A few years ago I had a lovely neighbor who, when the wife asked me to help her husband to quit smoking I told her that he needed to want to quit.  When we asked him if he wanted to quit he said he didn’t smoke that much.  From diagnosis to death from stage 4 Lung Cancer for him was only 6 months. He was 51 years old.  He stopped smoking the day he that began chemotherapy.  He left behind a beautiful wife and a 12 year old boy who needed his father. I was not able to help him because he did not want to quit.

I had a wonderful client, a man in his 50’s that smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day who wanted to quit.  He came to see me in September of 2006.  He walked out of my office tobacco free.  He was so happy that he came back in 2007 with his wife for my weight loss program. I recently spoke with his son who wants me to help his wife stop smoking.  When I asked how his dad was doing he told me that he died in May 2010 of stage 4 lung cancer.  I helped him to quit smoking and he was happy but it was too late.

Everyone knows that tobacco kills people each day and each year.  Everyone knows that tobacco and cigarettes cost a lot of money, health, energy and time from all of us.  Everyone knows that tobacco contains tar, nicotine and other chemicals that poison our bodies.  But tobacco can never be outlawed. It will never be removed from our society because there are too many people making money off of it for it to ever go away.

So the best advice is to never pick up that first cigarette.  But most of the clients that I have seen picked up their first cigarette at the age of 12.  How easy is it to access the risks of a smoking habit at the age of 12?  I have never had a client who told me that they picked up their first cigarette over the age of 35 or even 25 for that matter.  And those that started at age 12 never imagined that 20, 30 or even 50 years later this habit would still be haunting them.

So did I ever smoke?  Yes, from the time that I was 17 years old to 21 years old.  When my mother finally asked me if I smoked I said yes and she asked me to quit. So I did, and it was the hardest thing that I had ever done in my life at that time.

I didn’t think that I smoked all that much.  I smoked maybe 2 cigarettes a day and more like a ½ pack when I went out to bars with my girlfriends.  I never thought about cigarettes or had cravings or even worried about the smell because I smoked so little.  But when I tried to quit it was all that I could think about.  Everywhere I went I saw people smoking and I wanted one.  Every time I was alone I wanted one.  It was like the thoughts took over me instead of me feeling in control of my thoughts.  It was a terrible feeling and I don’t know how long it lasted but I remember being surprised because I didn’t think that I ever smoked all that much.

 I never picked up another cigarette, at that time it was because I made a promise to my mother but years later I can remember people asking me if I wanted one and just thinking about how hard quitting really was made me say no.

So on a personal note, through my work and what I have seen and what I would recommend is that an individual needs to want to quit.  If they do not want to quit then nothing that anyone else says or does will make a difference.  But even if they don’t want to quit now, there is no reason why they can not explore options so that when they are ready they can execute a plan already in place.

One sign that many clients have expressed to me that let them know that they were ready to quit smoking is that when they got up in the morning they said “I just don’t want to do this anymore”.

Thank you for reading this far.  I would love to see you or anyone that you know in my office for a free consultation to learn how hypnosis can help make quitting easier.  Until then,

Be kind to yourself,

Susan A James – Certified Hypnotist