Hi all,

Am on the slippery slope of nicotine again. Managed to cut down by about 90% before we left the UK (basically just smoked on nights out) but for one reason or another have found that I'm smoking more and more over here (perhaps cos I'm drinking more due to quality of the wines??). Could do with a helping hand as my willpower is sadly lacking. Would be interested to hear from anyone who has tried hypnosis - did it/didn't it work, how long did the results last etc?

Cheers

Try a search on the subject. There have been a few long threads about what has worked and what hasn't. The last one was by SJ Oldfield, probably on page 2.

I had hypnosis 18 months ago and haven't smoked since! My will power was laughable and I'd tried to quit a few times before but never managed more than 24 hours. Would definately recommend hypnosis it was the best £140 I have ever spent and I didn't get any cravings like some other ways of quitting may give you

I've tried the Paul McKenna self-help cds which are really good. I did have a problem with the Slim Now one though as it was too good. Part of the wording is that it speeds up your metabolism which, with me, it certainly did. The problem was that I was a nightmare to live with and shouted at OH and kids a bit too much and seemed 'wired' all the time. This stopped when I stopped listening to the CDs and I've tried it again since with the same result. However I've got epilepsy (very, very mild) so I do wonder whether I've just got a daft brain (OH thinks so anyway). Meant to say that I lost about 1/2 stone in a month. Worth a try, but I'd caution against anyone with epilepsy just in case.

does anyone know if hypnosis is covered by private health insurance? my friend in perth has lung cancer,has finished her chemo and results are that the tumors are 30% smaller in both lungs.she's still smoking 50 a day but some days less than others due to being tired so much.iam a smoker too and we were thinking of hypnosis.had a read of alan carr's book but to be honest sounds like willpower which neither of us have.i know iam addicted to nicotine but he states that the feeling of withdrawls you experience are the same as the ones you have between cigs.its $550 for 5 hours but it sounds a bit dodgie to me.by the way i am a nurse who has smoked since i started my training in 1975,not good advert for nursing especially when i was working on the oncology ward 6-9months? after i started smoking.the only one who didnt smoke out of nurses was the ward sister and she had just given up !!

no but my freind has,he is walking without any pain now that he has got a new hyp

Hypnosis can work, even for some who are sceptical.

I was very surprised.


If it is only for smoking, the hypnosis results do not need to be long lasting, as once you break the habit, whichever way you choose, then you are past the first hurdle, and it gets easier.

Then one day, you can't even stand the smell of other people smoking...

Have you read the book from cover to cover? The whole point of the book is that the method is the opposite to the willpower method.

Using willpower you tell yourself that you are depriving yourself of those wonderful, fantastic, couldn't-be-without ciggies and you pat yourself on the back for going without. Allen Carr's method just highlights the brainwashing we have all been fed about nicotine. Nicotine is not that addictive. You don't wake up in the middle of the night desperate for a fag. You don't have the shakes or sweat profusely if you can't have one. You just feel a little bit edgy and empty. In fact, I challenge you to describe the real symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. Tell where you first feel the physical pain in your body after putting out your ciggie. If these withdrawal symptoms are so virtually indescribable, why is it so hard to quit? Because you are using the willpower method and cannot see nicotine for what it really is.

Allen Carr's method tells you to revel and enjoy these dying so-called symptoms. You are encouraged to be safe in the knowledge that in a day or two you will be free of them forever and isn't that a cause for celebration? Never again will you have to be a drug addict. Instead of craving them your whole life, long after the physical withdrawals have gone, you should be ecstatic that you will never have to go back to them.

Just my two cents, but I feel that passionately that his is the only way to quit. Don't get me started on patches!

i did read from cover to cover,i have known for 30+years i was addicted to nicotine,(nurse) no illussions on that.i know what he says about putting forward the reasons i started smoking. (and stripping them away one by one).well i started smoking to conform with my peers at the time.never started for any other reason (foolishly). nicotine is more addictive than heroin .oh by the way you stated that nicotine is not very addictive why are their so many smokers in the world desperate to quit and find it terribly hard. later you say "never again will you have to be a drug addict".please explain.i have always had a fear of failure and anyone who knows me can attest to this,even at uni i would say as long as i get a pass rate i dont care.when the results were posted i was upset if i hadnt done better than just a pass rate.i apparently am a control freak according to my oh and if he says anything about me not to do something i will dig in my heels or lite up a cig just for the hell of it (very childish i know).its the fear of failure not what i am told i think i will miss by not having a cig. for me personally his book and method is rubbish,same as patches,zyban etc.its a mind set that you have to get into in my opinion.got 1/2 packet left so who knows:fingercrossed:

OH woke up one day and decided to quit his 30 fags a day habit and never looked back. That saying he is an incredibly motivated person and failure would never have been an option (unlike me with a food vice who can't shift weight!). He does describe himself though as a smoker who hasn't smoked for 18 years, so the pull is still there after all these years - incredible.

Ok, have you ever been addicted to heroin? How do you know that nicotine is more addictive than heroin? Only a true junkie of both poisons would know that difference. If you have been addicted to heroin then I apologise and sympathise with the hell that you have been through.

Nicotine is only barely physically addictive. It’s only psychologically addictive. If it was so addictive why don’t you feel excruciating headaches or vomiting, diarrhoea, cramps or inability to sleep for days when you try and give up? As I said in my first post, really try to describe these “painful, agonising” symptoms. I bet the best you (or I) could come up with is feeling a bit restless and empty; a constant longing for something of which you don’t really know. If that's the worst we're gonna feel, then giving up is (as our American friends would say) a no-brainer.

When we’re forcibly deprived of our wonderful fags for long haul flights and such, we don’t break down sobbing and double up in pain mid-flight; we just get on with it. Why can’t we just get on with... for the rest of our lives?

Fags don’t taste nice or calm us down or help us concentrate. They are an itch that we have to keep scratching. There is a better way; get rid of the itch. Be happy that you have quit. Don’t carry on pining for the rest of your life that if only you could have one more fag, you’d be happy. If you do carry on pining, you have the smoker’s mentality without the nicotine. Whilst you are going without nicotine and that’s great, you are still forever a slave.

I did say, "Never again will you have to be a drug addict". People who smoke are not doing it because it’s a habit. Chewing your nails is a habit. Cracking your knuckles is a habit. When you stop doing those things, you don’t go to pieces and start fretting. Smoking is a drug addiction, plain and simple. I am free from addiction forever. I say that because I see drug addictions for what they are. If I was stupid enough to get addicted to heroin, I wouldn’t stay addicted for long. Even it is like what junkies tell us it’s like, the nightmares, the pain; I would think that in a few days time this pain will stop and I’ll be free forever. I would be counting down the hours until I was free not thinking about my next fix.

The book didn’t work for you. I wish it did but some people (like my Mother) just can’t apply it to themselves. I hope you find a method that works for you. I would urge you to read his second book though. “The only way to stop smoking. Permanently.”
Good luck

Quite a few of my friends have attended Allen Carr's course and I've seen a 100% success rate. Even those who I suspected would never be able to quit were successful.

Failing all that..........you could always cut off yer hands