Thoughts On Smoking
I have heard people say there is nothing worse than a reformed smoker. Really, is that true? Surely goat’s cheese must run a close second. Whether a reformed smoker is a truly terrible thing or not, this morning I am prompted to write about smoking, or rather not smoking.
Two things have come to my attention recently regarding smoking. The first was an ill-informed article in the Evening Standard last week entitled ‘Smoking Is a Dying Art’ written by Charles Saatchi. I have no axe to grind with smokers, and I have no interest at all in convincing people to stop smoking. I do however take my work in helping people to stop smoking extremely seriously. There is a big difference. Clients come to me when they want to stop. In fact one of the very first questions I ask someone is on a scale of one to ten what is your motivation? If the response is “three, my wife made me come to see you,” I politely show them the door. I have no interest in taking money from people under false pretences. Hypnotherapy can no more make you give up smoking against your wishes than it can make you cluck like a chicken in Sainsbury’s. It’s not magic; it’s re-programming of the mind combined with some practical and rational advice about necessary lifestyle change. That’s why it works, because it’s logical, practical and not mystical.
Saatchi’s article didn’t irritate because he’s smoker, or indeed because he clearly intends to remain a smoker. It irked me because it was wrong. Quite apart from the fact that the entire premise of his article was a rejection of the dangers caused by secondary smoking, a subject which I am not qualified to comment on, he inferred that smoking helps people to feel calm and reduces tension. He even suggested that “Doctors who know full well the dangers associated with smoking continue to light up - they take the view that smoking makes life more relaxing and pleasant, and that even the medical advantages this promotes may be tenuous, they nonetheless exist.”
The notion that smoking relaxes you is a dreadful myth. In essence, smoking makes you feel relaxed because you have put your body into a state of dependence on nicotine which is only satisfied by smoking. It’s the smoking that makes you need to relax in the first place! Without going into the science in great detail just consider this. Nicotine is a vaso-constrictor, meaning that it causes the arteries to contract. As a result the heart needs to work faster and harder to pump blood around your body. If you smoke twenty cigarettes a day your heart will beat an extra ten thousand beats in twenty four hours. That doesn’t sound like relaxation to me. The reason so many people, Saatchi included presumably, believe cigarettes to be a relaxant is that we don’t like discomfort, and craving for nicotine makes you uncomfortable if you are a smoker. You become restless, irritable and anxious, unable to concentrate without a cigarette. The simple truth is that it is your smoking that puts you in this state.
I spend a good deal of time with clients who come for help to stop smoking discussing the physical impact of smoking. But I know this in itself is not enough. Just understanding the risks is never enough because if it was, there would be no smokers.
One of the interesting things about smoking statistics is that the number of smokers has been quite stable over the past few years after several decades of steady decline between the 1970’s and 1990’s. Perhaps we have become desensitised to the information, but despite that nearly 800,000 people try and give up smoking with the help of the NHS every year. Unfortunately nearly half of them relapse.
The success rate with hypnotherapy is generally very encouraging, although I am always sceptical about stating firm numbers. If I accept every client that says they want to give up regardless of their motivation I will have a poorer rate of success than someone down the road that only accepts people with high motivation. In addition, how do we measure success? If you come to see me and stop for six months but then take the habit up again did your therapy work or not? What about a year later, five years later? This is a key issue within therapeutic work. I can help you achieve what you want to achieve, but I can’t change the life you wish to lead whether that is conscious or subconscious. Any therapy is hard work if you intend to get the best from it, and it is the same with helping to give up smoking. If you want to stop, I or any number of other good hypnotherapists can help you, but you are not a passive figure in this. There will be some stress and withdrawal and you will need to want to stop. But if that is what you want, and once achieved you will doubtlessly feel on top of the world.
I read an article on the launch of ‘STOPTOBER’, the government initiative to get people to stop smoking for the month of October on the basis that once you have stopped for a month you may as well stop for good. I hope it works for those of you that want to stop. If you’re a fan of these months themed initiatives you might like to grow a goatee at the same time and run it all into ‘MOVEMBER’.
So, in conclusion I have no wish to stop people smoking if that is their wish. I am however committed to helping people who want to stop smoking actually achieve it, permanently.
©Copyright 2012 by Graham, Hypnotherapy Maidstone - All Rights Reserved.