In addition to Happy Valentine's day, I've been reviewing all the smoking cessation information

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Michael Ellner on March 19, 2010 at 7:26am

My Dear Duncan -- Have you not met Zoran, Zoran -- that's right...

Zoran, Zoran - World's fastest hypnotist? - HypnoThoughts.com
http://www.hypnothoughts.com/video/zoran-zoran-worlds-fastest?comme...

Duncan Murray said:

Hey Michael

You seem to be going extremely Ericksonian on us all...Thaaat's right!

But I agree,Susan, there is no particular 'right' way of doing it other than listening to the client and hearing what they say before you do anything...and this thread does seem to have a life of its own/more lives than a cat!! Puuuurrrrrr!

Michael Ellner said:

Here Kitty, Kitty,

Imagine - putting the responsibilty to stop smoking where it belongs - with the client --

For those who find it difficult to help clients stop smoking -- I predict that as you develop your Hypnotic Smoking Ceassation skills and confidence you will begin to realize that it is really as easy as I was telling you it is all along... Our clients are only too happy to tells us the best way to help them help themselves -- Believe in the power of suggestion - Believe in the innate resources within your clients and believe in yourselves -

You can explain to clients that there are several ways that people can stop smoking using hypnosis - Give them the whole spiel* (*James and Hugh love it when I use technical terms, That's right..) and let your clients decide on the best approach for them - That is a contract -- if you get my drift...

YOU CAN DO THIS!!!! THAT'S RIGHT..

Feel the purrrrr...

Michael E.

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Permalink Reply by Duncan Murray on March 19, 2010 at 7:29am

I know Michael but Erickson had style! :-) And I am sure you'd prefer to be equated with Erickson to a greater extent than Zoran, Zoran so fast he named himself twice!

Ohhhh, and phonetically Zoran, Zoran would be 'That's Riiiight!'

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Permalink Reply by Chris Holmes on March 20, 2010 at 2:48am

"It's how you reach the personality by saying the right thing at the right time."

Or in other words, it's how the client feels about the suggestion the moment it is presented to them that really counts. If it was the suggestion itself that triggered change then it would have the same effect on everyone! The skill of the therapist is in judging what to say to that particular client, when to say it and how to say it. Even then it is only a bid for success - however well we do that we cannot MAKE the client accept it... and how they feel about the suggestion for change is (I believe) more influencial than what they think of it on a logical level.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Susan French on March 20, 2010 at 6:00am

Hi all,

The only thing I can ever offer are my own 68 years of experience, knowledge and opinion. To those of us who seem to have the "addictive behavior" profile, genetics, socialization, identity or whatever one might like to ascribe it to, the caution that this is who we are becomes important in not being sucked back into the behavior.

Folks with addictive/habit/"I-wanna-and-I'm-gonna" behavioral coping styles are helped by recognizing their tendencies, so that we can be vigilant and not fall down the rabbit-hole again.

Folks who do not have these tendencies seem less likely to understand this and seem to like to rail "if that's who you think you are, that's who you become" are undoubtedly the same folks who put "just say no" bumperstickers on their cars. But you guys have no problem with a diabetic becoming aware that sugar has a deletrious effect on their bodies or how about folks who have hypertenson, I never hear people rail self-rightously: you can eat all the sugar you want or all the salt. If you don't talk yourself into it, you'll never have diabetes or cardiac risk.

I don't mean to sound sarcastic but these kinds of discussions make me so tired after all these years. Let us who are of the "addictive tendencies" personality persuasion look at these things in the way that seems important to us. You who do not have these tendencies, please keep your opinions to yourselves until you have walked in our shoes. How would you feel if your expert opinion lulled a drunk, an ex-smoker, a drug-addict, a food addict into thinking he or she could "just have one" and be back on that roller coaster.

After all: can we not consider that there is indeed life without alcohol, cigarettes, meth, oxycontin, pot or sugar?

This ongoing discussion reminds me of the old days when it was self-righteously suggested by the so-called experts of the day, that there was no such thing as PMS. That it was all in someone's mind (that's a big laugh). All you need to do is straighten up and fly right and PMS and cramps will magically melt away. Then the experts began to find that there was emperical evidence that PMS and cramps existed and needed to be addressed.

Sorry for the long rant but it gets old. Walk in my shoes before you let yourself become so certain that you're right.

