Reasons Why People Smoke -- Part 1

I ask all of my Smoking Cessation clients a number of questions before we get down to the hypnosis session. 
How long have you been smoking? How many cigarettes do you smoke a day? etc. 
There are two questions I love to ask, because the answers are predictable. How old did you start smoking? and Do you remember WHY you started?
I've worked with hundreds of smokers and almost all of them started smoking as a teenager, in college, or just after college. (It's a rare person who started smoking at age 30.)
Even more predictable is the answer to the second question: Why did you start? A few say that they grew up in a house where people smoked. A few say they went to Europe where everyone smoked. But most people say, "I thought it looked cool" or a variation on that answer -- "Everyone else was doing it." "I was rebelling." "I wanted to be in the cool group." 
Then I ask, "Do you think you are cool now?" 

Nobody says yes to that one.

If the reason you started was to act cool, and you don't think you're cool now, then why are you still smoking?

Conversely, why don't you quit?

Here are the answers to that question I've heard the most often:

1. I'm under so much stress. I need smoking to reduce the stress.
2. If I quit, I'm afraid I'll gain weight.
3. Cigarettes have been my friends. They were there when I got divorced and when I lost my job.
4. I'm afraid I'll fail and hate myself.
5. I've failed and I don't want to fail again.
6. My life is miserable and cigarettes are my only reward.
7. My wife won't have sex with me and she says it's because I smoke. But I'm afraid that if I quit, and she still won't have sex with me, it's because she hates me.
8. Smoking gives me a reason to get out of the house or work.
9. I need a release when I'm at work. Cigarettes are the release.
10. I love smoking. If I could, I'd smoke two at the same time.
11. I  hate smoking, but my husband/wife/parents/partner smokes and I might as well.
12. It's my only connection to my reckless youth.
13. My parents smoked into their nineties. I'm sure I'll live that long, too. 
14. I'm so addicted to nicotine; I can't quit. 

Next, I'll post my responses to each of those reasons.

Are You Addicted? Part 2

(See Part 1!)
Nicotine is a substance.
Smoking is a behavior.
One of the first questions I ask my potential clients, on the  phone "Do you think you're addicted to smoking?"
Many of my clients say, “I am psychologically addicted to smoking.”
Now, we’re getting somewhere.
It is beneficial for the tobacco companies for you to think you are addicted to their product. Every time you repeat the “oh, I’m so addicted to smoking, It will be so-o-o-o-o hard for me to quit,” the tobacco companies hear the chich-ing of a cash register and their stock price goes up.
We had to sue the tobacco companies to discover they were putting substances into their cigarettes to make them more addictive. Now, we know.
Did they have to change the formula of their products? No.
The tobacco companies realized they could turn what should have a detriment – we manufacture a product that is addictive and kills people -- turn into a positive for them. They embraced it.
What really galls me; this new PR spin isn’t even costing them. Now that the pharmaceutical companies have created products to “cure” your addiction, the tobacco companies don’t need tell you that you have a terrible addiction. Big Pharma is doing it for them because THEY want you to think the only way to get you off your addiction is for you to buy their product.
When do smoke your first cigarette? With your first cup of coffee? Outside on the deck before you go to work? In the car? Walking to the subway?
Go through your day. You barely even think about the actual smoking. You might think about how to smoke, where to smoke, making sure you have time to smoke, but you don’t actually think about smoking.

Most smoking is habitual. I'm not saying that it's easy to change your habits - ask anyone who has quit biting their nails or eating sweets - but you can do it.