Quit smoking with Champix or hypnosis

The quit smoking drug Champix (known as Chantix in the USA) is again in the news after studies indicate that it can actually increase the risk of heart problems when compared to patients who took a dummy pill.

According to the Daily Mail "Champix, which is also known as varenicline, has previously been linked to psychiatric problems, including 37 suicides in the UK and hundreds of cases of suicidal thoughts."

I have seen both positive and negative results from people who have used Champix to stop smoking. It seems to be one way in which smokers who prefer not to take a hypnosis type approach can make the change. It's just that before one takes the drug there seems to be no way to predict what the side effects might be.

Stopping smoking with hypnosis is still the most effective way to become a non-smoker. I believe that I achieve 70-80 % success rates using my 2 sessions, of 2 hours, 1 weeks apart approach.

The drug option can seem like the easy way to make the change; no effort, no time taken, just a pill to swallow.  But I honestly believe that becoming a non-smoker is worth putting time effort and money into.

By the way, if you do want to use my services, then the charge is £195 and about four hours of your time. It's worth though, you'll probably gain 14 years of a extra healthy life. What's that worth to you?

Hollywood Stars and their secret

There is a secret that Hollywood stars use to change their life.

What is that secret? Hypnosis.

From stage fright to spider phobia, the Hollywood stars are in the end just like the rest of us, they sometimes need a little extra help to overcome their problems.


Watch the video above see how the stars become non-smokers.

You can use exactly the same methods without traveling to Hollywood, just contact me through the web site.
www.somersethypnotherapy.com

Smokers?

I've had a sudden flurry of would be non-smokers booking sessions with me. Is the cold weather finally driving people to regret puffing on the little white stick?

Answers in the comments please.

Does hypnosis help you stop smoking?

I was called by a local newspaper recently to ask if I wanted to take part in their National No Smoking Day advertising campaign. No Smoking Day is on the 11th of March and in the past this would have been an easy choice to make; just say yes and sort out the advert. But I didn't do this and in a moment I'll explain why.

Many people are aware that hypnosis is by far the most effective way to become a non-smoker...as long as it is done well. Part of the problem with any quit smoking method is effectively measuring the results. With so many variables to work with it is difficult to know how effective each method is.

Typically hypnosis is believed to have about a 30% effectiveness when it has been measured in the past. This compares with a 3-5% success rate by going cold turkey. In my own practice I believe my success rate is around 70-75%, though admittedly this is not a scientific measurement.

Some time ago I was taken to task by an NHS quit smoking adviser for promoting hypnosis as an aid to stopping smoking. She explained that in her NHS work she had seen a number of people for whom hypnosis had not been successful. And yet if a drug was useful 30% of the time it would be hailed as a success. The conversation was interesting (and rather testy at times), Smoking advisers are paid per client by the NHS regardless of outcome so you might say we were competitors in the market.

During this exchange of views (that happened by email) I explained that hypnosis forms one part of what I do in a quit smoking session, I also use counseling, audio CDs and EFT. The effect was magical when I mentioned EFT; "Oh that's a wonderful method...but they won't let me use it in NHS sessions".

So in the end I had an admission from an NHS quit smoking adviser that there were better methods than she used to help a person become a non-smoker than those used by the NHS.

So back to the story of the advert; did I spend money and book it? No. Because there is simply no way a single therapist can compete with an NHS budget in millions. Trying to fight that battle is the road to ruin.

But if you do want to become a non-smoker, a combination of hypnosis and EFT is just about the most effective way to go.

Champix (Chantix) and cravings

I met someone recently who decided in the Autumn of 2008 to stop smoking. He had already tried going cold turkey, patches and nasal sprays and knew that they did not work for him.

So he went to the Quit Smoking Clinic at his family Doctor surgery where they prescribed Champix (also known as Chamtix in the USA).


After about 2 weeks of taking the drug he stopped smoking; so far so good. His stomach was knotted with pain each morning and his digestion was not working like it used to but he had stopped smoking.

By January 2009 this man was desperate, because the Champix had done nothing to deal with his cravings. He may not have been smoking but he still had in place all the old links and associations with smoking.

He went back to his Doctor who said why not give the drug another go? The man was not keen, he remembered the stomach cramps. Then as almost an afterthought, the Doctor added "you could try hypnosis for the craving".

What a shame the Doctor did not mention this to the man last October! There would have been , no drugs, no side effects just the change to becoming a non-smoker.

Sadly, at least here in the UK, Doctors are not able to prescribe hypnosis as a quit smoking aid.

When hypnosis has been demonstrated again and again to be more effective than all others forms of therapy for smoking, why is it not something that a Doctor can write a prescription for?