Smoking cigarettes is more than just a physical addiction. Over time, your neural connections are rewired to expect nicotine. If you do not quit cold turkey, your mind goes through the withdrawal process because that chemical stimulant is not there. Beyond the chemical addiction, you also have to deal with breaking the habit and social aspects of smoking. On average, just 4 to 7 percent of people are able to stop smoking cold turkey. This is because nicotine addiction is more complex than just a bad habit.
A Physical and Mental Addiction
From the moment you take the first drag of a cigarette, nicotine floods your mind. It products endorphins in your mind like dopamine that give you pleasure and make you feel relaxed. At the same time, it also increases your blood pressure and boost your heart rate. As you continue to smoke, your body becomes physically dependent on the dopamine and pleasurable sensations caused by smoking.
Beyond the physical and chemical addiction, you also have to confront the mental addiction. Often, smokers will have a first cigarette of the morning with their coffee. They may smoke with others on their work break or use cigarettes to relax during a stressful commute. Your mind becomes used to smoking during daily routines and stress. This automatic behavior is learned over time, so it takes extra effort and time to break.
Breaking the Social Addiction to Nicotine
Smoking is often a social activity. You may smoke with friends on your break at work or at a barbecue with your family. Once you decide to quit, your normal activities are basically a trigger for you to resume smoking. You have to learn how to deal with or avoid these social interactions if you want to remain nicotine-free.
Finding the right Solution to Stop Smoking
For you to effectively stop smoking, you have to address the mental, social and physical aspects of the addiction. Like most addictions, quitting cold turkey is rarely effective in the long run. If you want to remain nicotine-free, you have to find a solution that addresses all of these things. While patches or nicotine gum may help, they only switch one source of nicotine for another.
The real change occurs when you remove the social, mental and physical components of smoking. During a hypnosis session, you are brought into a state of total relaxation. While you are under hypnosis, your mind is more receptive to suggestions. Your hypnotist helps to rewire the way your mind approaches the addiction. Hypnosis targets the root of the addiction instead of applying a band-aid to the problem. As a result, your entire approach to nicotine is changed painlessly.
Less than 10 percent of smokers can quit cold turkey. If you are serious about quitting, you need the most effective techniques possible to help you. With hypnosis sessions or downloads, you can completely change your approach to nicotine. As soon as you begin hypnosis to stop smoking, you are able to rely less and less on nicotine to feel normal.