Most of us know that quitting smoking is one of the most difficult things you can face in life.
Or is it? Could it actually be easy? Find out more in this article.
Many ex-smokers say that smoking was the hardest thing that they ever did.
The biggest achievement that they are proud of.
But there are a small minority of ex-smokers who say that it was actually quite easy! Can this really be so? Yes it can - but there are only two ways to quit smoking easily.
One is hypnosis and the other is CBT.
But first we must understand why existing methods don't work to appreciate why these other two do.
The Billion Dollar Smoking Cessation Industry Is A Failure I'll come straight out with it.
If you use existing methods like willpower, pills or patches, your chances of quitting and never, ever smoking a cigarette again in your life are around 5%.
Yes, only a measly 5%! When you hear the amazing success rates quoted in magazines, these are a fallacy.
They are based on following up smokers maybe a week or a couple of months after quitting.
As the months and years roll by, most of those ex-smokers will start smoking again.
If you don't believe me, just take a look on Google Scholar and search medical papers to your heart's content.
These products fail because all they do at most is to try to suppress the cravings using chemicals or drugs.
They fail to recognise that addiction does not just involve the body but also the mind.
This is why they are doomed to failure.
Hypnosis Hypnosis is the first of the easy ways to quit smoking.
Unlike the usual methods, it does address the mind and seeks to "reprogram it" in a safe and well established way.
Many people fear hypnosis because they have seen stage shows.
They also think that there could be bad side effects like become a vegetable! This could not be further from the truth: hypnosis is a well established and certified profession that has been used to cure people of disorders of the mind like phobias for centuries.
There is nothing to fear! Hypnosis to quit smoking works by putting you into a suggestive trance where you are told that cravings no longer exist.
When you awaken from your trance, incredibly you feel like a changed person, you feel like a non-smoker again.
Thus quitting smoking after hypnosis is very easy.
The only downside to hypnosis is that some people do start smoking again after a few months or years.
This is easily remedied by a repeat session.
Addiction Therapy This method to quit is not like going to Narcotics Anonymous.
This is totally different.
Addiction therapy is a way of reversing the "brainwashing" that addiction has done to your mind.
You may not think it, but your behaviour has changed since you became a smoker.
Your life revolves around your cigarettes and you actually do things that seem irrational to a non-smoker.
Things like making sure you have enough cigarettes and even occasionally begging others for cigarettes when you are out of them.
Addiction therapy works to reeducate you about your addiction, how it works and how it has enslaved you.
It teaches you how to break the vicious circle of smoke, quit, crave, smoke again, quit etc.
The best thing about addiction therapy is that, unlike hypnosis, it all happens on a conscious level and you do not need to be put in a trance.
This means that it is much more successful in the long term because you truly understand your addiction and have not just been suggested to.