Imagine this: every day, you light up a pack of cigarettes, watching your hard-earned money go up in smoke. It’s a routine, a habit, but have you ever stopped to consider what it’s truly costing you? In Australia, where the price of cigarettes is now the highest in the world, the financial burden is staggering. But what if there was a way to reclaim that money and invest it in a healthier future? Enter hypnosis – a proven tool that has helped countless people quit smoking for good.
In this blog, we'll explore the true cost of being a pack-a-day smoker, comparing it to the investment of hypnotherapy. We'll break down the numbers and reveal the benefits and costs of making a change. Get ready to be inspired by the potential savings and the positive change hypnosis can bring to your life.
Let's number-crunch
Studies show there's a 93% success rate after an average of 6 hypnosis sessions.
The average cost of 6 hypnotherapy sessions is $1,050.
Now let's say you see your therapist every fortnight.
If you smoke a pack a day, it's costing you about $280 a week. Or if it's 2 packs a week, $80 a week.
The table below shows how much you've spent after 6, 12 and 14 weeks for each scenario.
Week 6 | Week 12 | Week 14 | Spend in a year | |
2 packs a week | $480 | $960 | $1,120 | $4,160 |
pack a day | $1,680 | $3,360 | $3,290 | $14,560 |
6 sessions of hypnosis | $525 | $1050 | $1,050 | $1,050 |
I'm no financial adviser, but if today you're 42 and you salary sacrifice $14,560 into super every year, you'd have about an extra $430.000 in retirement*. Not bad
And of course, the health benefits...
Quitting smoking is one of the best decisions you can make for your health. The benefits are profound and start almost immediately. Within hours of quitting, your body begins to repair itself. Carbon monoxide levels in your blood drop, allowing your blood oxygen levels to return to normal. This means your heart doesn’t have to work as hard, reducing your risk of heart attack and stroke.
Over time, the health improvements become even more significant. According to Cancer Research UK, after one year of quitting smoking, your risk of heart disease is about half that of a smoker. After ten years, your risk of lung cancer falls to half that of a continuing smoker.
Beyond these immediate health benefits, quitting smoking also leads to long-term improvements in overall life expectancy. The World Health Organization estimates that quitting smoking before the age of 40 reduces the risk of dying from smoking-related diseases by about 90%. Even quitting later in life provides significant health benefits and can add years to your life.
Moreover, quitting smoking not only benefits your health but also the health of those around you. Second-hand smoke is harmful to others, especially children and non-smoking adults. By quitting, you reduce their exposure to the harmful chemicals found in cigarettes, contributing to a healthier environment for everyone.
Are you nodding off already? Of course, you are—you’ve heard it all before. The ads, the nagging from family and friends—it’s a well-worn path. So, let's shift our focus to what we’re losing by giving up smoking.
So what's holding us back?
Despite what we know about the health risks and financial burdens linked with smoking, people continue to smoke for a variety of reasons. Understanding these reasons helps us understand why it's hard to quit smoking.
Addiction and Nicotine Dependence: Nicotine, alters the brain's chemistry, leading to physical dependence. Withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, anxiety, and intense cravings make quitting difficult. In the present, it seems easier to keep smoking than to face negative withdrawals.
Social and Cultural reasons: Smoking is often linked with social settings. For some, smoking provides a sense of belonging or camaraderie, especially in social situations or among certain social groups where smoking is common. The act of smoking may also be perceived as a way to manage stress or cope with social anxiety. We'll get to the latter shortly.
Coping mechanism: For many smokers, cigarettes serve as a coping mechanism for managing emotions such as stress, boredom, or sadness. Smoking can provide temporary relief or distraction from life's challenges, creating a perceived sense of comfort or relaxation. This perceived psychological link between smoking and emotions can make it challenging to break the pattern.
Habit and Routine: Smoking becomes ingrained in daily routines and rituals, such as with morning coffee or after meals. These habitual behaviours can be deeply ingrained over time, making it difficult to imagine life without cigarettes. If you're a long-term smoker. Have you caught yourself in the pattern? Do you find yourself lighting up without thinking? Have you taken a beat to be conscious in the moment and if you have, did it change anything?
Perceived Pros: Some smokers hold onto beliefs that smoking has benefits, such as stress relief, weight management, or enhanced concentration. Additionally, misconceptions about the difficulty of quitting or the belief that the damage is already done can deter individuals from attempting to quit. We talk a lot about Past/Present/Future orientation in hypnotherapy. Many smokers live in the present without thinking about the future consequences ("Who cares? I'm gonna die anyway")
Lack of Effective Support and Resources: Quitting smoking is a challenging journey that often requires professional support, counselling, or medications. However, access to effective cessation programmes and resources may be limited or not widely promoted. Without adequate support, smokers may struggle to navigate the quitting process and maintain long-term success.
Consider this: what if we took a moment to be truly honest with ourselves, or approached things from a different angle?
Let's explore a few scenarios:
Case of Avoidance 1: One of my clients wanted help to quit smoking. When we examined his patterns, we discovered a recurring behaviour: whenever faced with a challenging work task, he would take a smoko instead of tackling the issue head-on. Recognising this pattern helped him to break free and make positive changes.
Case of Avoidance 2: Another client, struggling with study-related anxiety and perfectionism, used smoking as a coping mechanism to avoid the fear of failure. Through our sessions, she realised that smoking served as a shield against not meeting her high standards.
FoMo (Fear of Missing Out): Smoking often gets entwined with social connections and camaraderie. Have you ever wondered about the anxiety of skipping a smoko with friends or colleagues? The fear of being judged or feeling left out can be powerful motivators to keep up the habit, even when deep down, you might want to quit.
Stable Attribution: It's common for us to blame our smoking on unchangeable factors within ourselves or our circumstances. I see this a lot. Particularly in people who've thrown a lot of money at the problem. "I've tried everything and nothing works". There's a perceived sense of control when a person doesn't change - even when they've 'tried'. "No one knows what they're talking about". You're 'stronger' than the solution.
Excuses: "My parents smoked," "Quitting is expensive," "I've tried everything." These are familiar things we tell ourselves or others to justify our smoking habits. They serve as shields, protecting us from looking at the underlying reasons for our habit. Real change begins when we're ready to face these excuses head-on and look at the root causes.
In essence, acknowledging these patterns and mindsets is the first step towards making meaningful changes in our lives. It's about embracing honesty, exploring new perspectives, and ultimately, taking charge of our health and well-being. When we're ready to confront the core issues driving our behaviour, we empower ourselves to break free and pave the way for a healthier future.
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