine of which we know little how it works and what it really does. Have you ever seen one of these so called aura photographing mashines ? - Nearly all of them are aura simulating - which means it does not matter who or what is photographed. I know that's not bioresonance - but another 'alternative' mashine
I am myself a complementary therapist who works with energies - I know that Reiki works - I know that colour therapy works - I know that the Bach flower remedies work - for none of these therapies do we need expansive mashines.
Btw after 3 days the nico has left your body - and what is left are cravings of the mind - strong ones I admit as I know from personal experience:eek:
please be careful in your choice of therapists and specially avoid any therapist who charges a lot! But by all means if you think that's the right thing for you - give it a go .
I've never had hypnosis but would love to for a few irrational phobias I have aquired over the years (spiders, pidgeons.....)
I know a nice psychic lady who read my aura once, I don't think there are any machines that could do what she does. It sounds a bit gimmicky and cranky to me.
However I do agree with complimentary therapies mentioned so far.... what colour should I wear for anxiety? I've to go out at lunchtime today to see someone I cannot stand, who gets me twitchy and irritated just thinking about them.... any advice?
I was also interested about reading about colours, in particular the colour Orange, which is a really positive colour and when worn the person feels really confident and positive. Have you got any orange???
I don't know about anyone else but I feel so much more confident because I have given up smoking, I never thought I had any will power before but I have found something out about myself, and I like the new me.
You go and have lunch with your head held high and bite your bottom lip if you feel the urge to slap her!!! lol xxxxxxxx
For me day 3 was worse than day 1 and 2. It just hits you right in the face and the need for nicotine is so strong but if you can just get over today you will find that day 4,5,6,7,8,9 so on are really good days for you. x
Hypnosis - I had this 2 years ago and gave up smoking for 7 months. It was really so real feeling. I was advised to smoke my last ciggie and make it like a ritual, get rid of lighters and ashtrays etc and then come along to the appointment.
When I came out after the appointment, it was a weird feeling, it was like I had never smoked, no withdrawl feelings, not tearful,angry or emotional feelings, sleep wasnt disturbed and everything was wonderful at first, then I could physically feel it wearing off and would try and spend my days with smokers on purpose and I became a bisto kid!!!!
After about month 2, smoking a ciggie would take up every minute of the day, at this point I should've gone back and had a top up but I didn't and then another few miserable months down the line, I gave in and smoked and then carried on until 17/3/2008.
This was my experience, although I do know a few friends who have been stopped for years, I guess you have to really want to but with me I thought it would be a magical cure.
Sorry to hear the hypnosis didnt work out for you in the end, I'm having similar feelings of it wearing off at the moment. I'm fairly sure I'm running on my own steam now after only 5 ish days.
Very interesting point you made about actually wanting to quit. That is surely half the problem with smoking, certainly from my point of view anyway, apart from health problems, does anyone actually 'want' to quit?
I know I should'nt start smoking again but at the end of the day I know I do still want to. Addiction, habbit or something more, enjoyment?
hmmm... who knows, well I'm feeling ok ish on day 6 so lets see what the new week brings!
Very interesting point you made about actually wanting to quit. That is surely half the problem with smoking, certainly from my point of view anyway, apart from health problems, does anyone actually 'want' to quit?
The way I look at is, I may want a cigarette, I may even want to smoke, but I don't want to *be* a smoker, if you see the difference. At the moment, and for the last (nearly) 3 months, the part of me that doesn't want to be a smoker is stronger than the part of me that wants to smoke. We are all addicts at the end of the day, who need to find the method that's right for each of us to control the addiction and stick to a smoke-free life.
I have been quit for 2 Months, 4 Weeks, 2 Days and 31 minutes (90 days). I have saved £478.12 by not smoking 1,800 cigarettes. I have saved 6 Days and 6 hours of my life. My Quit Date: 04/01/2008 11:45
I know a nice psychic lady who read my aura once, I don't think there are any machines that could do what she does. It sounds a bit gimmicky and cranky to me.
However I do agree with complimentary therapies mentioned so far.... what colour should I wear for anxiety? I've to go out at lunchtime today to see someone I cannot stand, who gets me twitchy and irritated just thinking about them.... any advice?
