Today marks the first day of Stoptober, an annual event and initiative that encourages people to give up smoking. According to the NHS, stopping smoking is one of the best things that you can do for your health, with benefits starting almost immediately from the moment you quit. This year’s NHS Stoptober campaign will look and feel quite different to previous years campaigns. This new branding approach responds to new challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact it’s had on people’s health behaviours.
For many people who have been ambivalent about quitting smoking in the past, the heightened risks of complications if they catch COVID-19 have led to a rethink. Research from the UCL Smoking Toolkit Study shows that a higher percentage of people attempting to quit have reported success this year than any other this decade. This means that amongst the general public, motivation to improve health and quit smoking is high.
The campaign is based on evidence which shows that if someone manages to stops smoking for 28 days, they are five times more likely to give up for good than someone who quits for a lesser period of time.
Smoking cessation is an area where clinical hypnotherapy can claim a high success rate. The National Council for Hypnotherapy states “The reason why hypnotherapy works so rapidly with bad habits and behaviours is because it works directly with your subconscious, bypassing the critical mind and getting to the root of the issue so that changes can be made that support your goals quickly and efficiently.”
Public Health England and the NHS recommend using a range of tools and aids when making an attempt to quit smoking. Stoptober supports you to create a personalised plan which will help you quit. While the physical effects and dependency of nicotine is short lived, there are thoughts and habits which keep people returning back to cigarettes.
This mental battle also explains why most smoking cessation aids like nicotine replacement therapy have such low success rates when used alone. Nicotine replacement therapy only eliminates the physical cravings – but those mental urges, those subconscious thoughts that tell us to reach for a cigarette are still very much in place. Therefore, to successfully become a non-smoker requires tackling the mental aspect and this is where hypnotherapy is so successful.
If you’re ready to quit smoking and want an extra tool to add to your arsenal, search the National Council for Hypnotherapy’s database of qualified clinical hypnotherapists to find someone near you.