Updates on Quitting/Hypnosis Technique

Well, it has been well over a month since I have posted about my battle to quit smoking cigarettes, and I am not happy to say that it was not a good month. At this time, I am still a smoker. In my most recent post I discussed my next approach would be attending the free hypnosis methods offered by URI health services as an aid to quitting smoking. The fact that this was free was extremely intriguing to me, and I also thought it would be an interesting experience. It was; but in the end it did not kick my habit. For anyone wondering exactly what hypnosis is, here is a good definition I found online:

"Hypnosis is concentrated relaxation. In other words, hypnotism allows a person to relax, while focusing on a particular problem or desired result. It's not just relaxing or falling asleep. During hypnotherapy, you relax your mind and body, moving past the guard of your conscious mind, to the subconscious mind. Your conscious mind constantly edits and grades and judges your thoughts and inputs. Your subconscious mind is a sponge waiting to absorb whatever you give it. Your subconscious mind doesn't know the difference between reality and imagination. Therefore, if you can get past the locked gates of your conscious mind to your subconscious mind, you can feed the subconscious "imagined reality." So if you can imagine yourself as a non-smoker, your subconscious mind will accept that as reality.
By reprogramming your subconscious mind you can change your actual behavior. Hypnosis is the key to removing the barrier your conscious mind places in front of you, and reaching the subconscious." (Quote from http://www.quitsmoking.com/hypnosis/index.htm)

I visited the clinic and there were about 8-10 other students in the room. There was a woman in the room who started us with some simple, breathing excercises and soothing words. We were all seated on comfortable floors and eventually lied down. After about 10 minutes, I found myself in an extremely relaxed state, but unfortunantley felt I was about to fall asleep. I won't lie, during the half hour session, I believe I may have fallen asleep for about 10-15 minutes, because I don't really remember hearing or thinking about anything for a solid chunk of the time. I'm not sure if this was me in a hypnotized state, or me in an asleep state. After about 7-10 minutes of lulling us into this weird, relaxed, sedated state, the woman in the room put on an audio CD, which featured calm, relaxing music. Soon a voice came on and spoke in half minute intervals about how cigarettes were not necessary to deal with stress. After this point I don't really remember anything that was said on the CD, and I believe this is around the time in the session where I either fell asleep or fell into a deeply hypnotized state. The next thing Iremember is slowly coming to, with the lights slowly being turned on, and the woman from the beginning telling us to slowly wake up as the session had come to a close.

Upon completion of the session, I was fascinated to see if what had just happened would actually help me quit smoking. I was skeptical coming into the session about the power of hypnosis but was truly impressed at the sedated state of deep and profound relaxation I was lulled into so quickly during this session, and was curious to see if it had any impact upon my subconcious.

Concerning quitting smoking, the hypnosis did not really help me. It helped for a short period of time, I believe after the session I did not have a cigarette for 2 or 3 days, but I still had the intense cravings for them, and relapsed once again. I do believe however that for a person with stronger willpower than myself, hypnosis could be a significant aid in quitting smoking, as I can now personally attest to the power it holds in alleviating stress and putting a person into a state of create relaxation. But if you are, like I was, seeking a cure-all approach to kicking the nasty habit of cigarette smoking, hypnosis is not the answer.