effectiveness of hypnotherapy for curing smoking

lola_run

does anyone know if hypnotherapy really works to help people quit?

Irish Wolf

You might find some info on it here.. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=871

Bottle_of_Smoke

I would imagine it does. I'm deeply suspicious Alan Carr's book is mainly hypnosis.

angeldelight

Not professional opinion, just an anecdote. My dad went to a hypnotherapist to stop smoking about 7 years ago, he had smoked 40 Major a day, and went in the frame of mind "this is going to work and I'll be a non-smoker when I come home".

My mam also went a few weeks later, she had smoked 20 B&H a day and went in the frame of mind "fine I'll try it but I don't think it'll work"

My dad hasn't smoked since, my mam still smokes 20 a day. He didn't have any cravings, weight gain either, just stopped. The only noticeable thing was we went to Kerry on holiday a few days later and he was so hyper for the whole trip, never stopped talking and laughing but after a few days he was back to normal! I asked him last year did he ever feel the need to smoke again and he said not really but sometimes if there was a cigarette in front of him in an ashtray he'd almost pick it upa nd smoke it, but because he'd momentarily forgotten he didn't smoke, not because he wanted the cigarette.

bluerose

I don't believe in this kind of therepy...

eth0_

bluerose wrote:

I don't believe in this kind of therepy...

If you don't believe hypnotherapy works, it definitely will never work with you. It's as much about your attitude as what the therapist does.

I got a free online hypnosis mp3 on saturday to stop me biting my nails, and i've only bitten then 2-3 times since, and it's no longer an unconscious thing - I stop biting as soon as I realise i've started. Pretty impressed!

ssahl.com

Once you let the analytical mind out of the way and enjoy the process of hypnosis real change can occur. Hypnosis is successful 90% of the time 10% either don't want to be hypnotised or aren't ready to give up.

Odysseus

lola_run wrote: »

does anyone know if hypnotherapy really works to help people quit?

All I would say on this is the quality of training around hypotherapy seems very poor in this country, personally if I'm referring to client to another therapist I expect them to be Masters level, I am open to correction but all the courses in Ireland are dip. level and that just doesn't sit with me. With saying that, I trained as a psychoanalytic psychotherapist including 5 years of personal analysis and I still smoke:o I plan to start on champix next month in my next attempt. Best of luck with it whatever road you go down.

DrIndy

hypnotherapy can have amazing success with certain conditions notably addiction and certain psychiatric disorders. Hypnotherapy is not a passive process and people have to believe in hypnotherapy for it to work as it is the power of suggestion. If you don't believe the suggestion, it doesn't work.

I use crude hypnotherapy if I have a very anxious patient waiting for a procedure and induce a relaxed state in them with pretty good success - this works because I have an "authority" persona to them and so suggestion in those circumstances is easier.

Odysseus

DrIndy wrote: »

hypnotherapy can have amazing success with certain conditions notably addiction and certain psychiatric disorders.

Hi mate, I have an interest in dual diagnosis. Would you mind elaborating on the above or if possible would you have any references, if its not going too far off topic. I have only herad of it being used to treat smoking and mild eating disorders or mild panic and anxiety disorders. Cheers.

DrIndy

it has a component in clinical psychology therapy and some clinical psychologists do use it when treating patients.

There are papers going back to the 1970's with partial success in treatment of addiction. (I searched for a few abstracts, but they are not available).

Here is a link to the american society of clinical hypnosis: http://asch.net/

The difficulty with hypnosis is the belief of the person being hypnotised in its success - then it really can work, however it is impossible to hypnotise a sceptic.

eth0_

Have read about hypnotherapy being used successfully to treat things like anxiety and anxiety.

Can it work without being used in tandem with drugs? How about with more serious things like psychosis?

Odysseus

DrIndy wrote: »

it has a component in clinical psychology therapy and some clinical psychologists do use it when treating patients.

There are papers going back to the 1970's with partial success in treatment of addiction. (I searched for a few abstracts, but they are not available).

Here is a link to the american society of clinical hypnosis: http://asch.net/

The difficulty with hypnosis is the belief of the person being hypnotised in its success - then it really can work, however it is impossible to hypnotise a sceptic.

Cheers thanks for that. I check out the link later.

DrIndy

Psychosis - in general no. When there is a clear cut psychiatric morbidity such as schizophrenia, the only therapy that works is drugs unfortunately. Cognitive therapy can help to normalise life, but cannot ever replace medication. Same with bipolar disorder or depression.

