Huff and puff and throw that cigarette out

After 11 years of smoking, Adam Knowles finally decided he had had enough.  He was ready to quit, and he was going to do it with hypnosis.

As he stood in line to undergo hypnosis in a Mark Patrick seminar held in Fort Dodge on Monday, Feb. 9, Knowles said, “I couldn’t believe how many smokers I was standing around and wondered what or how the hypnotist was going to do it.”

He guessed there were maybe 150 people waiting, hoping to soon call themselves non-smokers. waiting, but that anxiety quickly faded once the process began.  As calming music played in the background, Patrick gave them phrases to repeat back to themselves, in their head, and scenarios to envision.

“For example, he had us visualize ourselves being a non-smoker and having a smoker walk up to us smelling like smoke; and how the smell of that smoke is nauseating,” Adam said.  “He also had us envision taking a full dirty ashtray and eating each cigarette butt, then licking all the ashes out of it.  At that point, I almost lost whatever was in my stomach.”

Adam found it interesting that this type of “helpful” hypnosis was much different from “entertainment “hypnosis.  For example, when he was “under” in high school, he didn’t remember anything (not even dancing like a ballerina) until he saw the video.  But with Patrick, Adam  knew what was going on the entire time and was aware of what he was doing.  He described it as more of a deep meditation.

Perhaps that is why the one thing that really hit home with Adam that night was when the hypnotist told them that “If the human body did not have an immune system and a liver, it would only take one puff of smoke to kill you.”

“That was a shocker, because your body’s immune system can actually slow down and/or stop,” said Adam.

After three hours in the session, Adam said he left feeling like it had worked.

“All it took was the realistic vision of eating cigarettes and licking ashes,” he said.

But, admittedly, the first 24-hours didn’t come without cravings and urges. Patrick had warned them of this and told them they would need to find a new hobby to do instead of having “that smoke.”  He also told them to throw out their old smoke-tasting toothbrushes and use the new ones several times a day.  As a result, one of Adam’s new hobbies has become brushing his teeth five to seven times a day, and it’s working.

With each passing day, there are still urges, but Adam said it’s getting easier.  

“Once in a while I still have the urge to smoke, but I take a deep breath and say in my head, ‘I am a non-smoker.’”

The biggest challenge has been facing the side effects, which for him have included confusion, headaches, stress, mood swings, and even jaw pain.  Despite all of that, he said it’s worth it, because after two weeks, he is still cigarette free - he hasn’t had even one.

We will check back in with Adam one more time in the future to see if hynosis was indeed the answer for him and if smoking continues to be a bad habit of the past. Look out for part 3 - Did it REALLY work?