It's not nicotine addiction!
The Full Story: The nicotine
addiction myth.
I've known a secret for over thirty years and now it's time to share
it with you. You are NOT a nicotine junky. There, I said it!
Even after I've let the cat out of the bag, you are probably
wondering, what the heck is he taking about? I'm addicted to nicotine. I
crave nicotine. I have a nicotine fit when I can't have my cigarette. Besides, all the
experts agree, my brain needs nicotine, my body craves nicotine and I
can't talk on the phone without my cigarette. What could be more
obvious, I'm a nicotine addict!
I'm Paul S. Palmer, director of the Palmer Smoking Clinic, I'm
an expert in hypnosis specializing in smoking cessation. (see
Palmer's Bio) The most
challenging part of my job over these past 30 years has been to convince
my clients that their smoking addiction
was really a habit problem and not a chemical problem. As bizarre as
that notion may sound at the moment, I challenge you to hear out a few of
my examples before you declare me a nut case. I promise, you'll be surprised and
enlightened.
If cigarette smokers are slaves to nicotine the way everyone says
they are, how do you explain this odd behavior?
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Most smokers are able to turn off their addiction to get a good
nights sleep.
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Many smokers have stopped smoking completely at work.
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Illinois smokers no longer smoke at bars and restaurants.
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Cigarette smokers don't graduate to cigars, pipes or chewing
tobacco.
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You don't smoke in the new car or in the new house.
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Hospitals, public buildings, movies, theaters, and airline flights
have long been off limits to the smoker.
How do you explain the cigarette smokers unusual ability to pick and
choose where they are addicted? The smoker's world is getting smaller
everyday and most nicotine addicts seem able to adjust to this without
much discomfort. Does any other chemical addiction work
like that? Because the boss sent a memo, you cancelled your addiction to
nicotine at work! How is that possible?
If this is a chemical addiction, explain the phone call.
The smoker needs nicotine, that's what
you've been told. You have a
craving because you are trying to maintain a level of nicotine in
your body. Well, how can that be true if you just finished a cigarette,
satisfied your need for nicotine, and the phone rings. Tell me you can
talk on the phone without a cigarette. Chemical need or habit? Smoking
situations apparently cause you to reach for the cigarette far more
often than any lack of nicotine in the body.
Real chemical addictions grow.
You need more and more of the chemical to feed an addiction, sound right? Well, cigarette smokers have been
pretty fickle about their relationship with nicotine all these years.
Over the past 60 years, smokers have evolved from smoking short non-filtered
(heavy on the nicotine) cigarettes to filtered cigarettes, then to highly filtered, to low tar and
nicotine brands. Lights and ultra-lights are the cigarette of the day! What
kind of an chemical addict does that? Think about it, smokers are doing it
backwards! You should start out with ultra-lights and gradually work
your way up to the real cigarettes, like the old movie stars used to
smoke, no filter and a big blast of nicotine.
And when those unfiltered cigarettes don't do it for you anymore,
you could always move up the tobacco chain to
CIGARS, pipes and chewing
tobacco. You want nicotine? You could always get a bigger nicotine fix
when ever you wanted it. Have any cigarette smokers gone that route?
Hardly any, I would say. You even smoke the same number of cigarettes per day for years, unless you have
reduced your consumption for some of the aforementioned reasons. Hardly
the behavior of a chemical junky.
"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar." Sigmund Freud
There has always been help for your chemical problem. If you were truly a chemical addict, you've always had help. You
need nicotine? You've had alternative sources of nicotine by way of
the gum, a patch, a pill or an inhaler for years. If your brain is
addicted to nicotine there are drugs to block the pleasure
centers that are tickled by nicotine (opiate blockers) and of course anti-depressants to
make you feel happy when you quit.
You could slowly wean yourself off the chemical addiction with the taper down
technique, one of the most popular methods of quitting for over 20 years. There is vitamin and herb therapy, non-tobacco cigarettes and laser
beams. All the stop-smoking programs you've tried were designed to help get the nicotine monkey off your back. Have
they worked for you?
If it's not a chemical addiction, what it it?
It's a habit problem. It's a
BIG HABIT PROBLEM. I'm talking about
a multi-layered habit with layers you should easily recognize. First,
you have the thousands of connections you developed over the years
between the cigarette and the things you smoke it with. Talking on the
phone, finishing a meal, your cup of Joe, and
all your smoking haunts represent your smoking pattern. Next, add the
number of trips back and forth to the mouth per day, which falls into a
range of 200 to 600 repetitions. You also have mannerisms that are part of the
package, how you hold your cigarette, how often you flick your ash and
even how you extinguish your butt. All of these represent the largest
habit pattern you'll ever acquire.
I'm not saying smokers haven't noticed their smoking patterns, I'm
telling you that we've missed the boat completely on the significance of this
pattern when you try to quit and that this pattern is the primary cause
of your discomfort. How could everybody have missed the elephant in the
room? We were told by the experts that smoking was
a chemical problem, period.
All the mysteries of quitting are solved.
The fact that smoking is a habit problem explains everything. Once
you look at smoking as a behavioral problem all mysteries, questions and
conundrums are cleared up. Any instance where you didn't act like a
chemical addict is now explainable. Smokers can obviously adjust their
habit pattern to accommodate the shrinking smoking environment but you can't turn a
true chemical addiction on and off to suit your situation. The habit
also explains why smokers fall off the wagon so quickly (some, with one
puff). Nicotine is not instantly addictive. When you pick up a
cigarette, you are waking up an old habit pattern.
We expect habits to come back to us in an instant. No one is surprised that you
can jump in a swimming pool or hop on a bicycle after years of non-use
and these habits come back to you in an instant.
Habits can
also remain active for months (two to five months) after you stop using them, and in the case of
large habits like smoking, make you uncomfortable if you don't use
the habit. You can't explain all the anomalies of smoking by pointing to
the chemical that medical experts said twenty years ago is out of your system in
two to three days.
Why is it important to recognize the habit problem?
Recognizing the habit for what it is can help you quit better, it's
that simple. Dealing with a massive behavior pattern is completely
different then dealing with a chemical addiction. How
you quit has everything to do with your success. You wouldn't treat a
nail bitter the same way you would treat a heroine addict would you? The
two are completely different problems aren't they? Then they call for
completely different treatments.
At the Palmer Smoking Clinic I have been working with the behavioral
part of smoking for over 30 years. I have created a way to quit that
goes after the most important part of smoking, THE HABIT. I use hypnosis
with all it's benefits to help the smoker quit, quickly and comfortably.
(see Why Hypnosis)
I'm proud to say that no one else has this unique combination of two
proven quitting strategies.
Readers Reward! Readers Reward! Readers
Reward!
As a special thank you for reading my stuff, I have a deal for you.
My September Reward is.... Bring a friend for
$25.
Book an individual 1 1/2 hr. session at the clinic, for the regular
price of $225.00 and bring along another smoker for $25. Offer is good
through September 30, 2008. Mention the "September Readers Reward"
when you call.
Appointments: 708-233-1111
Palmer Smoking Clinic
9748 S. Roberts Road
Palos Hills, IL. 60465