If you’re reading this article, the chances are that you want to quit smoking, and you want to quit smoking naturally. Whether you’re sick of being addicted to nicotine, or whether you’re just worried about the damage that cigarettes are doing to your health, hypnosis can provide an effective way to stop smoking without the need for drugs or nicotine replacement therapy.

95% of smokers who just go cold turkey have begun smoking again one year after quitting. With such a low success rate, it’s obvious that you need a helping hand. However, most smoking cessation products either use drugs to numb your cravings, or replace your source of nicotine with something other than cigarettes – gum or patches, for example. These solutions do not tackle the underlying problem – your addiction to nicotine.

When you choose to stop smoking, you are consciously making a decision. But to really stand a chance of quitting, without just starting up again further down the line, you need to do more than this – you need to dissolve the subconscious urge to smoke and change the repetitive behaviour patterns that form your habit.

Hypnosis does this effectively and naturally. There are many other effective smoking cessation products, but these are not natural. In turn, there are many natural products, but these are not effective. In this article, I shall review some of the other popular smoking cessation products on offer, and compare them to hypnosis for quitting smoking.

Quit Smoking Naturally – with Anti-Smoking Hypnosis

Drugs (bupropion, varenicline, etc.)

Using a course of drugs to dampen cravings for nicotine is becoming more and more popular. However, many of the drugs available cause undesirable side effects – most commonly seizures, aggression and other personality changes, and sexual dysfunction. This is extremely unnatural and unpleasant, and to make matters worse, smoking cessation drugs are not even very effective. For example, 85% of smokers who use bupropion (AKA Zyban) to quit have begun smoking again one year later.

Success rate: 15%
Naturalness: low
Side effects: numerous, unpleasant

Nicotine replacement therapy (patches, gum, etc.)

As mentioned earlier, nicotine replacement does not tackle your addiction to nicotine, it merely replaces the source. Unsurprisingly, the rate of success for nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is no better than smoking cessation drugs – 85% of smokers who use NRT to quit begin smoking again within one year. Although NRT has a slight advantage over drugs, in that it has few side effects, it is hardly a natural way to quit.

Success rate: 15%
Naturalness: low
Side effects: few

Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a popular and effective way to combat many ailments, including pain relief, and it is natural (in that it does not involve putting synthetic substances inside your body – unless you count the needles). However, it does not help you to quit smoking. No clinical study has shown that acupuncture works as a smoking cessation device beyond the placebo effect.

Success rate: 0 (besides placebo)
Naturalness: high
Side effects: none

Aromatherapy

As with acupuncture , there is absolutely no evidence that aromatherapy works as a smoking cessation aid. Although – being based purely around the scents of essential oils, and involving no chemicals being placed in the body – aromatherapy is probably the most natural thing on this list, it is also the least likely to help you quit smoking.

Success rate: 0%
Naturalness: high
Side effects: none

Quit Smoking Naturally: Why Hypnosis is Better

Hypnosis is the best smoking cessation aid on both fronts: it is completely natural, and it is also more effective than any other treatment. Over two thirds of smokers who quit with hypnosis are still non-smokers one year later. That’s more than four times the success rate of smoking cessation drugs or nicotine replacement therapy.

The reason that hypnosis is so effective is that it acts directly on the subconscious drives that act as the root causes of smoking, eventually removing cravings for tobacco altogether. By going into trance, it is possible to communicate directly with the subconscious mind, suppressing the urge to smoke and changing the perceptions that cause certain situations to act as triggers.

Author's Bio: 

Copyright © 2010 Edward Haycock. To find out more about how hypnosis can help you quit smoking naturally , including information on the most popular hypnosis products on the net, visit: http://www.MeditationAndHypnosis.co.uk