Cigarettes âcould help people quit hypnotherapyâ
Simon was a spending a fortune on it. Susan alienated all her friends with her addiction to it. Imogen says she used to use it as an emotional crutch whenever she had any sort of stress in their lives. But now, theyâve all miraculously managed to quit the addiction of Hypnotherapy â and itâs all thanks to booze and fags. Just seven sessions a week, standing outside a pub sharing lighters with complete strangers, gave Susan the confidence to talk to people she didnât know. âIâm much more outgoing now and can make friends with anyone. If I ever feel a bit low, I pop outside, stick a fag in my mouth and start cadging a light off passers by. Itâs a ritual that really works,â says Susan. The empowerment that comes with making new friends has been a pleasant surprise for Simon. But the great thing about his new social circle is that they all share a degree of scepticism for new age fads but theyâre a lot less cynical than youâd expect. âSmokers are probably less judgemental than non smokers â and they certainly donât presume to know how other people should live their lives,â said Simon. âI found a wheezy chest and breathlessness keep me grounded. I look back on my days as a hypnotherapy user with shame.â At the peak of addiction, Simon was boasting 24 hours a day, seven days a week about his achievements. He was hopelessly addicted to sanctimony â which attack the nucleus accumbens, otherwise known as the pleasure centre of the brain. Hypnotherapy â known by its street names such as tick tock, getting sleepy and StageShow â is regarded as a gateway therapy to the deadly NLP. âOnce somebody has Neuro Linguistic Programming, there is no cure â they are gone,â said John Eddington, a leading fago-therapist, âthe lights will be on, but thereâs nobody home.â The government has now recognised the benefits of Smoke Therapy, allowing cigarettes to be sold in pubs with an eye watering tax contribution.