Having a family and a smoking habit still in situ, public opinion on smoking is very clear – it is wrong, you are harming your children and there is all likelihood that, should you continue, you will suffer from a great many smoking-related health issues later in life.
While there are precautions you, as a smoker, can take to lessen the risk to your children (not smoking around them, change your clothes after a cigarette, wash your hands and brush your teeth before coming into contact with them) the evidence to support the case to stop smoking is overwhelming. Every healthcare professional you meet after having had a baby will ask about your smoking habits and those of the people the newborn will be in contact with. This is because there is a strong a link between cot-death and there being smokers in the house or in contact with the baby. Smoke on a person or lingering in the soft furnishings or even the wallpaper is known as tertiary smoke and is a deadly but invisible presence in the home.
With children and especially during pregnancy it is better to get a handle on the addiction and overcome it by any means. Nicotine patches have proved very successful for some but for others they don’t work due to physical, emotional and mental reasons – they can cause nausea, the hankering for something in the hand or mouth is too great, or the desire not to smoke is not strong enough. There is other prescription medication available but that is sometimes linked to very unpleasant side-effects. Smokeless cigarettes have improved in their tactility but the nicotine habit is still maintained, while the actual motion is taking place. Hypnotherapy is growing as an alternative to conventional medicine and a number of clinics and practitioners have proven track records of helping their clients kick the habit. The Therapy Lounge provide hypnotherapy, based in London, for those who would like to try an alternative approach to quitting smoking. Finding support through friends and family will also help you maintain the abstention – just as being around smokers is likely to encourage you to take up the habit again.
Understanding the behaviour that leads you to smoke is the first step in ‘stop smoking’ hypnotherapy with The Therapy lounge – using the thoughts that are in your own mind, but thinking differently about habits is the key to succeeding in quitting by alternative means. It should be recognised that it is always a risk that you could hanker after a cigarette and recognising the signs of temptation and knowing what steps you need to take to resist is a skill that you will need to learn if your intention is never to smoke again. You will have to undertake significant lifestyle changes and even examine the groups that you spend your time with – those that are not healthy themselves could influence you against your decision to stay off the cigarettes and these people might have to be allowed to fall by the wayside, or fall in with your own new life if they wish to remain friends. It is not so strict as to say you can never be around them at all, but think about where you see them – maybe try playing a sport with them instead of watching sport down at the pub. Whatever you decide to do and whoever you decide to keep beside you, think about your children and the longevity aspect – you will want a longer and healthier life and will want to see your children grow up and have children of their own.
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