Nine Ways to Know it is Finally Time to Quit.

1.      Has your smoking habit begun to control your life? Have you ever not been able to go to sleep until you are sure that you have a cigarette available for morning?

2.      Have friends and family told you that your clothing, hair and breath smell like an ashtray? If they haven't, you can be sure they are thinking it!! Are you spending almost as much in breath mints as you are in cigarettes? If you aren't embarrassed about your smoking then why are you trying so hard to cover it up? 

3.      Are professional colleagues shunning you now that they have quit smoking? Let's face it… It is no longer "cool" to smoke. Your smoking is viewed as a lack of control issue. Exhibiting lack of control is not the way to get ahead in your job.

4.      Do you sit in meetings focused only on getting to the break so you can rush outside to smoke? As a manager do you end meetings with things still left to accomplish because of your need to smoke?

5.      Does your favorite restaurant not have a smoking section any more?  Non-smokers are now in the majority and they do not want to taste your cigarette with their expensive meal. Restaurateurs are attuned to the bottom line, not your smoking needs.

6.      Are you standing outside smoking alone because your spouse doesn't allow it in the house? What do you think this is doing for your relationship?  Between work and your smoking alone, how much time is available for your relationship? Remember that breath mint… he or she doesn't want to kiss an ashtray.

7.      You're afraid to stop this dangerous habit because you fear the weight gain that so many people have experienced, but you are beginning to fear diseased lungs even more. Have you reached that "critical pack years" that almost assures your painful and agonizing death?

8.      What's up with those lines around your mouth?  The continuous lip pressure on a cigarette has now begun to add years to the look of your face.  Squinting to keep the smoke out of your eyes isn't helping them either.  And most facial surgeons won't even schedule surgery until you quit. Their reputations are at stake because a facelift quickly deteriorates when you continue to smoke.

9.      You get up in the morning and shower and use deodorant before heading out the door for work. Why?  Because you don't want to offend anyone you come in contact with. Notice how people back away after your first cigarette?  You might as well have gone to work dirty!!!

But the real truth is this… a tube of paper about the size of your little finger, stuffed with tobacco has ultimate control of your life.  Are you satisfied with that?

If not, then maybe now is  the time try hypnosis.  Hypnosis can be the answer to all the issues surrounding quitting. No pills or patches, no chemicals. And in the hands of a skilled Hypnotherapist you will be given suggestions that will eliminate the possibility of replacing the cigarette habit with food. It is remarkably easy as the overwhelming majority of people enjoy the hypnotic trance and the benefits begin immediately. Issues surrounding the cigarette habit are dealt with so that you are free of the need to smoke. Smoking is not a function of will power but habit triggered by the subconscious. That means that the subconscious can also be used to trigger cessation.

People, who quit, regardless of age, live longer than people who continue to smoke do.  Smokers who quit before age 50 have half the risk of dying in the next 15 years compared with those who continue to smoke.  Quitting smoking substantially decreases the risk of cancer of the lung, larynx, pharynx, esophagus, mouth, pancreas, bladder, and cervix.  Benefits of quitting include risk reduction for other major diseases including coronary heart disease, lung diseases, and cardiovascular disease.

Every year, close to 361,000 Americans die of lung disease.  Lung disease is America's number three killer, responsible for one in seven deaths.  More than 25 million Americans are now living with chronic lung disease. It is estimated that between 25 and 30 per cent of all cancers in developed countries are tobacco-related. From the results of studies conducted in Europe, Japan and North America, between 83 and 92 per cent of lung cancers in men, and between 57 and 80 per cent of lung cancers in women, are attributable to cigarette smoking. Between 80 and 90 per cent of cancers arising in the esophagus, larynx and oral cavity are related to the effects of tobacco. There is now strong evidence of the adverse health consequences of Environmental Tobacco Smoking (ETS) sometimes referred to as second hand smoke. On the basis of the available epidemiological data, the United States Environmental Protection Agency declared in 1992 that ETS was a proven lung carcinogen in humans. The risk of lung cancer is increased in non-smoking women who have husbands who smoke tobacco. There also appears to be an increased risk of myocardial infarction due to exposure to ETS and the adverse health consequences in children whose parents smoke includes an increase in the frequency and severity of asthma. New studies include your pets in the list of those adversely affected by second hand smoke.  Tobacco can kill in many different ways including causes such as lung cancer and other forms of cancer, heart disease, strokes and chronic bronchitis and other respiratory diseases.

Smokers have three times the death rate in middle age (between the ages of 35 and 69) than non-smokers and about half of regular cigarette smokers will eventually be killed by their habit. Many of these are not particularly heavy smokers but they can be characterized by having started smoking while a teenager. Half of the deaths from tobacco will take place in middle age (35-64) and each will lose approximately 20-25 years of non-smokers life expectancy: the remaining half of the deaths will take place after the age of 70. However, there is clear and consistent evidence that stopping smoking before having cancer or some other serious disease avoids most of the later excess risk of death from tobacco even if smoking stops in middle age. 

When you really think about all the things you have learned about smoking doesn't it just make sense to find a way to stop? 

Those of you who have finally decided to take care of yourself and get healthy, the Internal Revenue Service offers a little incentive. Any stop smoking program or prescription drug that you use to treat nicotine withdrawal can now be included as a medical expense on your income taxes. So, not only do you recoup your good health and vitality, not to mention all the money you used to spend buying tobacco, you get a bonus back from the IRS as well. Hypnotherapy is one of the most successful stop smoking programs, used alone or in combination with other modalities like acupuncture, herbs,  etc. Call me for more information or to set up an appointment to get your government perk on this years taxes.

 

Back