There are many websites today that promote ways to stop smoking. Some are the same, others are quite different. Today, the government's quitline is receiving a record number of calls. During the period of 2004 to 2010, just under three million calls were made. Just this year, 2011, there have been more than 600,000 calls. There is no doubt that more Americans than ever before are considering ways to give up smoking once and for all.
If you want to successfully stop smoking, you must find the right solution for your problem. A nicotine patch is one solution. Smokers should be able to get rid of their desire to smoke if they use the nicotine patch and slowly withdraw from nicotine as they use less and less nicotine in the patch. However, this system does not work well for most smokers (1). As a matter of fact, it's the same as just trying to quit "cold turkey". Thus, the desire to smoke cannot be attributed solely to nicotine dependency. Although nicotine dependence is certainly a part of the syndrome, it cannot be the only factor. Because of this, every smoker who uses the system will have a 100% success rate. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Success rates are significantly below ten percent. 10 % in January.
For those who choose to use nicotine gum, it is equally effective. Various amounts of nicotine are infused into the gum, which is used to stop nicotine addiction. Nicotine gum, however, does not work as well as nicotine patches.
Hypnosis programs are one of the oldest methods for quitting smoking. In the past, hypnotists have made money from people who believed that hypnosis could help them quit smoking forever. As a clinical hypnotherapist in one of the largest and oldest hypnosis clinics in the US, I can tell you that most hypnotists don't know how to properly use hypnosis to help their patients in the long term. As a result, hypnosis programs for quitting smoking rarely work long-term.
A world-renowned hypnotist, Marshall Sylver, was allegedly paid $100,000 by Kerry Packer, who, until his death in 2005, was the wealthiest man in Australia and one of the richest people in the world, to help him quit smoking with hypnosis. We did not accept the request. In Kerry Packer's case, it was not hypnosis that stopped him from smoking.
In order to quit smoking, smokers must address what drives their desire to continue consuming cigarettes. For people to stop smoking, hypnosis must be applied correctly. Smokers should not be told that they cannot smoke anymore or that their cigarettes taste like rotten eggs. During hypnosis, the hypnotist concentrates on the past, on the moment when the subject made the decision to become a smoker. It was at this exact moment that smokers, mostly children no older than fourteen and sometimes as young as ten, started hypnotizing themselves into becoming smokers.