Yes it’s hard to give up smoking but you can do it

I am pleased to report I am very much an ex-smoker (the worst kind) and thankfully knocked that habit on the head more than a decade ago.

Granted, I should never have started in the first place.

But it is no mean feat giving up the fags so, if you are in the process of trying to quit I take my hat off to you.

Keep at it. You will get there if you want it badly enough, I promise.

I was a fully committed 20-a-day smoker for some years.

That comes as a surprise to even me as, in all other areas of my life, I am an over-cautious square.

My tea is always decaf, I can barely drink more than half a lager without feeling merry and I keep my socks in colour order.

See what I mean? I had tried to give up smoking several times before I was finally successful.

First I went cold turkey, then tried patches and nicotine gum, but in the end it was hypnotherapy that did the trick for me.

A friend of mine had recently trained as a hypnotherapist and asked if he could work his magic on me.

I was pretty unhappy with myself for having succumbed to the dreaded weed since my last attempt to quit, so I took him up on the offer.

Let me just clear one thing up first though.

Hypnotherapy is not actually magic and therapists spend a lot of time and money training to be one.

There are absolutely no wands or rabbits in hats involved, which is a shame really.

Either way I was apprehensive about it as I had never been hypnotised before.

However, I had been to shows where the guy on stage made people believe they were a chicken or Boris Johnson or whatever.

OK maybe not Boris Johnson back then, but you get my drift.

My hypno-friend came to my flat for the session, which was such a bizarre but brilliant experience that I still remember elements of it even now.

I was not expecting to be aware of what was happening.

But at the time I knew exactly what was being said.

It felt completely normal to respond to the instructions that were being given to me.

The strangest part of the session was when my friend made me stand up in my kitchen, while under hypnosis.

He then told me to physically step out of my “smoker self.”

Any other time of the day I would have probably laughed and told him to stop winding me up.

But it just seemed to make sense at the time and therefore I duly did what he asked.

Thank goodness no one was filming me.

But I am still convinced to this day this was the part that finally did it for me.

Any previous attempts at being an ex-smoker had resulted in me suffering from terrible cravings and doing daft things like still going outside with smoker friends just to have a sniff.

But that all stopped this time around.

Whatever jiggery-pokery my friend performed completely removed that element of being an ex-smoker.

Now I cannot even stand to be around cigarette smoke in any situation.

I will not lie, it was still tough initially and I really did have to make a conscious effort not to smoke for a couple of weeks or so, but the strength of my cravings were noticeably different. Once the early days passed it suddenly became much easier and now I do not even give it a second thought.

Of course, not everyone responds to hypnotherapy in the same way and it can also be really expensive, but when you weigh up the extortionate cost of cigarettes and tobacco, it is most definitely worth considering if you are trying to quit.

Just make sure you use a reputable, qualified therapist, or better still one recommended by a trusted friend.

Giving up any kind of addiction is extraordinarily difficult and we are all human so it is important to not judge those who are struggling with something they have come to rely on.

I cannot even pretend to have battled anything other than nicotine addiction, but I do have friends who have been through the mill when it comes to drug or alcohol abuse.

It is easy to think of someone in this situation as weak, but addiction is a complex and volatile illness that can take years, and a lot of therapy, to overcome.

Thankfully help is available for those ready to accept it, and accepting it is often the hardest step to take.