Hypnosis, smoking, laser treatments, magnet therapy, stop smoking shots….which of these alternative treatments are legitimate, and which ones are full of crap? Can hypnosis really help you to stop smoking? Is it worth pursuing?
In my opinion, based on my experience and of those around me, I would recommend that anyone give hypnosis a try for quitting smoking.
Now there are some disclaimers here and I do not really know for sure if hypnosis is the real deal or not. I did not use it personally when I quit smoking as I basically just did cold turkey and that is what finally worked for me. But I do know of a few other people who are close friends and one of them tried to quit smoking a few times through the past few years and he failed every time until he tried hypnosis. That finally worked for him and he has not smoked for over 3 years now.
The problem with this sort of story is that nearly anything might have worked, because it is very possible that my friend had finally “become ready” to quit for real this time. Had he decided to try the nicotine patch instead, or the laser treatment, those things might very well have worked for him, simply because he had finally made the decision to quit on a really deep level. In other words, the hypnosis appeared to have worked for him, but it might have just been lucky timing, and the specific tactic he tried at that time took all the credit.
Now you do have to give hypnosis a bit of credit, in that it is not generally very expensive compared to other quit smoking strategies, such as the laser treatments or the shots or even the patches. If you shop around for a hypnotist you will see that it is cheaper than the alternatives, so at least there is that. You might not be successful at quitting but at least it will not cost you much to find this out. And if you do succeed at quitting, like my friend did, then your investment into the hypnosis is probably one of the best investments you have ever made in your life….the equivalent of betting 50 bucks at a casino and winning a hundred thousand bucks or so.
So I say give it a try, the risk is minimal and there is not much downside. I have seen it work for my friends and I have also seen it fail for some people. Don’t pay more than a hundred bucks or so.
