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Many state governments have banned smokers from public areas. Many workplaces have declared their work environments to be smoke-free, and are sanctioning employees for smoking in the workplace. Smokers stand out in the cold, wind or rain, and smoke away as quickly as possible in order to continue working again.

In some cities, smoking is as negatively perceived as drug dependence. Because they recognize not only these but other stop smoking benefits, a significant number are working to try to locate ways to stop smoking.

Smoking habits consist of three elements:

1. Approximately 45 percent of the habit of smoking involves seeking pleasure and relaxation.

2. People smoke because they have created an unconscious association between an activity or environment and a cigarette. Then, when people find themselves in these situations, they desire a cigarette. One example of this is when a person strongly associates drinking coffee with smoking a cigarette. Every time they get another cup of coffee, they strongly crave a cigarette. This component is responsible for nearly 45 percent of the smoking habit.

3. The final reason people continue to smoke is that they become physically addicted to Nicotine. This element is approximately 10 percent of the smoking habit. Within only three days of quitting, a person's body is completely Nicotine-free!

A number of options are available to assist people learn ways to quit smoking. One of the most inexpensive ways to stop smoking, covered by the majority of insurance underwriters, is the nicotine patch. These patches, which are easy to apply, are used for 24 hours and can be concealed underneath the wearer's clothes. The drawback to these patches, however, is that this method is not very effective. Because these products only deal with the physiological addiction, which results in only about one-tenth of the reason for which people continue to smoke, only about seven persons in 100 succeed with this method.

Much the same degree of effectiveness characterizes nicotine gum or lozenges. Less than one in ten individuals who try these strategies succeeds with these strategies to quit smoking for as long as six months. In addition, these items have side effects. substances, which contain Nicotine, are sometimes irritating to an individual's mouth and lips, and many people have skin irritation at the site of the patch. Again, these products target just the physical addiction, which only includes about 10% of the habit.

A different approach is the development of counseling and smoking cessation sessions. These sessions include behavior modification techniques as well as thorough information regarding the adverse effects of smoking. These programs are three times as successful as nicotine replacement therapies; the success rate is 22% at six months.

Many smokers have utilized laser treatment programs to help quit smoking. This treatment is sometimes reimbursed by insurance, even though it is new. Experimental trials performed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), however, indicate that the laser treatments are no more effective than placebo. (Placebo is when people believe they are receiving a treatment, but actually are not.)

One of the ways to quit smoking seems to be somewhat more useful than formerly used ways. In one study, smokers trialed shots to help them stop smoking by removing the pleasurable effects of the nicotine rush. This method, in the beginning stages of testing for effectiveness, thus far appears to be helpful for fifteen percent of the patients who attempted it.

Hypnosis is another way of coaching individuals to stop smoking. Hypnosis focuses on programming the subconscious mind to instantaneously employ other activities to create relaxation and peace, in place of the nicotine dependency. It also can be employed to eliminate or "extinguish" behavioral responses like the connection described between cigarettes and activities in the above example, so the smoker no longer has the desire to smoke when in the locations that previously trigger it.

Male clients appear to have better results with stop smoking hypnosis than female patients do. One advantage resulting from self hypnosis stop smoking, however, is that, unlike people employ nicotine replacement as ways to stop smoking, there are no adverse side effects.

Another helpful characteristic of hypnosis is that it works on the 90 percent part of the habit that is psychological, unlike the other strategies that just treat the one-tenth component of the habit that is physical. This is why hypnosis offers a much higher success rate than the previously mentioned methods of stop smoking treatments. Conventional hypnotherapy techniques can offer a 35% likelihood of success, while Ericksonian hypnosis can yield a 50% or higher success rate.

A more recent, revolutionary, and certainly more useful approach that encourages persons to overcome a smoking dependency is Neuro-Linguistic Programming, or NLP. This strategy is much more helpful than established styles of quit smoking hypnosis since it does not require users to rely on post-hypnotic suggestions at all. The majority of clients, particularly people whose thoughts are critical thinkers, do not respond well to post-hypnotic suggestions. Professionals who use NLP coach the client's unconscious mind to concentrate on the very cognitive patterns that cause the mental dependence on cigarette use, to obliterate it!

A well thought out NLP smoking cessation approach developed by a certified NLP Practitioner can produce a positive outcome rate of as much as 70 percent or greater.

Summary: The majority of smoking cessation courses attempt to employ nicotine replacement therapies as ways to stop smoking. Other strategies, like smoking cessation and cognitive or behavioral treatment approaches, attempt to help the mind find ways to quit smoking.

While hypnotherapy works more effectively than other strategies, especially with men, it is not rated as the most helpful way to stop smoking. NLP, which focuses on the mental facets of the smoking addiction, actually coaches people to alter their mental patterns so that they are able to stop most effectively.

Because 90 percent of an individual's struggle with addiction to cigarettes is psychological in nature, these methods are significantly more effective than merely giving the person nicotine and addressing the one-tenth component of the habit that is physiological.

Conclusion: A wide range of smoking cessation programs, including nicotine replacement products and counseling are available. These programs typically result in a less than 20 percent success rate. In contrast, hypnosis yields a markedly higher probability of success. NLP offers an even higher degree of effectiveness in aiding persons to successfully combat the mental component of their problem and find immeasurably more success as they work to become smoke-free.