Hi Fairy
sorry for a bit late reply - anyhow the most ' leave me alone colour' would be black - but apart from colours just vislualize yourself in a bubble of light which nobody can penetrate - guess you met this person already so this is for the next time
I hope I did not sound cranky - I know people who are clair voyant and/or clair sentient and there are people who can see the colours in somebodies aura - I have no doubt that the lady who has this gift gave you a meaningful reading.
What I wanted to say is : Please evrybody be careful in your choice of Therapy and therapist.
In the UK are no legal regulations - anybody with or without qualifications can open his/her therapy studio. Many want to stop smoking and many want to make a big business out of that. so just be careful and try to find your therapist - for example hypnotherapist - and hypnotherapy has a high success rate - up to 70 % - via a recognized body
I tried using a hypnotherapist over a quite extended (and expensive) period and it was a total 100% failure!!
But I have heard of people for whom it has worked.
For my money, two things have to be there for hypnotherapy to work:
1. A gifted therapist (I don't think mine was, although registered)
2. A clear intention to quit
People say over and over that any aid is only an aid .
So what makes A quit THE quit?
Good question.
For myself, I have an intuition that this is THE quit for me. Somehow I seem to be maintaining my clarity about the original decision. I may want a fag now and then, but I never feel I'm depriving myself of anything as an abiding state of mind. So far, I just can always answer the question 'Do you want to be a smoker' with ..'No.'..without any sense of loss or effort.
What's new? Maybe an interior thing, but this time I did take care to get with a Nosmoking group and then the forum...which I believe to have been an immense help.
Lot of this stuff has been said before on this thread. I just find it so interesting. One great relief to me is to meet so many others who have tried and tried and tried to quit. You get to feel so feeble when you do that (well I did).
That's enough from me!!
Stay quit...and thank you all for your company!
Bill
PS RobertB...It is so interesting to learn that Allen Carr quit using hypnosis...Hmmm..what do you make of that, re his style and approach?...Mark you, the only time I ever quit for any length of time before was after reading his book (4 months, 20 years ago!!!)
sorry for a bit late reply - anyhow the most ' leave me alone colour' would be black - but apart from colours just vislualize yourself in a bubble of light which nobody can penetrate - guess you met this person already so this is for the next time
I hope I did not sound cranky - I know people who are clair voyant and/or clair sentient and there are people who can see the colours in somebodies aura - I have no doubt that the lady who has this gift gave you a meaningful reading.
What I wanted to say is : Please evrybody be careful in your choice of Therapy and therapist.
In the UK are no legal regulations - anybody with or without qualifications can open his/her therapy studio. Many want to stop smoking and many want to make a big business out of that. so just be careful and try to find your therapist - for example hypnotherapist - and hypnotherapy has a high success rate - up to 70 % - via a recognized body
Clivia
No sunny, you do NOT sound cranky. But that machine sounded a bit far fetched.... keep up the great work and thanks fo the advice. I usually wear black (too much my mum says) and most people do treat you more respectfully when you do (for some reason).
I have to admit this topic really interests me too. I've tried a few bits and bobs before, nothing that involved actually going to see someone, you know those CD's you can buy from Amazon, Paul Macenna Etc.
Anyway, never really saw too much benefit from them in the end but I was wondering if that was down to commitment of making it work, i.e. if you spend 20 quid on something you are less committed than i you spend 200 by seeing someone in person.
I'm still not sure how much good my treatment has done, on the one hand I don’t totally agree with the things he was telling me and considering it seems to be something you really have to believe for it to work. However, one thing he did say is that after the treatment I would have more will power to say now, and basically that is exactly what has happened but I still can’t put that down exactly to
1) the hypnotherapy doing its job or..
2) the realization that the hypnotherapy didnt work and saying (which I have) 'well if that didnt work then i'm just gonna have to do this the old fashioned way'
Either way I do feel much more determined this time to not start smoking again, although I've wanted to smoke many, many times over the last week and a half, it's not been anywhere near as bad as it was been in the past, I seem to have gained this ability to say to it 'just shut up because you're not having one!'
Anyway, I'm still very confused about the situation...
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(me jealous?!?:mad
- but I do use colours for different purposes - and at least try to buy regularly something in a colour and not always black
Just a post to share my views
Has this quit changed your view about the ban
Long term quitters - what's your Dr's views?
