(NaturalNews) We have all heard how bad tobacco products are for our health. Smoking is an addiction that is very difficult to quit, but there are proven techniques that help increase your chances of not only quitting smoking, but never smoking a cigarette again. One of the most effective treatments in helping people to finally stop smoking is the alternative method of hypnotherapy.
According to the American Heart Association, 47.1 million people smoke in the United States. Of men in the United States, 23.5% smoke and out of women in the United States, 18.1% smoke. The statistics are even higher when looking at the worldwide statistics of cigarette smokers.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 4000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, 50 of which are known to cause cancer. According to WHO, half of the world's population of children (700 million children) are exposed to tobacco smoke. The International Labour Organization estimates that 200,000 people around the world die from second-hand smoke at work. These statistics show that not only is it important for an individual to quit smoking, but it is also important that they quit for the health of those around them as well.
Smoking is a physical and mental addiction. People become used to the feeling they get from a cigarette. They get used to having a cigarette in their hand and it occupies a great deal of time throughout their day; smokers become used to having an oral fixation with cigarettes. These are all physical aspects of their habit. The mental addiction can be more difficult to overcome. The actual addiction is mental and there is very little someone can do physically to help overcome the mental addiction to cigarettes.
Moses (1987) performed research on treating smoking with hypnotherapy. The researcher points out that smoking deals with habit, addiction, and willpower. All three of these aspects are difficult to treat alone, let alone all together, but hypnosis has shown to be effective in treating the habit, addiction, and one's willpower to quit. The suggestions used in this study were to get smokers to change the way they viewed smoking and also to become more aware of the negative health effects smoking was doing to their body and overall health. Hypnosis was used to target the smokers' habit, addiction, and willpower to effectively help them quit smoking. Results of the study showed that using hypnosis suggestions was very beneficial in helping people abstain from smoking tobacco.
Smoking has many negative effects on ones physical and mental health as well as the health of those around smokers. Quitting smoking has so many positive influences on one's health and a positive economic impact. It is important for people to look into alternative methods of quitting smoking. Hypnosis generally requires only a few sessions to help people quit smoking in the long-term having a huge positive impact on a person's life.
Sources
Moses, F. (1987). Treating smoking behavior by discussion and hypnosis: Destroying the myths of habit, addiction, and willpower. Psychology: A Quarterly Journal of Human Behavior, 24(1-2), 1-9.
"smoking statistics." American Heart Association. Retrieved June 1, 2009:
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4559World Health Organization. Retrieved June 1, 2009:
http://www.who.int/features/qa/60/en/index.htmlAbout the author
Steve G. Jones, Ed.S. has been practicing hypnotherapy since the 1980s. He is the author of 22 books on Hypnotherapy. Steve is a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists, American Board of Hypnotherapy, president of the American Alliance of Hypnotists, on the board of directors of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Lung Association, and director of the Steve G. Jones School of Clinical Hypnotherapy.
Steve G. Jones, Ed.S. is a board certified Clinical Hypnotherapist. He has a bachelor's degree in psychology from the University of Florida (1994), a master's degree in education from Armstrong Atlantic State University (2007), and is currently working on a doctorate in education, Ed.D., at Georgia Southern University. Learn more at:
http://www.betterlivingwithhypnosis.com/
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