Myth 1: Nicotine is Highly Addictive – Nicotine is a mildly addictive and withdrawal symptoms usually last for about 
four days. If nicotine were highly addictive, passive smokers at home or work would also experience strong withdrawal symptoms, yet they are rarely aware of any withdrawal or crave a cigarette because they don’t have any mental or emotional associations with smoking and the withdrawal symptoms.
Myth 2: Habits are Hard to Break - Habits make life easier by allowing your mind to focus on what’s important or new without becoming cluttered. Habits with no emotional association are easily changed. Walking the dog along a certain route is a habit – it’s easy to change due to road works. It is emotional charge associated with a habit that keeps us from letting it go. Once the reasons for the habit are removed the habit can fade and be easily replaced.
Myth 3: Smoking Helps me Relax – Nicotine is sneaky. It does cause an immediate relaxation response. It also has a delayed reaction – it produces anxiety like symptoms within 30-90 minutes, therefore creating a chemical experience of anxiety. Because we have an initial relaxation response to smoking, we associate smoking with relaxation, and not with the later chemical anxiety, so we have another cigarette to feel better, and set the cycle in motion again. Nasty!
Myth 4: Nicotine Withdrawal is Long and Painful Withdrawal symptoms mimic fear and anxiety: sweating, restlessness, irritability, insomnia and nervousness, because they are the same problem. They subside after a few days if not retriggered by another cigarette. People start again because they still have the subconscious memory that smoking once seemed to relieve anxiety, an illusion created by smoking in the first place. Any longer lasting symptoms are based on the underlying mental and emotional associations, which no amount of nicotine can alter.
Myth 5 - I’ve Smoked for Years With No Side Effects, So It Won’t Make Me Sick – Those who get sick from smoking early on are the lucky ones. Smoking has fatal long-term health effects which can remain invisible to smokers for many years – often until it’s too late. On average, smokers shorten their life by one day for every week they smoke a pack a day. It’s true that a few people live long lives despite smoking – but they are in a tiny minority. Smoking is like playing Russian Roulette with five barrels loaded.
Myth 6 - I’ll Put on Weight if I Stop Smoking – There are two main factors to weight gain after quitting. First there is a mild appetite suppressant effect from nicotine. It speeds up the metabolism using energy faster. That’s why it is useful to take a bit more exercise after quitting – maintaining your metabolic rate, and increasing anxiety relieving endorphin production in your brain. Secondly, we often turn to food for comfort from the withdrawal symptoms, and again form a new association between the chemical response of our body to the foods we choose and the relief of our anxiety symptoms. We’ve just swapped addictions.
Myth 7: I’ve Failed So Often in the Past I’m Bound to Fail Again Now Past failure was based on an incomplete understanding of the problem and the lack of an appropriate strategy for quitting, not on personal weakness. Will power alone fails because 90% of your thought you are subconscious. So even with the strongest will, the unconscious associations will overpower your conscious intention. Current research in NZ suggests 93% of people who quit using willpower alone will start smoking again within one year. Nicotine replacement only deals with a small part of the problem (remember it’s not nicotine you’re addicted to – it’s smoking), and therefore only increases your chance of success over willpower alone by about 7% after one year. Hypnotic suggestion can help by adding new associations to smoking or being a non-smoker. Research shows after a single hypnotic session 33% will start smoking again in 3 months and 77% start smoking again within 2 years.
A successful strategy for quitting needs the following qualities:
- Ability to relieve withdrawal symptoms and cravings
- Ability to dissolve mental and emotional associations to smoking
- Ability to create a strong negative counter association to smoking
- Deliver an alternative strategy for stress reduction
- Practical, simple to use and cost effective
Fortunately recent developments in psychology have created a strategy that allows you to quickly and easily make permanent changes in your thinking at a conscious and subconscious level while relieving the uncomfortable physical symptoms associated with quitting and anxiety.
To explore this option further, contact the author, Liz Hart MA (09) 410 5200 or at [email protected]
