Time to give up

There has never been a better time to give up smoking. It's official. Lighting up is now illegal just about everywhere. Hapless addicts have been hounded out of their traditional haunts and consigned to cigarette Siberia. If they're at work, you'll find them huddled somewhere the other side of the car park. Wind-blown pub gardens are now populated with these social pariahs. Many are exiled from their own homes by disapproving spouses.

The tenacity of the die-hard (often painfully and prematurely) smoker is being tested as never before. It remains to be seen how the sweeping new legislation will affect cigarette consumption. There may even be a backlash. At the heart of every smoker is something of a rebel. Smokers don't like being told what to do and outlawing the habit will only add to its glamour for a certain kind of 14-year-old. It is unlikely that there will be rioting in the streets over the law change but who can predict how the marginalised smokers will react? In Ireland, a strong smoking tradition passes from generation to generation. And since cigarettes were banned in pubs, it has been known for every drinker to adjourn to the designated smoking area outside while the bar stands empty.

But the Italians appear to have given up, despite smoking once being a national pastime. Both the rural olive grower and the Prada-clad Milanese have stubbed out their last. Occasional smokers can be spotted puffing in street cafes but they are very much a minority. Unless, that is, Latin lovers of nicotine have gone underground. The Mafia ran speakeasies during the prohibition era, why not tobacco dens now? Before the law changed, smokers were already outnumbered. They were mostly evident on a Friday and Saturday night, filling the popular bars and pubs with a rank, eye-watering fog which kept the nonsmokers at home. Local pubs have braced for a drop in trade and made outdoor areas as inviting as possible.

The full impact on these businesses will most likely be felt once the freezing, dark winter nights set in. Meanwhile, non-smokers can emerge from their self-imposed curfew and enjoy nights out without enduring the clinging stench of tobacco. All but the most dedicated shivering smokers will want to come in from the cold and quitting for good is bound to become a more attractive proposition in this climate. There is a lot of help available for those who want to stop. Unfortunately, as any typical smoker who has tried to give up many times will tell you, no one method is a sure route to success.

There is a lot of confusion about the effectiveness of different methods. Only a tiny percentage of those using Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) give up permanently. Patches and gum are prescribed and promoted by the NHS in smoking cessation programmes sponsored by the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture them. Drugs with a frightening catalogue of side effects are also routinely available. Government backing and corporate marketing give the impression that these are the only proven ways to support smokers who want to stop. Non-pharmaceutical, alternative ways to quit like hypnotherapy and acupuncture are sought out by increasingly large numbers of smokers who have heard about their effectiveness by word of mouth. Surfing the web throws up plenty of clinical data to back up this anecdotal evidence.

As a hypnotherapist, I see many smokers who have tried and failed to quit using NRT and other methods. Generally speaking, those who think they can stop smoking and those who think they can't are both right. Hypnotherapy is successful on a number of levels. It enables those who want to change a habit or break an addiction to believe they are capable of doing so. It reinforces motivation, gets rid of cravings and enables smokers to think and feel like non-smokers.

Those who want to stop but think they can't, often succeed with hypnotherapy when all else has failed. Anyone who wants to give up and is convinced they can, invariably does. Having the desire to quit and the belief that it is possible are the keys to successful smoking cessation whichever ways or means are employed.