You Don't Have to Become a Jerk!

In all my years of helping people to stop smoking, this roadblock comes up as often as any other. My clients will talk about how, in the past, when they tried to stop smoking, they became moody, irritable and ill-tempered.

Yes, in their own estimation, they simply turned into great big jerks.













Don't make people cry because you're a jerk.

So you want to quit, but you don't want to be in a bad mood, you don't want to put on an extra 20 pounds, and you don't want to feel stressed, nervous or anxious all the time.

If you take a look at some of the most popular methods used for smoking cessation, several of them attempt to address those physical feelings that directly cause you to start acting like a jerk (sorry, no scientific data to back up that assertion, nor is any needed).

Here are a few options that can help you feel more relaxed:

• Laser Therapy
• Acupuncture
  
• Wellbutrin (or similar drugs)
• Hypnosis or Hypnotherapy

Now let's talk about how each of these options have been demonstrated to work.

Laser therapy and acupuncture work in similar ways. They cause you to feel more relaxed, which can be of tremendous value to someone who's been smoking for quite a long time. The feelings of stress, anxiousness and irritability are generally what smokers refer to when they talk about having a craving. If these feelings are reduced, the cravings are likely reduced.

However, many of my clients have told me that although they felt more relaxed, they continued to have a desire to smoke after trying these therapies. You see, because most people try hypnosis as a last resort, I get to hear about their failed attempts at using all the other methods.

Wellbutrin has worked for many people, however as with most pharmaceutical drugs, it also has some negative and dangerous side-effects. All one has to do is visit www.askapatient.com to hear it from the horse's mouth. Here's one quote from someone who used wellbutrin and who had experienced some success:

"However, now at the end of 3 months, I am feeling extremely depressed, to the point even of contemplating suicide--very unlike me. I also have bouts of extreme almost uncontrollable anger."

Here are two more from people who recently began using wellbutrin:

"had my first panic attack on this drug. shortly after starting it was diagnosed with high blood pressure (at 28)."

"I can't concentrate on anything, I feel like I can't think. I'm dizzy all the time, and nauseous. I have a constant headache in my temple."

There are literally hundreds of similar responses (just at this one website), with more being added every day. Needless to say, even if you stop smoking (which is nowhere near a guarantee), the side-effects should give you pause.

Laser therapy and acupuncture do some of the same things that hypnotherapy can do -- mainly taking away some of the stress and anxiety that often lead smokers to relapse -- but what they don't provide is what generally leads even those who experience short-term success to eventually pick up the habit again... your thoughts.

No matter how relaxed you feel, there are certain times of day, situations, locations, etc., that remind a smoker that he/she used to smoke. Even when the individual is feeling calm and relaxed, if the thought remains, the likelihood increases that a relapse will occur.

Hypnosis, when performed correctly by a trained professional, is the only available method that adequately addresses all the factors that contribute to smoking.

• Physical feelings (stress, anxiety, etc.)
• Associations (after meals, while driving, etc.)
• Thoughts (self-talk, unconscious visualization)

When you not only feel relaxed, but also understand how to focus your attention in a way that allows you to forget about smoking most of the time, while changing how you think about smoking on the rare occasions when it does enter into your consciousness, well... that's what brings about long-term success.

So, if you want to quit smoking but you don't want to become a big jerk, there are several options available to you. It's up to you to choose which is best for you. Hopefully, the information provided here (although not entirely unbiased) will help you make a decision that will allow you to feel confident that you're investing your money wisely.

Be more like this person when you quit:









Because hey, the world has enough jerks already, right?

"Bark Like a Dog for Me, Baby"

Does it ever confuse you that hypnosis is used to make people cluck like chickens in front of hundreds of strangers, yet at the same time it’s being used around the world by doctors, dentists and therapists alike?

Here I reveal the secrets of stage hypnosis, and why you never need to worry about losing control while hypnotized.

Podcast: The Secrets of Stage Hypnosis - Revealed

In This Economy, Can You Afford to Keep Smoking?

When simply filling up the gas tank and heating your home is busting people's bank accounts, to realize that you could be wasting up to $1200 a month of your hard-earned money on a habit that might one day kill you... yeah, that's rough.

