I have smoked for 23 years and it was truly a ‘habit’. I smoked cigarettes as though I was on automatic pilot. Until one day out of the blue I made a conscious decision to stop.
I tried the patches for a few days. They made me feel sick, so I gave in and started smoking again. I tried going ‘cold turkey’ along with my husband. That lasted three days, and I was so irritable. I started smoking again. I tried Zyban and I lasted ten days.
It wasn’t until I visited my Dentist who set off alarm bells in my head, when he told me if I didn’t stop smoking I had a very good chance of losing all of my teeth. Well that did it for me. He had put the fear in God in me. He also told me of another of his patients who was a two pack a day Camel cigarette smoker and her one visit to a hypnotherapist he had never picked up a cigarette again in his life. This person had been smoking for over forty years. My dentist gave me the telephone number and name of the hypnotherapist. His name was Lindsay Ostrofski.
I admit I was impressed by this story. I rationalized. I only smoked a pack a day and nothing as strong as Camels. I decided to try hypnotherapy but I still wasn’t sure if I really wanted to give up smoking. After all, I enjoyed it.
I was a little sceptical because I knew nothing about hypnotherapy, and thought it was all voo doo stuff (As at journalist I tend to question everything). However, I kept my first appointment. I left that session with no desire at all to smoke I could not believe it! Even if I had wanted to smoke I couldn’t!
It was like a miracle,e until a few weeks later, I succumbed to the habit again. A little stress in my family had pushed me over that fine line!
I felt duly ashamed of myself and yet delighted in enjoying a cigarette again.
I felt like the true hypocrite, but I must not have been remorseless, for I felt little or no guilt!
As time went by, the guilt set in. I phoned Lindsay again. I was so ashamed of myself I didn’t even consider cancelling my appointment. I showed up for my second session. I was better prepared to quit this time. I was going to prove to myself that I would stop once and for all.
Well I must have been better prepared both mentally and emotionally as that was my last session with Lindsay. Since then, I admit there have been moments of temptation. I gained weight which I have now lost again, I sometimes felt saddened that I couldn’t have just one cigarette sometimes but knew if I did the I would start again. Because of my tendency to addictive behaviour I simply changed the addiction. I replaced it with an all-consuming addiction to return to that person I was before I smoked. That was a health and fitness junkie! And it has worked! Even though I drive my family mad with too my latest food fads and exercise routines, the benefits for all concerned, and especially myself outweigh the disadvantages and all the negative aspects of what I put them and myself through when I was smoking.
If you are anything like me, and you have tried everything, and you are armed with a healthy dose of skepticism towards hypnotherapy, yet burdened by a deep desire to really stop smoking, then I strongly recommend Lindsay’s methods.
I can’t think of the money he has saved my, let alone the list of medical problems associated with the habit.
If you have never tried hypnotherapy before, please do so. Lindsay can talk the talk for you, but you my friend, must walk the walk.
He offers you the opportunity, you would be mad not to take it.
A truly appreciative receiving client.
Prudence H
