Hypnosis to stop smoking: does it work?

By Jasmin Duesterhoeft, Hypnotist

Quitting smoking can be a real challenge, but it is one of the best things you can do for your health. The benefits of being a non-smoker include healthier skin, a longer life-expectancy, improved fertility, more energy, more money and significantly reduced risks of a heart attack or lung cancer.

What happens to your body when you stop smoking? The time since the last cigarette and how it affects the body:

• 20 minutes: Blood pressure and heart rate return to normal.
• 12 hours: Carbon monoxide levels drop back to normal.
• 24 hours: The body starts to clear out the mucus build-up in the lungs.
• 72 hours: Breathing becomes easier and energy levels increase.
• 1 month: Appearance of the skin improves.
• 3 to 9 months: Lung function can improve by up to 10 per cent.
• 1 year: Risk of suffering from a heart attack falls to about half of that of a smoker.
• 10 years: Risk of developing lung cancer falls to about half of that of a smoker.
• 15 years: Risk of suffering heart attack falls to that of a non-smoker.

Quitting smoking is a hard habit to kick. The market offers many products to help fight against cigarette cravings such as nicotine lozenges, patches, chewing gums and other smoking cessation methods and products. For some smokers, one of these tools may work. But for some smokers, nothing seems to help kick the cigarette cravings.

How hypnosis can help you quit smoking  

In the hypnotic state, you can activate our own resources to curb cigarette cravings. Hypnosis allows us to enter an altered state of awareness, through strong relaxation and a willingness to make a change. This allows the subconscious mind to channel and address underlying desires and block negative habits, to accomplish the goals we want to achieve.

Hypnosis works to amplify and activate your own inner existing desires like the wish to quit smoking. That’s why hypnosis can be an effective tool. But the premise is to be fully determined and ready to tackle the mental battle of quitting. Then it’s more likely to succeed.

Studies have also shown that hypnosis is an effective way to stop smoking.  A 2007 study from researchers at the American College of Chest Physicians compared hypnosis to nicotine replacement therapy. Fifty percent of patients who were treated in the hypnotherapy group were still quit at 26 weeks compared to just 15.78% in the nicotine replacement group. Patients who underwent NRT and hypnotherapy also experienced a 50-percent success rate at 26 weeks.

A comprehensive meta-analysis looked at more than 600 studies that examined various smoking cessation methods. More than 70,000 smokers were included in the analysis. Overall, the analysis found some compelling results for hypnosis:

• Hypnosis was deemed two times more effective than self-care methods, like reading self-help books or quitting cold turkey
• Hypnosis was twice as effective as nicotine replacement therapy with nicotine gum
• Hypnosis was three times more effective than physician interventions that involved more than counseling