First appeared in the Hammersmith & Fulham Gazette on April 13th 2007
 When I became a hypnotherapy student, I very quickly realised that I’d have to get good at smoking cessation treatments. While our tutors prepared us to treat food aversions, phobias, anxiety, weight loss and procrastination, by far the largest category of hypnotherapy clients are people desperate to give up cigarettes.
I grew up in a world where smoking was a mark of adulthood and sophistication. Things have changed so much, and now, from next month, smoking will be banned in public places.
The smokers I’ve spoken to seem equally divided between those who are resentful they’ve been marginalised even further and those who are glad that new rules will help them to reduce their consumption. But whether a smoker feels it’s within his civil rights to smoke without being nagged, I’ve never met anyone over 22 who doesn’t regret starting.
The strange thing is, for such a strong addiction, the smoking behaviour seems to be remarkably responsive to externally imposed barriers – not many smokers need leave a cinema twice during an average blockbuster to light up. I’ve spoken to forty-a-day people who don’t even think about smoking if it’s out of the question. If your body really needs that chemical
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hit every half hour, why don’t you wake up several times a night to smoke?
Of course your body’s and brain’s chemistry does respond to the chemicals you inhale. But smoking really shows the signs of classical conditioning. Like any habit, it’s tripped off by environmental cues such as tea breaks or sitting in your favourite seat in the pub.
So identify those key lighting-up times and make sure you do them as a non-smoker, all with a slightly different twist. Rearrange your work desk – your non-smoker’s work desk. Switch the order in which you shower and brush your teeth in the morning – your non-smoker’s routine. Get your whole nervous system used to a normal life in normal places as a non-smoker.
Plus remember that your mind never deliberately does you harm. There’s always a hidden benefit to even the most destructive habit. Does your smoking give you breaks in a work routine, a feeling of sophistication, a chance to mirror the body language of your friends? Think about every cigarette of the day and ascertain the hidden benefit. Then make sure you get the payoff by another method.
There are two times in your life to give up smoking: in time, and too late. Try the tips above to make sure you're in time.
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