It was more than 50 years ago that a key report was published that marked the beginning of a change in people’s relationship with smoking. Although there had been previous warnings linking smoking and lung cancer, it was the 1962 study by the Royal College of Physicians, Smoking and Health, that really broke through to the public and politicians.
As a result, attitudes in the intervening 54 years have changed enormously but, in 1962, very few people took the dangers posed by smoking cigarettes seriously.
Now we have nicotine patches and e-cigarettes which are said to help people get out of the habit while smoking is banned in many places – including commercial aircraft, pubs and cinemas.
In 1962, however, about 70% of men and 40% of women in the UK smoked, everywhere – on trains and buses, at work, even in schools and hospitals. And while the RCP report was launched in a blaze of publicity, the report’s authors needed to be innovative to get their message across to a public – and politicians – who probably did not want to hear it.
And today about 21% of men and women smoke. And it can be said that smoking has become a minority occupation.
But there has been a social change in smoking too, says Dr Penny Tinkler of the University of Manchester.
“If you go back to the 60s for men, it was cross-class, and for women, it was cross-class but with particular emphasis among those who were comfortably off,” she told the BBC.
“It’s really shifted over the decades in terms of who is smoking so now instead of being associated with affluence, it’s more associated with disadvantage. In part it’s because people who can afford to give up, or people who have a better quality of life, can give up.”
She added: “It’s always been harder to give up if things have been difficult so it’s not surprising those people in difficult circumstances are less inclined to give up.”
And, this is where clinical hypnotherapy can play a crucial role. Members of the National Council of Hypnotherapy (NCH) are trained to allow smokers to break free of the habit.
Therapists will use hypnotic techniques to bring about therapeutic changes acting as an external influence to activate the smoker’s inner resources in order to achieve realistic goals. A hypnotherapist can help to remove habits with precision and with a total freedom from side effects.
Dealing with ‘problem behaviours’ is one of clinical hypnotherapy’s successes and the NCH classes addictions and bad habits as ‘problem behaviours’.
“The reason why hypnotherapy works so rapidly with bad habits and behaviours is because it works directly with the 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,” says the NCH.
And views have changed since the 1960s with smokers now, literally, on the outside. BBC footage from then, interviewing smokers after the RCP report was released, included one smoker saying: “If I’m going to die, so I might as well enjoy life as it is now”.
Watching the footage now, it seems impossible that people could have been so blasé about the risks smoking poses to their health.