More Reasons for Quitting Smoking – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

There are very few (if any) reasons for continuing to smoke and many, many good reasons for quitting smoking.

Top of the list whenever I help someone to quit is pretty much always your health. You know that smoking damages your health and, even if you’ve been able to make yourself ignore the unseen damage, there is always the lingering worry that sooner or later all those cigarettes are going to catch up with you. You could wait until you notice you get out of breath, that you have less energy, that you are coughing all the time and that things seem a bit harder for you now, or you could take action to change your habit and give up before the damage is too great.

Of course there are many other great reasons for quitting smoking too. You save an absolute fortune when you don’t smoke anymore. You’ll no longer worry about smelling of fags or needing to slip away and find the next opportunity for to smoke. And, of course, with fewer and fewer people smoking now, you can stop feeling like the odd one out when you are around others. You also get the freedom of no longer needing to rely on cigarettes, you will feel healthier as a non-smoker and you are no longer controlled by that old habit.

Many smokers think that their cigarettes help them to relax. However, there is nothing in a cigarette that does this, it’s just that you’ve got used to smoking in situations where you are already feeling calmer, such as when taking a break or having a few moments to yourself. And although nicotine plays a role, the biggest factor is your ongoing smoking habit is psychological. Having smoked so many times in the same situations, your mind creates a pattern that links the cigarette and the situation together and there is an ongoing psychological expectation of doing the same thing each time. That’s why smokers light up in the same sort of situations and may not even think about smoking when they are somewhere they have never smoked.

And as with any pattern and habit, with hypnotherapy and a bit of effort and action, it is certainly possible to quit smoking for good.

Quitting Smoking

Once you have decided to quit smoking and are prepared to make some positive changes then it is very possible to break the habit. You can change that psychological expectation of smoking in certain situations or in response to specific triggers. After all, if you think about it, there will already be times when you go hours without any smoking or nicotine hit, for example, at night when you are asleep, if you are stuck in a long meeting that you can’t leave or when you are in the cinema or on a plane. You either don’t think about it or you cope without a cigarette.

Sometimes stress or other emotions are a trigger to smoking more and these can also be addressed through hypnotherapy. Yet more often it is the habitual same old thoughts, feelings and behaviours at play.

Recently I worked with Ian to help him quit and here is what he said after his sessions:

“I have been seeing Dan for a few weeks to help me stop smoking. Having smoked for far too many years, and tried to stop many times, I have now the confidence to stop of my own accord and those nagging cravings have finally gone, all thanks to Dan Regan.

Well done Dan and many thanks for your help. I would recommend Dan to anyone , not just to help you stop smoking but many other problems can be resolved with this easy therapy.”

It’s always fantastic when someone finally quits smoking. There’s an increased sense of calm around them without having to make excuses to go and smoke and when they are free of all the worry about damaging their health.

Another Reason To Quit

You already know that, if you really think about it, there are many reasons for quitting smoking. There’s your health, the unpleasant cravings, the sneaking off for one, the smell, the cost and the frustration of being controlled by a little white stick. You may have even more reasons than this. And there is little to commend continuing smoking and nothing meaningful to be gained. You could choose to pretend all the reasons for quitting don’t exist and to carry on doing the same old thing until you realise it is too late to avoid the inevitable consequences. Or you could do something about it.

As well as the increased risk of illness and disease, there is research that shows that smoking also affects your brain.

Chang et al (2023) examined the relationship between a history of daily smoking and brain volumes. Based upon a sample of 32,094 participants, they found that a history of daily smoking was strongly associated with decreased brain volume, and a history of heavier smoking was associated with a greater decrease in brain volume.

“We systematically examined the relationship between a history of daily smoking and global brain volume, and the preponderance of evidence supports an adverse association of smoking with brain volume” (Chang et al, 2023).

Just as it negatively impacts upon other organs of the body, this research shows that smoking also leads to decreases in your brain volume, adding to the risk of later cognitive issues. And the heavier your history of smoking, the greater the negative effects. Essentially, smoking shrinks your brain.

That’s pretty scary stuff if you are a smoker and another motivation to get on with quitting. In fact, that is the good news here, that quitting smoking prevents further loss of brain tissue.

Stopping smoking doesn’t have to be painful or lead to a sense of craving or loss. It does require a bit of motivation and effort but what would you rather do, nothing? You will need to change some routines and your behaviours a bit. In essence, you do need to do a bit of stuff to support becoming a non-smoker. Yet the positive consequences, for your health and your brain, from that bit of action can be massive.

To your health and happiness,

Dan Regan

Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

Need help to quit smoking or to stop vaping? Book your Complimentary Hypnotherapy Strategy Session with Dan now: Appointments

Find out what other people have said after their hypnotherapy sessions with Dan: Hypnotherapy Reviews

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Reference: Chang, Y., Thornton, V., Chaloemtoem, A., Anokhin, A.P., Bijsterbosch, J., Bogdan, R., Hancock, D.B., Johnson, E.O. and Bierut, L.J., 2023. Investigating the relationship between smoking behavior and global brain volume. Biological Psychiatry Global Open Science