With love and respect,

Susan




Chris Holmes said:

I agree with Gordon that lots of approaches will work whether they hang on to the notion of addiction or they don't. Also, I appreciate that we get into habits with our therapeutic methods and the language we use, and if we seem to be doing okay with that, there is a natural resistance to change - who wants to re-write their smoking therapy if they've been doing that for years? That's only human nature.

Having said all of that, I have noticed that in my own clients that any hesitation in accepting my explanations as to why it is not an addiction - and please note that these explanations are presented both in the pre-talk and in again the trance section of the session - will often result in no cessation or only brief cessation, and that the subsequent acceptance of the conceptual shift (from "addiction" to "habit") in a follow-up session cures this. Put simply, a person who believes they are addicted to a powerful drug behaves like a person who is addicted to a powerful drug. If they really were a drug addict and physical addiction to nicotine were the true reason they didn't stop completely after the first session, then the result of the second session would be the same as the first.

So we can see from this that the very conception of a "drug addiction" is playing a very significant part in the behaviour and the reactions of the clients. Leave the notion of addiction in play, and you won't get the same success rate you can get if you take the time to wipe it out in every case. In a few cases that takes more than one session, but I can usually do it in one. The fact that I've now explained it to thousands of people individually helps! It is all explained in the book.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Chris Holmes on March 20, 2010 at 6:38am

"Folks with addictive/habit/"I-wanna-and-I'm-gonna" behavioral coping styles are helped by recognizing their tendencies, so that we can be vigilant and not fall down the rabbit-hole again.

Folks who do not have these tendencies seem less likely to understand this..."

Susan, I was self-medicating at 13 years of age (ADD would be the current label they would slap on me, given half a chance) and on heroin by the time I was 19. I've had smoking habits, one hell of a drinking habit, an intravenous amphetamine habit that dragged on for a number of years and made me pretty psychotic, and I've used just about every drug in the world that can possibly be abused at one time or another so I don't really come under the heading of "Folks who do not have these tendencies"!

My confidence in what I'm saying does not come from all that subjective experience though, it comes from my success in helping other people get rid of these problems over the last decade. But I am quite sure that I wouldn't be quite as good at that if I hadn't experienced all that for myself. I don't expect everyone else to agree with me when I say that smoking is a compulsive habit not a drug addiction - especially if they already believe something else. People can believe what they like. There is no connection at all between what I'm saying and the ignorant dismissal of PMS symptoms and as for the the bumper sticker, well - my conscious mind sometimes tried to say no but my wild and untamed subconscious said "Hell, yes!" 'Course I didn't know about hypnotherapy in them days. It could have saved me a lot of money and quite a lot of unpleasantness.

Susan French said:

Hi all,

The only thing I can ever offer are my own 68 years of experience, knowledge and opinion. To those of us who seem to have the "addictive behavior" profile, genetics, socialization, identity or whatever one might like to ascribe it to, the caution that this is who we are becomes important in not being sucked back into the behavior.

Folks with addictive/habit/"I-wanna-and-I'm-gonna" behavioral coping styles are helped by recognizing their tendencies, so that we can be vigilant and not fall down the rabbit-hole again.

Folks who do not have these tendencies seem less likely to understand this and seem to like to rail "if that's who you think you are, that's who you become" are undoubtedly the same folks who put "just say no" bumperstickers on their cars. But you guys have no problem with a diabetic becoming aware that sugar has a deletrious effect on their bodies or how about folks who have hypertenson, I never hear people rail self-rightously: you can eat all the sugar you want or all the salt. If you don't talk yourself into it, you'll never have diabetes or cardiac risk.

I don't mean to sound sarcastic but these kinds of discussions make me so tired after all these years. Let us who are of the "addictive tendencies" personality persuasion look at these things in the way that seems important to us. You who do not have these tendencies, please keep your opinions to yourselves until you have walked in our shoes. How would you feel if your expert opinion lulled a drunk, an ex-smoker, a drug-addict, a food addict into thinking he or she could "just have one" and be back on that roller coaster.

After all: can we not consider that there is indeed life without alcohol, cigarettes, meth, oxycontin, pot or sugar?

This ongoing discussion reminds me of the old days when it was self-righteously suggested by the so-called experts of the day, that there was no such thing as PMS. That it was all in someone's mind (that's a big laugh). All you need to do is straighten up and fly right and PMS and cramps will magically melt away. Then the experts began to find that there was emperical evidence that PMS and cramps existed and needed to be addressed.

