Psychotherapy Help to Stop Smoking

March 10, 2009 by  
Filed under Smoking

Psychotherapy is a proven stop smoking aid that does not necessarily involve expensive professional counseling sessions; a mere combination of some outside assistance and a lot of self-help can easily increase your chances of giving up smoking for good. In the long run, quitting smoking will lead to better behavior and health.

Remember not to focus merely on one school of psychotherapy to help you stop smoking; there are tons out there. Try using various techniques from each school to reach your ultimate goal: giving up smoking permanently.

A very popular stop smoking aid is stop smoking hypnosis. Hypnosis was developed as a therapeutic method in the 19th century and although this was once only associated with charlatans, the professionals of today find that smoking hypnotherapy may actually aid in altering a number of smoking behaviors. This proves helpful in smoking to curb the nicotine addiction that is needed for actual long-term changes in smoking habits. Hypnosis involves triggering hidden levels in the mind to replace thoughts of smoking to other healthier triggers.

If smoking hypnotherapy does not appeal to you, you could try cognitive therapy, which will help you discover that you are in control of all of your thoughts and ideas, including those that influence you into smoking.

Through this approach, you will be required to list events and objects that usually lead you to smoking. Finding these smoking triggers will bring them into your consciousness, where you know they can be controlled. Once these thoughts are in you head, you can intentionally replace them with new thoughts. To do so, however, thoughts and feelings need to be balanced out. To stop smoking in the long-term, it is important to know what motivates you into smoking in the first place. Actually giving up smoking, however, is the goal that will still need to be reached.

To keep your mind off of smoking, you may also try focusing on no smoking activities. Instead of smoking to reduce stress, try exercising instead. Or, instead of smoking while having alcohol, try eating a piece of bread or fruit instead. By doing these things, you’ll not only be avoiding smoking, but you’ll be getting into shape, as well. Simply refraining from smoking one cigarette may slowly save your life. The main technique is to redirect your decision from smoking to something that will eliminate an entire smoking episode and present a healthy alternative.

Keep in mind, however, that all long-term behavior modifications may only come to success if they turn into re-forming habits. Once upon a time, smoking was not part of your system. To go back to that time, develop a proper no smoking plan. Then, follow it slowly, one step at a time.