Why does quitting smoking often feel so hard?

For those looking to give up or reduce their smoking habit, there’ll find no shortage of information about the harm it can cause your body. And yet, even knowing all this and being confronted by the gruesome images and hard-hitting facts on cigarette packets, most smokers still find themselves lighting up.

Why isn’t it easier to quit smoking?

As most already know, a key factor is nicotine addiction, the chemical in tobacco which encourages the brain to release neurotransmitters such as dopamine as a way of regulating mood and behaviour. This chemical dependency is where Nicotine Replacement Therapy can help people as part of their quit smoking strategy, things such as patches, gum and sprays.

But chemical dependency is only one part of it and what NRT or willpower alone don’t tackle is the emotional attachment smokers feel and the behaviours that form around their habit. These behaviours become so automatic that we are largely unaware of them happening. The reason these deep-seated connections can cause problems for anyone wanting to quit smoking is that all of the rational (and well-evidenced) argument for quitting is aimed at convincing the analytical part of the mind that smoking isn’t good for you, what we in hypnotherapy refer to as the conscious mind.

However, the real urge to smoke comes from the emotional, non-rational part of the mind, the unconscious mind. You can think of the relationship between these two parts as being like a horse and its rider, the rider gives directions and can be under the illusion they are ‘in control’ of things. But the real strength is in the horse and should the horse decided to go a certain way, there’s little the rider can do to stop it. And in the same way that a smoker can know all the harmful facts, the emotive unconscious mind will easily overpower the best of intentions.

This is where hypnotherapy comes into its own as a solution for smoking cessation. By guiding people into an altered state of awareness known as hypnosis, we can reach the unconscious part of the mind where the unwanted smoking behaviours operate from and set about replacing them with new ways of behaving, which come into effect when the triggers for the old habit occur.

With the old patterns changed and new options in place, those people who are determined to quit smoking, can quickly move to life as a non-smoker and all the benefits that it brings.

If your ready to quit smoking, contact me to book an initial consultation call.