Sorry for the long rant but it gets old. Walk in my shoes before you let yourself become so certain that you're right.

With love and respect,

Susan




Chris Holmes said:

I agree with Gordon that lots of approaches will work whether they hang on to the notion of addiction or they don't. Also, I appreciate that we get into habits with our therapeutic methods and the language we use, and if we seem to be doing okay with that, there is a natural resistance to change - who wants to re-write their smoking therapy if they've been doing that for years? That's only human nature.

Having said all of that, I have noticed that in my own clients that any hesitation in accepting my explanations as to why it is not an addiction - and please note that these explanations are presented both in the pre-talk and in again the trance section of the session - will often result in no cessation or only brief cessation, and that the subsequent acceptance of the conceptual shift (from "addiction" to "habit") in a follow-up session cures this. Put simply, a person who believes they are addicted to a powerful drug behaves like a person who is addicted to a powerful drug. If they really were a drug addict and physical addiction to nicotine were the true reason they didn't stop completely after the first session, then the result of the second session would be the same as the first.

So we can see from this that the very conception of a "drug addiction" is playing a very significant part in the behaviour and the reactions of the clients. Leave the notion of addiction in play, and you won't get the same success rate you can get if you take the time to wipe it out in every case. In a few cases that takes more than one session, but I can usually do it in one. The fact that I've now explained it to thousands of people individually helps! It is all explained in the book.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Chris Holmes on March 20, 2010 at 6:55am

Oh just one more thing: I make it very clear to all my clients that anyone who has ever had a compulsive habit like gambling, doing coke or smoking cigarettes cannot "have the odd one". Only people who have never developed a habitual routine can be seen to do that and apparently "get away with it", but even they are taking a risk because that's how we all started! Sometimes clients quit successfully, but later observe non-habitual occasional use and imagine they might be able to do that too... forget it! It leads back to habitual use in virtually every case. That can easily be fixed with another session - so it isn't a disaster - but it is better prevented where possible.

I don't want to be pedantic about the 'addiction' thing, but the problem with the addictive personality interpretation, rather like the 'genetic pre-disposition' idea, is that you are stuck with it! I think we are all capable of developing these behaviours, and with the right kind of help - or in the right circumstances, sometimes - getting rid of them as well. Without hypnotherapy I think relapse is generally more likely, but then again the occurence of relapse is nowhere near as significant as how the individual client reacts to it. If their immediate reaction is: "Whoops! Better ring Chris..." then it really isn't much of a big deal but it can certainly become a big deal if they take a year or two to come to that conclusion.

Chris Holmes said:

"Folks with addictive/habit/"I-wanna-and-I'm-gonna" behavioral coping styles are helped by recognizing their tendencies, so that we can be vigilant and not fall down the rabbit-hole again.

Folks who do not have these tendencies seem less likely to understand this..."

Susan, I was self-medicating at 13 years of age (ADD would be the current label they would slap on me, given half a chance) and on heroin by the time I was 19. I've had smoking habits, one hell of a drinking habit, an intravenous amphetamine habit that dragged on for a number of years and made me pretty psychotic, and I've used just about every drug in the world that can possibly be abused at one time or another so I don't really come under the heading of "Folks who do not have these tendencies"!

My confidence in what I'm saying does not come from all that subjective experience though, it comes from my success in helping other people get rid of these problems over the last decade. But I am quite sure that I wouldn't be quite as good at that if I hadn't experienced all that for myself. I don't expect everyone else to agree with me when I say that smoking is a compulsive habit not a drug addiction - especially if they already believe something else. People can believe what they like. There is no connection at all between what I'm saying and the ignorant dismissal of PMS symptoms and as for the the bumper sticker, well - my conscious mind sometimes tried to say no but my wild and untamed subconscious said "Hell, yes!" 'Course I didn't know about hypnotherapy in them days. It could have saved me a lot of money and quite a lot of unpleasantness.

Susan French said:

Hi all,

The only thing I can ever offer are my own 68 years of experience, knowledge and opinion. To those of us who seem to have the "addictive behavior" profile, genetics, socialization, identity or whatever one might like to ascribe it to, the caution that this is who we are becomes important in not being sucked back into the behavior.

