Hypnotherapist Breaks Down 3 Myths About Smoking

And Other Nicotine-Based Addictions

Going with my friend group to our go-to dive bar was an absolute treat for me.

But then, one of my friends would step out to hit his vape pod.

And another friend would want a hit too.

Then another.

Then another.

Then another who said they were going to quit earlier that week. And maybe they did for a few days.

And it kept going until finally, I would be the only person at the table for anywhere from five to fifteen minutes.

Maybe that was the true motivator for why I decided to specialize my hypnotherapy practice towards vaping and smoking cessation.

Because if you’re going to see a hypnotherapist, it’s likely for that reason.

If this resonates with you, I want to help educate you about how hypnotherapy can help by busting a few myths:

Myth #1: Smoking is an Addiction.

I wanted to start with this one, because it’s less of a myth and more of a half-myth.

Smoking isn’t an addiction.

It’s two.

Chemical and Psychological.

The chemical addiction is the nicotine (along with everything else in those things).

There’s plenty of information about that.

But then there’s the psychological addiction.

AKA, the bad habit.

Without the chemical, this is why smoking/vaping is so hard to kick.

It’s the psychological habit of:

• Holding something in your hand,
• Putting it in your mouth,
• Taking a break with a social group,
• Using it as stress relief
• Doing it out of boredom

The list goes on!

So in order to get rid of smoking/vaping, you need to get rid of both addictions.

Which leads me to myth #2:

Myth #2: Hypnosis will “cure” me of these addictions.

Right off the bat, in hypnotherapy, cure is a dirty word.

As a hypnotherapist myself, I would advise you replace that c-word with another c-word.

Swap out “cure” for “conditioning”.

A lot of people say that hypnosis got rid of their smoking entirely.

Which is true.

There are proven results that hypnosis works, I’m not going to discredit my own craft.

But it’s not as easy as clapping twice and being bestowed a remedy.

Just like how a personal trainer can help guide you to better form but can’t lift the weight for you, a hypnotherapist can help give you the suggestions and rewiring to help you quit smoking but can’t make you say “no”.

When you see your coworker step out to smoke/vape, or you have a stressful moment, I’m not going to pop out of a genie lamp and smack your cigarette out of your hands.

If I could, I would charge way more and have way too much fun.

But as a professional, I can do absolutely everything I can to help you but you have to be the one to want the change.

When you want the change, you’ll make the choices that’ll cause the change.

Now imagine you’ve got the sessions out of the way, you’ve been smoke/vape-free for a good while and you’re feeling great.

Great!

Now you get to understand the final myth:

Myth #3: After not smoking for a long time, one more won’t hurt.

Reprogramming your brain to get rid of a bad habit is like unplugging a chord from an electrical outlet.

You can get rid of the chord, but you can’t get rid of the outlet.

You either have to not use that outlet or replace the chord with a better one.

When you stop smoking/vaping, you remove a chord from the outlet.

But there are a few people (roughly 30% around the 3-month mark) who think that they are now “addiction-proof”.

To put another way, they think the outlet is gone.

To put another way, they think they’re cured.

Nope.

You can still get addicted to something you’re no longer addicted to. That’s just relapse.

But I do want to say: these things happen.

If you’re in this boat, and you’ve smoked and broke your streak, there’s no need to blame yourself. There’s no need to blame your hypnotherapist.

Sometimes, life happens.

And that’s okay.

The important part is that you try again and recondition your brain to not use that outlet again.

Because if you just let it go as a one-off thing, that outlet is back in power and moving forward with keeping that old chord plugged in.

So in conclusion:

• Smoking is not an addiction; it’s TWO.
• Hypnosis can’t cure your smoking/vaping; it changes your conditioning.
• If you wait long enough, you will still kickstart your smoking addiction again if you “just have one”.

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