It’s the same with cigarettes and e-cigarettes
by Elise Fee
When using hypnotherapy to overcome an addiction, there are times when it’s helpful to have a short-term substitution for habitual behaviors (for ex. the hand-to-mouth motion of smoking or the oral fixation that smoking provided); however, these are only for use during the transition phase.
The goal is to remove the old habit entirely and create new, healthier habits as you move forward (like getting more movement/exercise, developing hobbies, saving the money you used to spend on cigarettes for a great vacation, etc.).
As such, e-cigarettes are only appropriate as a short-term transitional aid and are not helpful in the long-term. Consider this in another context — if you are a habitual overeater of sweets, and you simply stop overeating sweets, but start overeating carbs, have you really gotten rid of the addictive behavior? (No….you’ve just substituted one addictive behavior for another.)
It’s the same with cigarettes and e-cigarettes. The goal is to shift from the addictive behavior to healthy ways of being.
Elise Fee is a Consulting Hypnotist, Life Mentor and Writer. She is also a Life Expansion Coach who works one on one with people who are searching for betterment in their lives. Is it your SITUATION that needs to change, or is it YOU? Take the next step and connect with Elise, then watch how you and your life unfold with more ease.
I agree that one needs to get rid of anything to do with the negative behavior which in this case is anything to do with cigarettes. Though one does need to substitute the negative behavior with a positive behavior. The substitute behavior should be completed in the time that it would take to smoke a cigarette so drinking a clean, refreshing glass of water or taking a few deep breaths would do the job nicely.