Folks with addictive/habit/"I-wanna-and-I'm-gonna" behavioral coping styles are helped by recognizing their tendencies, so that we can be vigilant and not fall down the rabbit-hole again.

Folks who do not have these tendencies seem less likely to understand this and seem to like to rail "if that's who you think you are, that's who you become" are undoubtedly the same folks who put "just say no" bumperstickers on their cars. But you guys have no problem with a diabetic becoming aware that sugar has a deletrious effect on their bodies or how about folks who have hypertenson, I never hear people rail self-rightously: you can eat all the sugar you want or all the salt. If you don't talk yourself into it, you'll never have diabetes or cardiac risk.

I don't mean to sound sarcastic but these kinds of discussions make me so tired after all these years. Let us who are of the "addictive tendencies" personality persuasion look at these things in the way that seems important to us. You who do not have these tendencies, please keep your opinions to yourselves until you have walked in our shoes. How would you feel if your expert opinion lulled a drunk, an ex-smoker, a drug-addict, a food addict into thinking he or she could "just have one" and be back on that roller coaster.

After all: can we not consider that there is indeed life without alcohol, cigarettes, meth, oxycontin, pot or sugar?

This ongoing discussion reminds me of the old days when it was self-righteously suggested by the so-called experts of the day, that there was no such thing as PMS. That it was all in someone's mind (that's a big laugh). All you need to do is straighten up and fly right and PMS and cramps will magically melt away. Then the experts began to find that there was emperical evidence that PMS and cramps existed and needed to be addressed.

Sorry for the long rant but it gets old. Walk in my shoes before you let yourself become so certain that you're right.

With love and respect,

Susan




Chris Holmes said:

I agree with Gordon that lots of approaches will work whether they hang on to the notion of addiction or they don't. Also, I appreciate that we get into habits with our therapeutic methods and the language we use, and if we seem to be doing okay with that, there is a natural resistance to change - who wants to re-write their smoking therapy if they've been doing that for years? That's only human nature.

Having said all of that, I have noticed that in my own clients that any hesitation in accepting my explanations as to why it is not an addiction - and please note that these explanations are presented both in the pre-talk and in again the trance section of the session - will often result in no cessation or only brief cessation, and that the subsequent acceptance of the conceptual shift (from "addiction" to "habit") in a follow-up session cures this. Put simply, a person who believes they are addicted to a powerful drug behaves like a person who is addicted to a powerful drug. If they really were a drug addict and physical addiction to nicotine were the true reason they didn't stop completely after the first session, then the result of the second session would be the same as the first.

So we can see from this that the very conception of a "drug addiction" is playing a very significant part in the behaviour and the reactions of the clients. Leave the notion of addiction in play, and you won't get the same success rate you can get if you take the time to wipe it out in every case. In a few cases that takes more than one session, but I can usually do it in one. The fact that I've now explained it to thousands of people individually helps! It is all explained in the book.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Michael Ellner on March 20, 2010 at 6:58am

'That's Riiiight!' - Chris,
I love the way you put it...


"They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel."
Carl W. Buechner

People who feel Better - Heal Better

Susan, et al,

Any one who wants to take a walk on the wild side can walk a mile in my hypnotic shoes... There is an amazing dynamic that must be felt and experienced to be understood -- You are welcome to put on your Mike-masks, or Mike-hats and step into my hypnotic shoes.

That special feeling starts in your intake/pre-talk as soon as you give your client your undivided attention. There is nothing to think about and nothing to do ('That's Riiiight!'). You are simply breathing with, listening to and having a pleasant and very interesting conversation- You focus your client's attention on what he or she really, really wants and you give them a reason to believe that they are ready, willing and able to do it -- based on their input, in the moment. Very pleasurable, satisfying and effective way to assist clients.

Michael E.

Chris Holmes said:

"It's how you reach the personality by saying the right thing at the right time."

Or in other words, it's how the client feels about the suggestion the moment it is presented to them that really counts. If it was the suggestion itself that triggered change then it would have the same effect on everyone! The skill of the therapist is in judging what to say to that particular client, when to say it and how to say it. Even then it is only a bid for success - however well we do that we cannot MAKE the client accept it... and how they feel about the suggestion for change is (I believe) more influencial than what they think of it on a logical level.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Marjorie Cameron (Poodle) on March 20, 2010 at 10:32am

I hope this is allowed here. Keith Livingston who owns www.hypnosis101.com has recently come up with a product for hypnotherapists that have problems in this area. The reason he created the product is that his own father died from lung cancer without ever having the chance to meet his grandchild. Keith is an Instructor of Hypnotherapy and a NLP Trainer. His qualifications are golden. He has dropped out of the training loop for awhile to thoroughly enjoy his son in his early years.

