A grandmother-of-two from Devon has told the miraculous story of how she has managed to give up her 60-a-day addiction.
Karen Clark, aged 58, started smoking at the age of 11 and managed to kick the habit 23-years-ago - not touching a cigarette since.
The smell of smoke, which she once adored, now leaves her feeling physically repulsed thanks to the DIY hypnotherapy tape she bought on a whim.
Local hypnotherapist David Mclean said all his clients have to be is willing to change their lifestyle - and the rest is easy.
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The grandmother from Ivybridge was skeptical of hypnosis at first and did not expect it to have the affect it did but bought a tape after watching an hypnosis show.
"I thought it wouldn't work as lots do at first," Karen said.
"We went to see a hypnotherapist and I bought one of his tapes because I thought, well it's only £5 if it doesn't work it's not the end of the world.
"I listened to it every day for a month and every day I lit up a cigarette – my husband said 'well that's clearly working isn't it'."
The 58-year-old, who suffers from chronic pain and found cigarettes a comfort, added: "You'd light up afterwards to see if it tasted any different.
"But by June I suddenly thought that's it – I got to the end of my pack of cigarettes and never bought another."
The former nursing assistant had previously given up her addiction for a period of five years but found the experience grueling as she still craved nicotine.
"I'd always wanted to give up because my husband did and I felt guilty smoking around him but I made every excuse not to," she said.
"I'd given up before for five years, but every day was a struggle for me. I was crawling the walls after going cold turkey."
Karen said due to her chronic pain she often found it difficult to sleep through the night and would spend the small hours lighting up.
"I can't explain how much I constantly wanted a cigarette.
"And then I just replaced the cigarettes with food.
"But this time it was different – I've not craved one at all. I've not even had a secret smoke – I'm just not even interested," she said.
The 58-year-old told of how her previous experience of 'giving up' left her counting how long she had not smoked for, desperately celebrating each passing week or month.
"But now I can't even tell you how long it's been – that doesn't matter to me now," she said.
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Karen is now physically repulsed by the smell of cigarette smoke following her hypnosis treatment.
"I absolutely hate the smell of smoke now – it makes me feel physically sick, which is weird because once I'd say to other smokers around me 'blow it my way' - I loved it.
"I've seen lots of benefits to stopping - I don't get out of breath now."
And inspired Karen has some advice for those thinking of taking the plunge and trying the alternative therapy for themselves.
"It obviously works over time by getting you prepared to stop. I think that's where people go wrong – they expect it to work immediately. But it just gets you to a place where your brain decides it wants to.
"If I could give anyone advice, it would be not to give up when you think you're still smoking - It just takes a bit of time.
"I'd like to try losing weight in the same way but I'm afraid my brain will struggle to give up two things at the same time.
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But after years of battling with her addiction, her family were reluctant to celebrate her success at first.
"I think the whole family were waiting for me to start smoking again because I gave up for years and then started again," she admitted.
"I only paid £1.19 a pack when I smoked but I don't understand how people smoke now, they're so expensive and it's an unsociable habit."
The only issue Karen discovered was her need to fill her hands with something as previously there had barely been a moment of the day where a cigarette had not graced her fingers.
When asked about her home hypnotherapy sessions she said: "They were so relaxing and it was nice to know I could just switch off for a while. You just go into a trance.
"I couldn't remember anything before the countdown to come around at the end. It was like a power-nap and you came round feeling really invigorated."
And how did the tape work?
Karen told us that she was subconsciously encouraged to react negatively to the smell of cigarette smoke.
"The tape was talking about the smell of the acrid smoke and how it clings to you and how it swirls up your nose," she said.
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David Mclean, a hypnotherapist at Thrive in The Crescent who used hypnotherapy to cure himself of an addiction to cigarettes, told The Herald how hypnotherapy works.
Smokers can be cured of their addictions in just one of his sessions.
"It can be done in one session because people don't want to smoke. The brain is dying to stop smoking.
"When they have made the decision to stop then they are over halfway there," he said.
"It is called solution-focused hypnotherapy. It's all to do with repetition and changing thought patterns.
"I listen to their background and how they formed the habit which helps me to see where it stems from."
He added: "Often they will say, 'it helps me stop putting on weight', which it does not, or i't relieves stress', but there are no chemicals in cigarettes which affect stress levels. It's all in the mind.
"I give them an understanding of why their brain is doing what it's doing.
"Once they understand this, we then move on to trance.
When in a trance, according to Mr Mclean, the brain is working four times harder than if the client were doing a maths test at school and so they are fully focused and absorb what is being said.
"I read transcripts to them which are a mixture of direct language and metaphorical language.
"Direct language will involve me speaking honestly and saying phrases like 'you will lose 20 to 30 years off your life', 'you will have a slow and painful death'.
"Metaphorical language is for example where I would say to them 'an old person is holding onto your back, they become smelly and you want to let them go'.
"The over-arching theme throughout is one of positivity and that we are going to do this together."
Mr Mclean explains the science behind hypnotherapy...
"It doesn't matter how long you have smoked for either. Your hippocampus, the region which regulates your emotions we can look at as a library," he said.
"There are separate sections and these are filled with the same books. You can't add more because it would be over-filled so you use the same templates over and over again."
Mr Mclean, who has been a hypnotherapist for five years, says the process of hypnosis means that you are changing these patterns of behaviour that you have been used to often for most of your life.
But hypnotherapy does not work for everyone, it is said there is around a 90 per cent success rate.
Former Marine, Mr Mclean added: "You have to be willing and want to stop but I've had clients come to me before who say 'my partner has sent me they want me to stop smoking' - that doesn't work.
"If there is any moment where they are quite honestly not sure they want to quit, I would stop the session there.
"But I've not experienced that because if people have paid the money they clearly have the aim to stop."
When asked if a client would be able to use hypnotherapy to control a second aspect of their life, Mr Mclean said there is no limit, as long as the person is open to making a change.
"It doesn't matter how long afterwards or how many phobias or addictions have been treated - the controls are constant. Change just takes time.
Commenting on the fact that Karen can no longer remember the dialogue that was used to hypnotise her and resulted in her giving up cigarettes, he said: "We tend to think we have to think everything through for it to have an affect but it doesn't matter what the person hears - it's the subconscious mind that needs to hear it."
This story was first published on The Plymouth Herald.
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May 28, 2017 at 03:57AM
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