Duke University (right on "Tobacco Road") did a study a few years back that found the real cost of cigarettes is about $40/pack.

Here's an excerpt from the article available at the link:

http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/2004/11/costofsmoking_1104.html

In their new book "The Price of Smoking," Duke University health economists calculated this sum by analyzing all the costs of smoking -- personally, to the smoker’s family and to society at large.

Their analysis found that the cost for a 24-year-old smoker over 60 years was $220,000 for a man and $106,000 for a woman, or a total of about $204 billion nationally over 60 years. The figures include expenses for cigarettes and excise taxes, for life and property insurance, medical care for the smoker and for the smoker’s family, and lost earnings due to disability.

Welcome

Hi there,

Glad you've stopped by.

This is the place where you can find all the best, most accurate information about smoking cessation in the blogosphere.

This includes:

• Articles from mainstream news sources
  
• Major scientific & university studies
  
• Case studies
  
• Interviews with past & present clients
  
• Original articles & podcasts
• Much more

I have a degree and background in broadcast journalism, so you can be certain that all of the information you find here will be properly referenced and fact-checked, with links provided whenever possible. I'm a therapist and a researcher, not a salesman.

All of this is provided for you, not with the intent of convincing you that hypnosis is the solution for you; rather, so that you can make the best, most informed decision possible on how to stop smoking immediately.

I'm not arrogant enough to assume that my methods are the best for everyone, and because you are an individual, it's up to you to decide which path to take in order to become healthier.

So whether it's the patch, the gum, the shot, the laser... or simply learning to use that brain of yours far more effectively... this is the place where you'll be able to examine the facts and decide which method is right for you.

I welcome questions and comments, and will personally respond to all questions left on this blog in a timely fashion. So please... enjoy perusing the site. I hope I can be of help in your quest to become smoke-free.

Sincerely,

Sean

Case Study: Interview with an Ex-Smoker

Here's an audio interview with a client of mine (Heather) who used my program to stop smoking with hypnosis. A lot of your questions may be answered herein... as Heather talks about her experiences not only with hypnotherapy, but also her attempts to quit by using the patch, nicotine gum, laser therapy and even cold turkey.

As of the recording of this interview, she'd been successful for about a week shy of eight months, and she's one of my biggest sources of referrals, having sent me friends and others for smoking cessation and other issues as well.

So take a listen, and find out what it's like to be hypnotized, how it feels immediately following your initial session, what it's like to be around smokers after you've quit (and after having a couple drinks), and much more.

Enjoy.

Milton Erickson: The Father of Modern Hypnotherapy

When I first began studying hypnosis, I quickly grabbed every book by Milton Erickson I could find. Reading these works was incredibly exciting. His methods and the results he achieved were nothing short of remarkable.

Anyone interested in hypnosis should take a little time and get to know who this man was. Without him, it's my opinion that hypnotherapy wouldn't be anywhere near as readily available (and it certainly wouldn't be as effective) as it is today.

Milton Henry Erickson, MD (1901 - 1980) was a psychiatrist and psychologist regarded by many as the foremost practitioner of medical hypnosis in his time.

He wrote "Hypnotic Realities" and many other books dedicated to the "Art of Hypnosis" and which document the many things he learned while treating the many patients he encountered.

He was a scientist and deeply gifted hypnotist.

He was founding president of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis, as well as a fellow of several APAs: The American Psychiatric Association, The American Psychological Association, and The American Psychopathological Association.

He was noted for his often unconventional approach to psychotherapy, such as described in the book “Uncommon Therapy” by Jay Haley; for his extensive use of therapeutic metaphor and story as well as hypnosis; and for coining the term Brief Therapy for his approach of addressing therapeutic changes in relatively few sessions, often only a single session.

Erickson’s work and techniques were 'modeled' by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, the co-founders of Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).

For a very in-depth look at Erickson, written by Jay Haley while Erickson was still alive, click here.

Person Richard Bandler

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Chantix Suicide Lawsuit

I will continue to post stories like this as they emerge. The bottom line is that, even if the percentage of people who die as a result of taking Chantix is small, every single death is completely unnecessary. You'd be better off continuing to smoke cigarettes than to take these far more potent and dangerous pharmaceutical concoctions.



