A 2001 study conditioned smokers to expect to be able to smoke during specific situations while encouraging participants to try to identify when a nicotine use cue had been encountered.[1]
Researchers found that encountering and noticing use cues would generate cravings, evidenced by increased salivation and skin conduction. They found that the more aware participants became of their use cues, the more profound use expectations became.
Far more importantly, they found that once study participants were told that they would no longer be able to smoke once a previously identified use cue occurred, that craving was thereafter absent and extinguished.
Can conscious expectations control both subconscious expectations and the presence or absence of craving? Absolutely. It means that what we think and believe is critical, that what we expect can occur.[2]
My most dreaded use cue was walking into the pub after work and having a couple of beers with the guys, as we debated and solved the world's newest problems. Why? Because I'd lost my longest recovery ever by combining alcohol with a false belief that I was now cured and could handle "just one."
This time, online peer support taught me about use cues triggering craves and I expected a massive one. I feared it so much that I delayed the after-work gang for three weeks. I kept thinking about how I missed my friends, our discussions, and a cold beer, and I wanted it all back.
Finally, heading into my fourth week, I mustered the courage.
Upon opening the door, my healed sense of smell was immediately struck by an overpowering stink. Had it always been this bad?
Indirect sunlight highlighted a thin indoor cloud that swirled as the door closed behind me. There they were, thirty or so after-work buddies tackling the day's events.
Scanning the room, I was shocked to discover that all of them, without exception, were either smoking a cigarette or had a pack and ashtray within reach. Why hadn't I noticed this before?
Although less than one-quarter of Americans then smoked, I was now discovering that almost all of my pub friends were nicotine addicts. How could this be? Was it coincidence?
I was prepared to turn and run if needed but it didn't happen. A crave didn't come. After a couple of minutes, I grew brave and ordered a beer. It still didn't happen. What was going on? This was my most feared situation of all and yet no craves - zero, none.
How could I be standing here, beside smokers puffing away and yet no urge? I'm sure I could have stayed and drunk another but I'd been in there for nearly a half-hour.
I found myself thinking about my still healing lungs every time sunlight pierced the smoke-filled room. Increasingly, I felt a slight burning sensation. My lungs didn't deserve this. It was time to leave.
Looking back, it's likely that I'd given so much thought to my biggest fear, while harboring dreams of reclaiming that aspect of life, that dreams and desire somehow overwhelmed and silenced all nicotine use associations.
Again, think about the traveling smoking cessation hypnotist using their conscious mind to relax our conscious mind, so as to allow them to plant subconscious expectations seeds.
The problem with single-session hypnosis isn't that it doesn't work, at least briefly. It's that it only addresses a single layer of recovery, the subconscious, while ignoring the ongoing negative influence of conscious stimulation, and use related thoughts.
Again, think about the repeated subconscious impact of the title of Allen Carr's book "The Easy Way to Stop Smoking." Each time the book is opened, the subconscious is hit with the message that stopping is easy. It's called "autosuggestion."
Inside, Allen does the same thing that Joel Spitzer does in the first two chapters of his free ebook "Never Take Another Puff." It's the same thing I do in Chapter 3 ("Quitting You"), Chapter 4 (Rationalizations), and Chapter 12 (Conscious Recovery).
We invite the enslaved mind - both conscious and subconscious - to see through the long list of use lies our addiction compelled us to invent, in an attempt to try and justify or explain that next mandatory feeding.
If willing to engage in open and honest analysis, once done, there may be little or no sense of loss. You might skip emotional recovery altogether. If nothing to lose, there's nothing to fear. If no fear, there may be little or no anxiety.
Could letting go entirely generate an "easy" or even cakewalk recovery? Absolutely! But even if seriously challenged -- as I was -- recovery is entirely do-able.
Although huge, subconscious recovery is only one layer. While Allen Carr's "Easy Way" stop smoking clinic has generated 1, 3, 6 and 12 months success rates of 38%, 27%, 23%, 22% respectively,[3] it's why we devote time to all four layers of recovery.
We don't need to be trained hypnotists to use our conscious mind to calm, reassure, soothe, or create subconscious expectations. Draw near and use truth to reassure your subconscious. It's always listening.
Start by listening to your auto or self suggestions as you talk out loud. Remember, you're talking to a real person so don't bore yourself to death or get super emotional, which may set off alarms. Seek teamwork. Strive to remain calm, caring, and inviting.
Now, try engaging in slow deep breathing while progressively relaxing your body. Quiet all chatter inside your mind by focusing, to the exclusion of all other thoughts, upon an image of your favorite place.[4] Once there and totally relaxed, share your dreams, and rewrite expectations.
Reassure your subconscious. Let it know that there is absolutely nothing to fear in coming home to entire days where you never once want for nicotine. Teach it that, contrary to the lies, you need not lose a single friend or give-up any activity, that life will be better, not worse.
Encourage your subconscious to join forces in embracing recovery, to ignore the tease, lure, and false message of that pile of old replenishment memories, each created by an addict in need.
Ask it to fear relapse instead of freedom, toxins instead of oxygen, your self-destruction and slow suicide instead of healing, health, and lots of extra life.
Make it aware that your mind and body are experiencing the most intense period of healing they'll hopefully ever know, and that you could use a little help. Invite your subconscious to defend and bask in freedom's glory, to feel the delight of your ongoing victory and growing sense of pride.
Deep relaxation may be challenging during the first 72 hours. If so, think about how relaxed the conscious mind and body become immediately before slumbering off into sleep.
Seize upon and use these precious seconds before sleep, when our conscious and subconscious draw near. Calm subconscious fears as you slumber into sleep. Cast out the lies!
Celebrate today's victory and picture tomorrow being your most fruitful day of recovery yet. Slide off into sleep feeling proud and free.
References:
2. Dols M, et al, Smokers can learn to influence their urge to smoke, Addictive Behavior, Jan-Feb 2000, Volume 25(1), Pages 103-108.
3. Keogan S, Li S, Clancy L. Allen Carr's Easyway to Stop Smoking - A randomised clinical trial. Tobacco Control, 2019, Volume 28(4), Pages 414-419. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6589447/
4 . Anbar RD, Subconscious guided therapy with hypnosis, American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, April 2006, Volume 50(4), Pages 323-334.
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