Most hypnotherapists I have seen use the 'away from' strategy regarding health problems. This really does not work well in most people minds as they have a belief EVERYONE BUT ME. These things will NEVER HAPPEN TO ME. Sooo, you need a nice blend of away from and towards and what do we get at towards HEALTH AND MONEY. I would not even take the President of the USA as a client -- no commitment and a bunch of excuses. Depending on if you are a member of NGH or not depends upon what you are allowed to recommend to your clients what really helps besides hypnosis. I make my price for this very high so I do get the commitment. ($1,000). I would suggest, if you can, to make individual CD's for each of your clients.

You will do great~Pood

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Permalink Reply by Fable Goodman on March 20, 2010 at 10:59am

Hi poodle,

I followed the link through, and went to the product page, and then the link to learn more about the smoking cessation 'Product'..

On the face of it, It appears to me that your posting is an advertisment for his products. unless I have missed something.

Perhaps a quick re-reading the advertising policies: http://www.hypnothoughts.com/Wpage/advertising-policy
will help you to clarify in your own mind, whether or not "this is allowed here", and help you to decide wether or not to amend or delete your post.

Love and hugs,

Fable

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Susan French on March 20, 2010 at 2:57pm

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree and that's fine with me. I have only question to ask you, Chris: would you offer an ex-drinker, -smoker, -drug abuser, -food abuser, problem gambler or whatever a little taste of that which took them down, just to see?

What I find and feel is that I feel better knowing that certain things are not an option for me and that keeps it simple. After having quit smoking for about 15 years, I started dating a guy who smoked and I figured I could have a little hit or two. Within a couple of weeks, I was right back to smoking what I had been when I quit. Because I was a singer and a singing teacher, and I struggled with allergies a lot, I simply had a talk with myself and put them down again, luckily before it had become a "whatever" you want to call it again.

For me, it just seems simpler. I guess I don't understand why anyone would even argue about it. I've known people (my children, for instance, and others) who seem to be able to control their drinking. Perhaps I should say that one (who has a great deal of discipline and a lot to lose if she abuses alcohol again) is able to control it. But I notice that if she drops her guard, she drinks too much and she sometimes drives. The other two, in my opinion, drink less than they did in their 20's and 30's but still overdrink. What's wrong with that? People make lousy decisions when they drink more than the legal limit...in my opinion. The people who seem to be able to drink with impunity are the people for whom alcohol is not important and don't drink very much because they don't like the feeling of being drunk.

I've never met a smoker yet who had at one time become an habituated smoker who could go back and just smoke once in awhile, but perhaps you know some. Do you smoke? Do you drink? Do you chippy with heroin? Just curious.

As for clients, I try to keep these opinions to myself because not everyone agrees with my personal belief.

As for clients, it doesn't seem to matter. They seem either to be ready to stop their "whatever"...or they're not.

I'm not certain from your post if you indulge in the drugs you had problems with or it leave them alone. Just curious?

Susan



Susan French said:

Hi all,

The only thing I can ever offer are my own 68 years of experience, knowledge and opinion. To those of us who seem to have the "addictive behavior" profile, genetics, socialization, identity or whatever one might like to ascribe it to, the caution that this is who we are becomes important in not being sucked back into the behavior.

Folks with addictive/habit/"I-wanna-and-I'm-gonna" behavioral coping styles are helped by recognizing their tendencies, so that we can be vigilant and not fall down the rabbit-hole again.

Folks who do not have these tendencies seem less likely to understand this and seem to like to rail "if that's who you think you are, that's who you become" are undoubtedly the same folks who put "just say no" bumperstickers on their cars. But you guys have no problem with a diabetic becoming aware that sugar has a deletrious effect on their bodies or how about folks who have hypertenson, I never hear people rail self-rightously: you can eat all the sugar you want or all the salt. If you don't talk yourself into it, you'll never have diabetes or cardiac risk.

