As every year, the month of November is associated with the “tobacco-free month”. Program launched by the Ministry of Health in 2016, it aims to help smokers to end their addiction. For the 5th edition of the month without tobacco in France, Passeport Santé offers a focus on medical hypnosis to stop smoking.
Hypnosis to change the perception of cigarettes
As a reminder, medical hypnosis is a technique that involves plunging a patient into a modified state of consciousness in order to relieve certain disorders. In the case of an addiction such as tobacco, hypnosis makes it possible to change the perception that the smoker may have on his cigarette. As defined by Jean-Marc Benhaiem, director of the French Association for the Study of Medical Hypnosis and author of ‘Hypnose-toi-toi-même’: “ Hypnosis is not intended to cure illnesses, but the relationship we have to our body. Thus, we can free ourselves from tobacco, alcohol, or a drug, by modifying our perception of these substances. “.
As you can see, hypnosis makes it possible to deconstruct the habits and beliefs of the smoker, as Jean-Marc Benhaiem points out ” this approach aims to modify the smoker’s relationship to cigarettes by building on their beliefs or rituals “. One or two sessions may be sufficient, although some patients may need multiple sessions to successfully quit smoking.
The different hypnosis methods to quit smoking
There are several methods of hypnosis to treat smoking cessation. One of the most popular is the aversive method. As the name suggests, this method aims to make the smoker feel disgusted and disgusted when he smokes. The idea is to get him to associate smoking with unpleasant effects and negative events such as nausea or headaches. Generally, the feeling of aversion in smoking cessation is related to the senses and particularly to taste and smell.
Finally, the Internal Hypnotic Transformation (THI) is a method of hypnosis which aims to transform the triggers (coffee break, aperitif, moment of digestion after the meal…) linked to the desire to smoke into positive behaviors. In other words, this approach consists in substituting the cigarette for beneficial attitudes for the patient. This is a difficult step because the patient must find a substitute to replace cigarettes (drink a glass of water, call a loved one, etc.).
According to figures from the French association for the study of hypnosis, the success rate in stopping smoking by hypnosis is 72% one month after the session, 63% at two months, 45% at three months and 35 to 40% at six months. That said, it remains difficult to prove the effectiveness of hypnosis in smoking cessation as there are so many different methods.
