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Stop Smoking
The Specialists
Lodge Hypnotherapy
Stifford Hill
North Stifford Village
Grays Thurrock
Essex RM16 5UJ
01375
396900
The following article reproduced by kind permission of GASP
Deadly mix
Cigarettes are made from tobacco leaves grown with pesticides and fertilizers. The leaves are dried in wood burning ovens using millions of hectares of forest. Then tobacco is treated with additives. Tobacco smoke contains 1000s of chemicals. Hundreds are poisonous and many cause cancer. Let's focus on the biggies.
Nicotine is an addictive drug that affects the brain and the heart. It's a tricky drug. It makes you feel both tense and calm. Then there's tar. Burning tobacco creates tar -
There's ammonia, cyanide, arsenic, benzene and DDT.
Tobacco companies add tasty flavours to mask the nasty flavour of tobacco toxins.
But once you're addicted you'll keep buying more. That means more money in tobacco industry's pockets. Most smokers start before the age of 18 and keep on smoking so tobacco companies target their marketing to get to you!
Killer statistics
Last year, over 5 million people died worldwide as a result of tobacco. That many coffins would stretch, end-
If you and your friends start smoking and continue to smoke then half will die from smoking. Many will die 15 -
I don't smoke because …
"It's a total waste of money. I'd rather spend my cash on other things."
"I like to look good and feel good. Smoking does the opposite."
"My boyfriend would go off me if I smoked, he hates it."
"My uncle died of lung cancer because of cigarettes. My cousins have no dad."
"I love playing sport. Smoking and sport don't mix."
"I care about the environment. Cigarettes litter the streets and smoke pollutes the air."
"Hardly anyone I know smokes -
"I don't want to give my money to tobacco industry fat cats. They're legalised drug pushers as far as I'm concerned."
"I've been put off seeing mum and dad smoke like chimneys. I don't want to go there!"
"I don't want bad breath."
"Just the smell of smoke makes me wheezy. I'm asthmatic."
"Smokers stink."
"Me smoking? You must be joking!"
Dog Breath Dan and Fag Ash Lil
Smoking destroys your appearance. Smokers have dull complexions, age early and by the age of 40 have wrinkles of someone 20 years older, who doesn't smoke. That's because smokers have to manage on less oxygen. The body needs oxygen to keep the skin healthy and to make new cells to replace the old ones.
Smoking causes bleeding gums and loss of teeth. Have you seen smokers' hairy tongue? Tar builds up and stops the natural replacement of the tongue surface and you get a hairy effect. This traps food and causes bad breath. Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray.
With bad breath, yellow fingers, bleeding gums, smelly hair and clothes, smokers really stand out in a crowd. Not a pretty sight or smell. And because smoking damages the sense of smell and taste, smokers don't realise how much they stink.
Cash or ash -
Smoking makes you short of breath, cuts your life short and makes you short of money.
The price of a pack of cigarettes is bad enough but the trouble is one is never enough. Nicotine is addictive and smokers keep on buying more and more. It's like setting light to your money and watching it burn away.
Instead of smoking you could go out for a pizza and see a band, a film, go out clubbing or visit a games arcade. You could top up your mobile or buy a new top. Choose a new computer game, CD, DVD, make-
Or save it up for holidays, festivals, designer clothes, or a car, computer or … whatever.
Stopping smoking doesn't have to be a drag. So if you are a smoker here are ten tips to help you quit.
1. Decide your reasons for quitting -
2. Get support. Tell your friends, your family your best mates and warn them you might be moody. Ask them to stand by your decision to quit. Find a friend to quit with can help. Call a smokers helpline. Go see a nurse or your GP. They might give you some patches or gum.
3. Make a date to quit. List your smoking times and situations. What you could instead? Get ready to cope without cigarettes. Practise 'No thanks I don't smoke'.
4. Get rid of the smoking gear and get your head in gear. Your quit day is ahead.
5. Quit day. Wake up and say 'I don't smoke'. Read your list of reasons for quitting. Put on fresh clothes. Break your routines, do things differently.
6. Drink lots of water to flush out the system. Keep sipping. Eat healthy snacks -
7. Make like a mad thing on the dance floor, in the gym, in water or on wheels. Run up the stairs. Exercise is a better buzz. The more you move about and work out the less you'll feel like smoking. Then relax and chill out.
8. Treat yourself. You have more money to spend. Buy yourself a present and dream of what you'll buy with the money you save.
9. Beware of trying times. If you get headaches, a sore throat, cough or feeling down you know you're winning. That's the body getting rid of the rubbish inside you and starting to recover. Avoid temptation. Don't even think 'I'll just have one'. Just one is one too many. Non-
10. Be positive. Stopping smoking is the start of a bright new future. But take it just one day at a time. Today you choose not to smoke.
Article from the New Scientist Magazine
New Scientist vol 136 issue 1845 -
Hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking, according to the largest ever scientific comparison of ways of breaking the habit. Willpower, it turns out, counts for very little.
Smokers are coming under increasing pressure to quit.
Earlier this month the Institute of Actuaries published the results of a study it commissioned which showed that the mortality rate for smokers is twice as high as for non-
To find the most effective way to give up smoking, Frank Schmidt and research student Chockalingam Viswesvaran of the University of Iowa carried out a meta-
By combining the results from so many separate studies, the meta-
The results, published in the current issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, show that the average success rate for all methods was 19 per cent: that is, only about one in five smokers is likely to succeed using methods covered by the study. Patients told that they had serious cardiac disorders, and so a clear
incentive to stop immediately, had the highest quitting rate, at 36 per cent. But for most smokers the most effective technique was hypnosis, in which smokers go into a state of deep relaxation and listen to suggestive tapes. The analysis of treatment by hypnosis, which included 48 studies covering over 6000 smokers, gave an average success rate of 30 per cent for this method.
'Combination' techniques, combining, for example, exercise and breathing therapy, came second with a success rate of 29 per cent. Smoke aversion, in which smokers have their own warm, stale cigarette smoke blown back into their faces, achieved a 25 per cent success rate, followed by acupuncture at 24 per cent.
The least successful method turned out to be advice from GPs, which appears to convince virtually no one to give up. Sheer willpower proved little better, with a success rate of only 6 per cent. Self-
'We found that involvement of physicians did not have as big an impact as we expected,' said Schmidt 'We speculate that the reason is that it is the content of the treatment that matters, and not the status of the person giving it.' David Pollock, director of ASH, said he was surprised by the success of hypnosis, which anecdotal evidence had suggested was not very effective. One organisation not surprised by the results is the British Society of Medical & Dental Hypnosis. Christopher Pattinson, the society's academic chairman, said that current hypnosis techniques are a far cry from their popular image of music-
Richard Doll, the epidemiologist who carried out the pioneering studies of the risk of smoking, said that the apparent success of hypnosis and the high quitting rate of patients with heart disease backed his own observations. He added, however, that he was somewhat surprised by the low success rate of those who resorted to willpower alone: 'The majority of people find it not too difficult to give up,' he said. 'The only way to succeed is to want to do it enough’.
You have got to really appreciate what the risk is. I smoked and gave up without too much difficulty.'
Robert Matthews