I don't mean to sound sarcastic but these kinds of discussions make me so tired after all these years. Let us who are of the "addictive tendencies" personality persuasion look at these things in the way that seems important to us. You who do not have these tendencies, please keep your opinions to yourselves until you have walked in our shoes. How would you feel if your expert opinion lulled a drunk, an ex-smoker, a drug-addict, a food addict into thinking he or she could "just have one" and be back on that roller coaster.

After all: can we not consider that there is indeed life without alcohol, cigarettes, meth, oxycontin, pot or sugar?

This ongoing discussion reminds me of the old days when it was self-righteously suggested by the so-called experts of the day, that there was no such thing as PMS. That it was all in someone's mind (that's a big laugh). All you need to do is straighten up and fly right and PMS and cramps will magically melt away. Then the experts began to find that there was emperical evidence that PMS and cramps existed and needed to be addressed.

Sorry for the long rant but it gets old. Walk in my shoes before you let yourself become so certain that you're right.

With love and respect,

Susan




Chris Holmes said:

I agree with Gordon that lots of approaches will work whether they hang on to the notion of addiction or they don't. Also, I appreciate that we get into habits with our therapeutic methods and the language we use, and if we seem to be doing okay with that, there is a natural resistance to change - who wants to re-write their smoking therapy if they've been doing that for years? That's only human nature.

Having said all of that, I have noticed that in my own clients that any hesitation in accepting my explanations as to why it is not an addiction - and please note that these explanations are presented both in the pre-talk and in again the trance section of the session - will often result in no cessation or only brief cessation, and that the subsequent acceptance of the conceptual shift (from "addiction" to "habit") in a follow-up session cures this. Put simply, a person who believes they are addicted to a powerful drug behaves like a person who is addicted to a powerful drug. If they really were a drug addict and physical addiction to nicotine were the true reason they didn't stop completely after the first session, then the result of the second session would be the same as the first.

So we can see from this that the very conception of a "drug addiction" is playing a very significant part in the behaviour and the reactions of the clients. Leave the notion of addiction in play, and you won't get the same success rate you can get if you take the time to wipe it out in every case. In a few cases that takes more than one session, but I can usually do it in one. The fact that I've now explained it to thousands of people individually helps! It is all explained in the book.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by AJ on March 20, 2010 at 3:43pm

Learn hypnosis. You can do this!

Get to the source, redirect with positive energy, and then by end of session one, two or sometimes three, the overwhelming majority of my clients are on their merry way.

Doc

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Susan French on March 21, 2010 at 9:32am

LOL. I guess that there is no end to this. That's ok. As I don't see that the label (or diagnosis or understanding) of being a diabetic effects one's identity. Ditto: parkinson's. Ditto: cancer, ad nauseum, I see no problem in being aware of one's "tendencies" whether they are driven by nature or nurture or something that's half and half. Obviously, we still have choice to remain "clean, sober, smoke-free" because you and I and many others have chosen take back control.

But I'm a big believer in the ideas in Biology of Belief and Quantum Physics. I DO believe that your thoughts can become your reality. It's just a different perspective.

Susan

Chris Holmes said:

Oh just one more thing: I make it very clear to all my clients that anyone who has ever had a compulsive habit like gambling, doing coke or smoking cigarettes cannot "have the odd one". Only people who have never developed a habitual routine can be seen to do that and apparently "get away with it", but even they are taking a risk because that's how we all started! Sometimes clients quit successfully, but later observe non-habitual occasional use and imagine they might be able to do that too... forget it! It leads back to habitual use in virtually every case. That can easily be fixed with another session - so it isn't a disaster - but it is better prevented where possible.

I don't want to be pedantic about the 'addiction' thing, but the problem with the addictive personality interpretation, rather like the 'genetic pre-disposition' idea, is that you are stuck with it! I think we are all capable of developing these behaviours, and with the right kind of help - or in the right circumstances, sometimes - getting rid of them as well. Without hypnotherapy I think relapse is generally more likely, but then again the occurence of relapse is nowhere near as significant as how the individual client reacts to it. If their immediate reaction is: "Whoops! Better ring Chris..." then it really isn't much of a big deal but it can certainly become a big deal if they take a year or two to come to that conclusion.

Chris Holmes said:

"Folks with addictive/habit/"I-wanna-and-I'm-gonna" behavioral coping styles are helped by recognizing their tendencies, so that we can be vigilant and not fall down the rabbit-hole again.

