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Several individual states have forbidden smokers to smoke in public areas. Numerous business organizations have declared their work environments to be smoke-free, and are sanctioning employees who choose to smoke at work. Persons who smoke subject themselves to cold weather and the elements, and smoke away as quickly as possible so that they can go back to their jobs.

In some areas, smoking is a behavior as controversial as taking illegal drugs. these as well as other stop smoking benefits, many people are doing their best to find ways to quit smoking.

There are three components to a smoking habit:

1. People smoke for relaxation and pleasure. This makes up about 45% of the smoking habit.

2. People also smoke because they unconsciously associate agreeable environments or behaviors with cigarettes. This causes them to crave a cigarette every time they encounter that location. For example, if a person associates watching television with smoking, they will become conditioned to smoke while watching TV. Then, every time that individual watches television, he or she will want a cigarette.. This makes up about 45% of the habit.

3. Nicotine actually creates a physical addiction. Physical addiction is about 10 percent of the reason why people continue to smoke. Within only three days of quitting, a person's body is completely Nicotine-free!

Numerous methods can be used to assist individuals learn ways to stop smoking. Probably the cheapest way to quit smoking, which is reimbursed through many insurance companies, is the nicotine patch. Easy to apply, each patch is worn for 24 hours and can be concealed underneath a person's clothing. The drawback to these patches, however, is that patches are not very beneficial. Because these products only deal with the physical addiction, which accounts for just one-tenth of the reason for which people continue to smoke, they offer only about a ten percent success rate.

A very similar level of success applied to nicotine gum or lozenges. Fewer than one-tenth of the persons who try these strategies will have success with these approaches to stop smoking for as long as six months. In addition, these products have adverse effects. substances, which contain Nicotine, are sometimes irritating to the mouth tissue as well as the lips, while a significant percentage of people report skin irritation at the site of the patch. Again, these items target just the physical addiction, which only makes up about one-tenth of the habit.

Yet another alternative is the development of psychotherapy and smoking cessation courses. These classes include behavior modification techniques and intensive education about the harmful outcomes of smoking. These strategies are three times as effective as nicotine replacement therapies; approximately 22 percent of these people will succeed in quitting for at least six months.

several smokers have utilized laser treatment programs to help stop smoking. This approach is often paid for by insurance, although it is new. Experimental trials performed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), however, reveal that these treatments are no more successful than placebo. (Placebo is the result that happens when people think they are taking a treatment, but actually are not.)

One of the ways to stop smoking appears to be a little more successful than the preceding strategies. During one research study, smokers were given shots to help them quit smoking by removing the 'buzz' of the nicotine rush. This method, in the beginning phases of testing for benefit, so far appears to be effective for 15 percent of the patients who trialed it.

Hypnosis is an alternative strategy for coaching clients to quit smoking. Hypnosis concentrates on re-teaching the unconscious mind to automatically substitute other behaviors to provide comfort and pleasure, in place of the nicotine dependency. It also can be employed to eradicate or "extinguish" conditioned behaviors such as the connection noted between cigarettes and behaviors mentioned earlier, so the smoker is relieved of the urge to smoke when in the environments that used to trigger it.

Men seem to be more amenable to stop smoking hypnosis than female patients do. One advantage resulting from self hypnosis stop smoking, however, is that, in comparison to persons use nicotine replacement as ways to quit smoking, there are no undesirable side effects.

Another positive aspect of hypnosis is that it addresses the nine-tenths part of the habit that is psychological, versus the other methods that just attack the one-tenth component of the habit that is physical. Therefore, hypnosis results in a much higher effectiveness than the previously discussed methods of stop smoking treatments. Conventional hypnotherapy techniques can deliver a 35 percent success rate, while Ericksonian hypnosis can offer a 50% or greater effectiveness.

A newer, revolutionary, and significantly more useful approach that encourages people to obliterate a cigarette addiction is Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP. This technique is much more useful than established methods of quit smoking hypnosis as it avoids reliance on post-hypnotic suggestions at all. Most people, such as people who tend to be critical thinkers, do not easily accept post-hypnotic suggestions. Professionals who use NLP coach the client's unconscious mind to concentrate on the same exact cognitive patterns that cause the mental addiction to smoking, to eliminate it!

A well thought out NLP smoking cessation program organized by a trained NLP professional can result in an effectiveness rate of up to 70 percent or greater.

Summary: Most smoking cessation programs try to employ nicotine replacement strategies as ways to quit smoking. Some techniques, like smoking cessation and counseling programs, attempt to help the mind find ways to stop smoking.

While hypnotherapy is more effective than other methods, particularly with male clients, most people do not rate it as the most helpful way to quit smoking. NLP, which treats the mental elements of the smoking addiction, actually aids persons to redirect their mental patterns to help them quit most successfully.

Because nine-tenths of an individual's struggle with addiction to cigarettes is psychological, these approaches are significantly more effective than simply giving the person nicotine and dealing with the one-tenth piece of the dependency that is physical.

Conclusion: Numerous smoking cessation sessions, including nicotine replacement therapy and psychotherapy can be found. These courses typically have a success rate of less than 20%. In contrast, hypnosis results in a much greater probability of success. NLP offers an even higher degree of effectiveness in helping people to successfully fight against the psychological nature of their problem and realize significantly more success in reaching their goal of becoming smoke-free.

Alan B. Densky, CH is the developer of the easy way to stop tobacco use with hypnotism. He offers an effective Quit Chewing Tobacco program based on the same methods. Learn more at his Neuro-VISION self hypnosis site where you can watch Free NLP videos and articles.