{"id":1203,"date":"2015-02-03T20:21:38","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T20:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hypnosis-scripts.co.uk\/you-are-getting-sleepy-using-hypnosis-to-quit-smoking-asheville-citizen\/"},"modified":"2015-02-03T20:21:38","modified_gmt":"2015-02-03T20:21:38","slug":"you-are-getting-sleepy-using-hypnosis-to-quit-smoking-asheville-citizen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hypnosis-scripts.co.uk\/you-are-getting-sleepy-using-hypnosis-to-quit-smoking-asheville-citizen\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018You are getting sleepy\u2019: Using hypnosis to quit smoking \u2013 Asheville Citizen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hypnosis(Photo: Special to the Citizen-Times)
\nIt’s a new year, and that means resolutions.
\nQuitting smoking is always among the most popular. But it can be a hard one to keep.
\nThough smokers have a number of techniques to help them, ranging from acupuncture and counseling to medications and nicotine gum, hypnosis is one tool that may be overlooked.
\n“It can help people quit smoking,” says Greenville psychiatrist Dr. Patrick Mullen. “It can be very, very powerful.”
\nNearly seven in 10 smokers want to quit, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
\nAnd why not? Smoking is expensive, smelly and increasingly socially unacceptable.
\nIf that weren’t enough motivation, lung cancer kills more people than breast cancer, colon cancer and prostate cancer combined, according to the American Cancer Society.
\nBut quitting is hard, and many smokers try a number of times before they finally succeed because nicotine is one of the most addictive substances, Mullen says.
\nSo anything that helps a smoker quit is worthwhile, says Dr. Scott Strayer, a professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine.
\n“If a patient comes to me and says ‘I’m trying hypnotherapy,’ … I’d say there is some evidence for it,” he says. “There are some trials that show it might be efficacious.”
\nSuggesting change
\nAsheville hypnotist Kristin Shelly says about a third of her clients come to her to quit smoking. They are professionals and working class people, men and women, young and old.
\nShelly’s clients attend three sessions during which they are guided through a relaxation process and engaged in certain mental exercises that allow for more “creative imaginings.”
\n“Imagine reading a child a book before bed,” she explains. “Their mind is not thinking about playing or staying up later. It’s thinking about the story, almost like they’re living it, in a daydream-like state.”
\nOnce clients are in that deep state of relaxation, Shelly uses motivational language to help them picture their success and gives them post-hypnotic suggestions to keep them focused on their goal.
\nFor example, since most smokers associate the behavior with pleasure, she coaches them to think that being a non-smoker is more pleasurable. She has them picture what their life will be like as a non-smoker.
\nBecause post-hypnotic suggestions typically last about three days, which is about the length of time it takes for nicotine to leave the blood stream, she says clients also are given a recording on an MP3 player they can listen to to reinforce the suggestions as needed.
\nThe package, and one extra session clients can use at any time during the year, costs $300, says Shelly, who offers a sliding scale and payment plans. It’s not covered by insurance.
\nBut, she says, about 80 percent are still not smoking a year after their sessions with her.
\nStrayer says a quit rate that high is possible, especially because people who go to a hypnotist already think hypnosis can work, so their chances of success are enhanced.
\n“People who go to a hypnotist are already motivated,” he says.
\nSubconscious mind
\nAnd Mullen, who uses it in his practice, says that all hypnosis is ultimately self-hypnosis.
\nThe best way to think of it is a mental state or trance that allows for focused learning that can be unconscious, he says.
\nThe average person goes in and out of this type of trance all day long, he said. If someone is focused on a particular task, for example, they might not hear a wreck outside.
\nFar from the Svengali-like film portrayals of the practice, hypnosis allows the client to go into the trance with the coaching of the hypnotist, but the client is always in control, Mullen says.
\n“Hypnosis helps you access your subconscious mind, enlarging your focus, so you become aware of how your mind is working and then you can control it,” he says. “It’s using a characteristic of your mind that we tend to ignore.”
\nStatistics show hypnosis can work, Mullen says, adding that it was used in surgery to dull pain before anesthesia was invented.
\nStrayer says that while there is evidence that hypnosis works to quit smoking, more research needs to be done.
\nStill, he says about 13 percent of smokers try hypnosis and 40 percent say they’re interested in it. And it’s important to support patients in any reasonable efforts to quit.
\n“Anything that works,” he says, “we want people to have access to.”
\nArticle source: http:\/\/www.citizen-times.com\/story\/news\/local\/2015\/01\/19\/getting-sleepy-using-hypnosis-quit-smoking\/21998363\/<\/p>\n