Smoking is a harmful and addictive habit that affects millions of people around the world. We now know the dangers of cigarette smoking and smokers are urged to stop smoking for their own health. This is not an easy task, as most smokers start at an young age. The average age at which many people begin to smoke is only thirteen years old.

A habit formed at such a young age is not easily broken. Nicotine affects the body in many ways and it is hard to pull free without some help. Nicotine addiction is only one of many different diseases which can be caused by smoking. Most smokers require some help on how to quit smoking and a variety of methods exist for this very purpose.

There are many different reasons why people start smoking and develop a smoking habit. The main reason that people try smoking is peer pressure. Some young people believe smoking will make them appear more mature, and increase their popularity with their peers. It also is forbidden which makes it all the more alluring to rebellious teenagers, hence the low starting age for many people. This young age makes quitting smoking more difficult in your later years.

Media can also influence the decision to start smoking. Smoking portrayed in movies or on television can lead someone; especially a younger person to believe that smoking is a safe activity. Parents can wield the biggest influence over their children by setting a good example on how to quit smoking. Mothers and fathers who smoke are much more likely to have children who start smoking.

Smokers begin to crave nicotine, a drug within tobacco. Nicotine can affect your body and mind in many harmful ways. Nicotine, once inhaled into the lungs reaches the brain in a mere eight seconds. Once in your brain, nicotine affects your heart rate and blood pressure. Over time it can increase your bad cholesterol and narrow your arteries. Nicotine in concentrated doses is a lethal poison, so you can imagine the effects on your body. Nicotine is also addictive and one of the reasons many smokers cannot quit smoking.

Smoking can impact your health on a variety of levels. Getting winded playing a game is one side effect of smoking. More serious smoking related diseases include emphysema and cancer. Strokes and heart disease are also closely associated with cigarette smoking. A person who stops smoking will greatly reduce their risk of developing these diseases for every year they go without smoking.

The outcome of these medical conditions caused by smoking is grim. Lung cancer is nearly always fatal unless detected very early and 80% of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking. Lung and heart disease can subtract years from your life unless you are able to quit smoking. Emphysema cannot be cured but only managed, plus the damage to your lungs cannot be repaired. Stop smoking benefits include a longer, healthier life and a better quality of life.

There are several different methods to quit smoking, and you must choose the best method for you as an individual. Nicotine gums and patches are made to help you slowly withdraw from the nicotine addiction. These only work for about 10% of the people who use them. Another option is going cold turkey, and this is effective for up to 11% of the smokers who choose this option. Other popular methods to quit smoking include an herbal kit that can guide you through quitting. It has a success rate similar to that of nicotine patches and gums.

Hypnotherapy is a very popular option for those who want to quit smoking without experiencing weight gain or withdrawal symptoms. Hypnotherapy has a high success rate with smokers who are trying to quit smoking. Hypnotherapy might sound like an extreme solution but it delivers solid results up to 70% of the time. This success rate is many times that of other methods.

The reason hypnosis is so effective is that it while the addiction to nicotine makes up only about 10% of the cigarette smoking addiction, the emotional and mental aspects of the habit make up about 90% of the smoking addiction. Hypnosis treats this aspect of the addiction.

About 45% of the smoking behavior is caused by stress, and hypnotherapy has proven to be a powerful tool that can help reprogram the mind to divert away from stressful thoughts, and towards relaxing, positive thoughts. In addition, the very essence of hypnosis is that it incorporates a deep state of relaxation.

And about 45% of the smoking behavior is caused by conditioned responses. This is where smoking becomes associated with other stimuli at the unconscious level of mind. For example, if you smoke and simultaneously watch TV, your unconscious will associate the image of a cigarette in your hand with the image of the TV. Every time you watch TV, your unconscious flashes an image of the cigarette in your hand, and you feel the compulsion to smoke.

Stop smoking hypnotherapy is regularly used to "extinguish" the conditioned responses by disassociating the unconscious connections between cigarettes and TV, drinking coffee, working on your computer, driving, or any other environment where an unconscious association has been formed.

In summary: Although most smokers believe that their inability to quit smoking is due to their addiction to nicotine, in truth it's the mental and emotional aspects of a smoking habit that present the largest barriers. Hypnotherapy was accepted by the American Medical Association in 1958 as an effective tool. And hypnosis for smoke cessation is the second most common use of hypnotherapy today.

While hourly rates for hypnotherapists continue to skyrocket, there are effective hypnosis CDs on the market that can greatly reduce its cost. Since everyone is different, there are no specific "magic" words or post-hypnotic suggestions that will work for everyone. So when choosing a self hypnosis program, look for programs that incorporate a broad variety of hypnotic and NLP techniques in a series of at least six or more sessions to enjoy the best possible outcome. In any event, the fee for the best self hypnosis programs equates to much less than the amount that an average smoker spends each and every month on cigarettes.

Alan B. Densky, CH created the Video Hypnosis quit smoking program which helps smokers easily break the habit. He also created other ways to quit smoking using Ericksonian Hypnosis and NLP. Visit his Neuro-VISION self development hypnosis site for free hypnosis videos and MP3s.
http://www.neuro-vision.us/