Folks who do not have these tendencies seem less likely to understand this..."

Susan, I was self-medicating at 13 years of age (ADD would be the current label they would slap on me, given half a chance) and on heroin by the time I was 19. I've had smoking habits, one hell of a drinking habit, an intravenous amphetamine habit that dragged on for a number of years and made me pretty psychotic, and I've used just about every drug in the world that can possibly be abused at one time or another so I don't really come under the heading of "Folks who do not have these tendencies"!

My confidence in what I'm saying does not come from all that subjective experience though, it comes from my success in helping other people get rid of these problems over the last decade. But I am quite sure that I wouldn't be quite as good at that if I hadn't experienced all that for myself. I don't expect everyone else to agree with me when I say that smoking is a compulsive habit not a drug addiction - especially if they already believe something else. People can believe what they like. There is no connection at all between what I'm saying and the ignorant dismissal of PMS symptoms and as for the the bumper sticker, well - my conscious mind sometimes tried to say no but my wild and untamed subconscious said "Hell, yes!" 'Course I didn't know about hypnotherapy in them days. It could have saved me a lot of money and quite a lot of unpleasantness.

Susan French said:

Hi all,

The only thing I can ever offer are my own 68 years of experience, knowledge and opinion. To those of us who seem to have the "addictive behavior" profile, genetics, socialization, identity or whatever one might like to ascribe it to, the caution that this is who we are becomes important in not being sucked back into the behavior.

Folks with addictive/habit/"I-wanna-and-I'm-gonna" behavioral coping styles are helped by recognizing their tendencies, so that we can be vigilant and not fall down the rabbit-hole again.

Folks who do not have these tendencies seem less likely to understand this and seem to like to rail "if that's who you think you are, that's who you become" are undoubtedly the same folks who put "just say no" bumperstickers on their cars. But you guys have no problem with a diabetic becoming aware that sugar has a deletrious effect on their bodies or how about folks who have hypertenson, I never hear people rail self-rightously: you can eat all the sugar you want or all the salt. If you don't talk yourself into it, you'll never have diabetes or cardiac risk.

I don't mean to sound sarcastic but these kinds of discussions make me so tired after all these years. Let us who are of the "addictive tendencies" personality persuasion look at these things in the way that seems important to us. You who do not have these tendencies, please keep your opinions to yourselves until you have walked in our shoes. How would you feel if your expert opinion lulled a drunk, an ex-smoker, a drug-addict, a food addict into thinking he or she could "just have one" and be back on that roller coaster.

After all: can we not consider that there is indeed life without alcohol, cigarettes, meth, oxycontin, pot or sugar?

This ongoing discussion reminds me of the old days when it was self-righteously suggested by the so-called experts of the day, that there was no such thing as PMS. That it was all in someone's mind (that's a big laugh). All you need to do is straighten up and fly right and PMS and cramps will magically melt away. Then the experts began to find that there was emperical evidence that PMS and cramps existed and needed to be addressed.

Sorry for the long rant but it gets old. Walk in my shoes before you let yourself become so certain that you're right.

With love and respect,

Susan




Chris Holmes said:

I agree with Gordon that lots of approaches will work whether they hang on to the notion of addiction or they don't. Also, I appreciate that we get into habits with our therapeutic methods and the language we use, and if we seem to be doing okay with that, there is a natural resistance to change - who wants to re-write their smoking therapy if they've been doing that for years? That's only human nature.

Having said all of that, I have noticed that in my own clients that any hesitation in accepting my explanations as to why it is not an addiction - and please note that these explanations are presented both in the pre-talk and in again the trance section of the session - will often result in no cessation or only brief cessation, and that the subsequent acceptance of the conceptual shift (from "addiction" to "habit") in a follow-up session cures this. Put simply, a person who believes they are addicted to a powerful drug behaves like a person who is addicted to a powerful drug. If they really were a drug addict and physical addiction to nicotine were the true reason they didn't stop completely after the first session, then the result of the second session would be the same as the first.

So we can see from this that the very conception of a "drug addiction" is playing a very significant part in the behaviour and the reactions of the clients. Leave the notion of addiction in play, and you won't get the same success rate you can get if you take the time to wipe it out in every case. In a few cases that takes more than one session, but I can usually do it in one. The fact that I've now explained it to thousands of people individually helps! It is all explained in the book.

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