Hypnotherapy as well as cognitive therapy can help with addictions as well as anxiety disorder and mild depression to help find coping pathways. The more significant the diagnosis, the less likely that these therapies will work, but that does not mean that suprises can happen.

In general, psychiatric disorders should be treated two-fold with a psychiatrist and a clinical psychologist. Trouble is there are nearly none of the latter in ireland.

eth0_

Really?
I'm hoping to become a clinical psychologist when I finish my psych degree next year and get out of I.T but there are feck all PhD programs in Ireland for it :-(

I don't understand this - there's always adverts for clin psych's in the papers, yet they don't fund any training courses!

DrIndy

Its a very underappreciated speciality by the health service here. There are many jobs in the private sector but very few in the public sector. Trinity run a clinical psychology course. Its an arduous training course.

eth0_

Trinity is the only one I know of, and they have <20 places, which is ridiculous when you consider the levels of mental illness in this country :-/ But then psychiatry and allied professions get the lowest funding of any area of medicine in Ireland iirc, so it's not surprising :-(

I wonder how many Irish people go to the UK to train and then stay within the NHS, to the loss of the Irish healthcare system.

r3nu4l

Most live stage hypnotists perform a certain number of tests on their audience before selecting people to bring on stage for hypnotism. The reason for this is, as Dr Indy said, a sceptic is very difficult to hypnotise.

Some people are more susceptible to suggestion than others and those that are mosts susceptible are easiest to hypnotise. For a stage hypnotist this is important as they have a waiting audience

Therefore, hypnotism can work but the degree of success depends on the level of scepticism and the level to which the persons mid is susceptible to suggestion. So accepting hypnotism as a therapy still may not work if you have an otherwise solid non-suggestible mindset and vice-versa and that is where many of the problems with hypnotism as a therapy lie. Rather than just sending people for hypnotism there should be a standard pattern of tests developed to help define which candidates are most likely to benefit from hypnotherapy.

nesf

eth0_ wrote: »

I'm hoping to become a clinical psychologist when I finish my psych degree next year and get out of I.T but there are feck all PhD programs in Ireland for it :-(

My sister was complaining that too. There's not much of an infrastructure for the subject in this country.

nesf

DrIndy wrote: »

Hypnotherapy is not a passive process and people have to believe in hypnotherapy for it to work as it is the power of suggestion. If you don't believe the suggestion, it doesn't work.

Doesn't all "talking therapy" suffer from the same issue where the patient needs to be receptive to it for it to work?

DrIndy

nesf wrote: »

Doesn't all "talking therapy" suffer from the same issue where the patient needs to be receptive to it for it to work?

This is true. This is why those therapies are only really successful with mild (or moderate with medication) psychiatric disorders. When someone has psychotic features or just severe depression/mania/anxiety/schizophrenia, their thought processes are too altered for these therapies to make an impact until they become less unwell.

What they are very good for is helping people to cope with their disorder which can help to reduce relapse rates and in general help them cope with dealing with other people. There is huge stigma with psychiatric disorders - but this is a whole new thread.... ;-)

nesf

DrIndy wrote: »

There is huge stigma with psychiatric disorders - but this is a whole new thread.... ;-)

Don't get me started.

ssahl.com

Hypnosis is the most effective and succesful way of helping people give up smoking. Smoking is more of a social habit than a nicotine addiction.

nesf

ssahl.com wrote: »

Hypnosis is the most effective and succesful way of helping people give up smoking. Smoking is more of a social habit than a nicotine addiction.

And this wouldn't be in any way biased by your site offering hypnotherapy treatment for smoking cessation.

vodochilie

Bottle_of_Smoke wrote: »

I would imagine it does. I'm deeply suspicious Alan Carr's book is mainly hypnosis.

i don't think so, i thin it's all "de-brainwashing" the cigerette companys have to place large warning signs on the packs in ireland, one reads "Smoking is highly addictive, don't start" think about it

eth0_

vodochilie wrote: »

i don't think so, i thin it's all "de-brainwashing" the cigerette companys have to place large warning signs on the packs in ireland, one reads "Smoking is highly addictive, don't start" think about it

The cig companies don't write those warnings, the government do.
You'd have to be incredibly weak willed to start smoking because the packet tells you not to!