Smoking is a dangerous and addictive habit that affects the lives of millions of people around the globe. We now know the dangers of cigarette smoking and smokers are encouraged to stop smoking for their own health. This is not an easy feat, as most smokers begin at an young age. The average age of a new smoker is thirteen years old.

A habit formed at such an early age is not easily broken. Nicotine affects the body in many ways and it is hard to break this addiction without assistance. There are many different diseases associated with smoking. Most smokers will need some help on how to quit smoking and a variety of different methods exist for this very purpose.

There are many reasons why people begin smoking and develop an addiction to cigarettes. The main reason that people start to smoke is peer pressure. It is deemed cool to be able to smoke. It also is forbidden which makes it all the more attractive to teenagers, hence the low starting age for many people. This young age makes quitting smoking more difficult in your later years.

Media can also have an impact on the decision to begin smoking. Smoking portrayed in movies or on television can lead you to think that smoking is harmless. Parents can wield the biggest influence over their children by setting a good example and not smoking, or quitting smoking. Mothers and fathers who smoke are much more likely to have children who smoke.

Nicotine is the drug within tobacco that smokers crave. Nicotine can affect your mind and body in many harmful ways. Nicotine, once inhaled into the lungs reaches the brain in a mere eight seconds. Once in your brain, nicotine affects your blood pressure and heart rate. Over time it can increase your bad cholesterol and narrow your arteries. Nicotine in concentrated doses is a lethal poison, so imagine the effects on your body. Nicotine is also addictive and one of the reasons many cannot quit smoking.

Smoking can impact your health on a variety of levels. Low stamina is one side effect of smoking. More serious smoking related diseases include cancer and emphysema. Strokes and heart disease are also closely associated with cigarette smoking. A person who stops smoking will dramatically reduce their risk of developing these diseases for every year they go without smoking.

The outcome of these medical conditions caused by smoking is grim. Lung cancer is almost always fatal unless caught very early and 80% of lung cancer cases are caused by smoking. Heart and lung disease can subtract years from your life unless you learn how to quit smoking. There is no cure for emphysema, only limited treatment options, plus the damage to your lungs cannot be repaired. The benefits of quitting smoking include a healthier, longer life and a better quality of life.

There are many different ways to quit smoking, and you must select the best method for you as an individual. Nicotine patches and gums are made to help you slowly withdraw from the nicotine addiction. Only about 10% of the people who use them are able to quit smoking. Another option is going cold turkey, and this works for up to 11% of the smokers who try to quit this way. Other popular methods to quit smoking include an herbal kit that can show you how to quit smoking. It has a success rate similar to that of nicotine gums and patches.

Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation is a very popular option for those who want to quit smoking without experiencing withdrawal symptoms or weight gain. Hypnotherapy has proven to be highly effective with smokers who have decided to quit smoking. Hypnosis for smoking cessation might sound like an extreme solution but it delivers solid results up to 70% of the time. This success rate is far greater that of other methods.

The reason stop smoking hypnosis is so effective is that it while the physical addiction to nicotine makes up only about 10% of the smoking addiction, the psychological aspects of the habit make up a full 90% of the cigarette smoking addiction. Hypnosis treats this aspect of the addiction.

Additionally, 45% of the smoking behavior is caused by stress, and hypnosis has proven to be a powerful, non-invasive tool that can help reprogram the mind to divert you away from stressful thoughts, and towards relaxing, positive thoughts. In addition, the practice of hypnosis incorporates a state of deep relaxation.

Another 45% of the smoking behavior is prompted by conditioned responses. This occurs when smoking becomes associated with other activities and events at the unconscious level of mind. For example, if you smoke and simultaneously watch TV, your unconscious will associate the image of a cigarette in your hand with the image of the TV. Every time you see the TV, your unconscious flashes an image of the cigarette in your hand, and you feel an urge to smoke.

Hypnotherapy for smoking cessation is regularly used to "extinguish" the conditioned responses by disassociating the unconscious connections between cigarettes and TV, drinking coffee, working on your computer, driving, or any other environment where an unconscious association has been created.

In summary: While most smokers believe that their inability to quit smoking is due to their addiction to nicotine, in truth it's the psychological aspects of a smoking addiction that present the largest barriers. Hypnotherapy was accepted by the American Medical Association in 1958 as an effective tool for quitting smoking. And hypnosis for smoke cessation is the second most common use of hypnotherapy today.

While hourly rates for hypnotherapists continue to skyrocket, there are effective hypnosis CDs available that can greatly reduce its cost. Since everyone is unique, there are no specific "magic" words or post-hypnotic suggestions that will work for everyone. So when choosing a self hypnosis program, look for programs that incorporate a broad variety of hypnotic and NLP techniques in a series of at least six or more sessions to enjoy the best possible results. In any case, the cost of the best self hypnosis CD and DVD sets equates to much less than the amount that an average smoker spends every month on buying cigarettes.