More than enough methods are available to stop smoking that have absolutely no harmful side-effects. Although I recommend hypnosis before any other method, I'd recommend anything other than pharmaceuticals (Chantix, Champix, Wellbutrin). The top of the list would have to be hypnotherapy and acupuncture. These methods should be attempted before any other because they're absolutely safe.

What you are beginning to see in regard to Chantix is only the tip of the iceberg. These cases tend to remain buried until the first one bursts through; others quickly emerge. You have to wonder if it's only a matter of time before we see a story like this about Chantix:

$894 million deal ends Pfizer's lawsuits over Celebrex, Bextra

If you wonder how drugs like these get approved in the first place, here's another headline:

Lawsuit claims Pfizer massaged Neurontin studies
Wed Oct 8, 2008 6:50am EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc tried to suppress medical studies that did not support the use of its epilepsy drug Neurontin, internal Pfizer documents submitted in a U.S. lawsuit against the company showed.

The documents suggest that Pfizer's marketers influenced Neurontin's scientific record to boost sales at least until 2003 by delaying the publication or altering the conclusions of studies that had found no evidence the drug worked for various conditions besides epilepsy.

Remember this headline, from USA Today, back in 2005?

Pfizer faces a barrage of lawsuits

Here's another from June of 2005:

Federal Judge Rejects Pfizer’s Efforts to Dismiss Zoloft-Suicide Lawsuit

Minneapolis, Minnesota - - On July 20, 2005 United States Chief District Court Judge, James M. Rosenbaum rejected Pfizer’s effort to dismiss Kimberly Witczak’s Zoloft-suicide lawsuit. Mrs. Witczak asserts that Zoloft induced her husband, Timothy (“Woody”) Witczak, to commit suicide after suffering severe adverse reactions to the drug. Mrs. Witczak claims that Pfizer fraudulently marketed Zoloft as safe and effective and failed to provide warnings about Zoloft’s propensity to induce suicidality, despite Pfizer’s knowledge of the risk, as evidenced by internal memoranda and studies obtained through discovery. [my emphasis]

In an effort to prevent this evidence from reaching a jury, Pfizer sought to dismiss the case, arguing that Mrs. Witczak’s state law claims are "preempted" by federal law. Pfizer argued that, since the FDA approved Zoloft and did not, until recently, require a warning about suicide risk, any lawsuit blaming Pfizer for failing to warn about the risk is legally impermissible.

Suicides, side-effects and lawsuits are not the exception - they're commonplace. Because of their history and track record, pharmaceutical drugs, particularly those that affect you psychologically, should be avoided unless absolutely necessary. These companies (Pfizer, Merck, etc.) have shown repeatedly that the bottom line is more important to them than the well-being of the public.

Here are the first few paragraphs from the article about Chantix suicide. Click the link below for the full story.

Widow Sues Pfizer Over Chantix Suicide
By Ed Silverman // July 10th, 2008 // 12:43 pm

On January 3, David Collins killed himself with a shotgun, three months after he began taking Chantix, Pfizer’s controversial smoking-cessation pill. Now, his widow, Linda, has filed what may be the first product-liability lawsuit against the drugmaker over Chantix side effects and an alleged failure to provide sufficient warnings. And her lawyer predicts many more such lawsuits are on the way.

In her lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Indianapolis, Collins claims Pfizer failed to adequately study Chantix; delayed publication of studies containing Chantix risk info; failed to update Chantix labeling sooner, and denied Chantix is explicity to blame for suicide by instead suggesting such behavior may be the result of nicotine withdrawal. Here is the lawsuit.

“The magnitude of the safety signal associated with the risk is alarming,” Kristian Rasmussen, one of Collins’ lawyers, tells us. Prior to the suicide, David Collins exhibited aggression and had strange dreams, but had no history of mental illness. Pfizer has been criticized for not including people with mental illness in its clinical trials, because the drug causes neuropsychiatric side effects.

You may recall the FDA, last February, issued a health advisory about Chantix concerning ties to the side effects, shortly after Pfizer upgraded the labeling. At the time, the FDA reported 39 suicides and 491 cases of suicidal behavior or thoughts.

full article: http://www.pharmalot.com/2008/07/widow-sues-pfizer-over-chantix-suicide/