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Smoking Cessation
There are two basic elements to deal with when someone
quits the smoking habit.
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The physical addiction
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The mental addiction.
The physical addiction of smoking is the result of the
body's addiction to nicotine. When people stop smoking, the body exhibits
withdrawal symptoms such as jitters, headaches, and irritability. There are
solutions to address the physical issues such as nicotine gum, patches, and
other related methods. However, there are people who use gum, patches, etc.,
and yet this solution doesn't work for them because the physical addiction
is only part of the habit. This leads us to the second element: mental
addiction.
The mental addiction of smoking is known in hypnosis as
"secondary gains," such as a way to have a break during a stressful
situation, or get a quick "high" much like an alcoholic gets a "buzz" from
drinking.
Hypnosis deals with BOTH the physical
AND the mental
aspects of smoking.
Since smoking has many individual elements involved, we
deal with it on case by case basis which makes our program unique and
effective. We track down all of the "secondary gains," as well as the
physical addictions that have prevented you from quitting in the past, and
with this behind, you can truly have control over your life.
Utilizing
effective techniques from
Creation Technologies™,
Neuro
Re-patterning, NLP and
Hypnosis...
You Can Permanently
Become A Non-Smoker With Only One Session !
Get rid of those limiting
beliefs about yourself and put your old behaviors in the past.
To find out how we personalize
this program specifically to fit you
Call Now: 503-639-8825
Need more reasons to quit? Click
here..
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 Debi Austin"Turns out
Debi Austin of Canoga Park, Calif., isn't little. She weighs 350 pounds. And
her courage in allowing the shocking outcome of her tobacco addiction to be
shoved in our faces is even bigger than that."
(Click here to
read one of her two complete personal interviews)
Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence
Fact Sheet #1
- Recent surveys show that 25 percent of all American adults smoke.
- More than 430,000 deaths in the United States each year are
attributable to tobacco use, making tobacco the No. 1 cause of death and
disease in this country.
- Smoking prevalence among adolescents has risen dramatically since
1990, with more than 3,000 additional children and adolescents becoming
regular users of tobacco each day.
- Nationwide, medical care costs attributable to smoking (or
smoking-related disease) have been estimated by the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention to be more than $50 billion annually. In addition,
they estimate the value of lost earnings and loss of productivity to be at
least another $47 billion a year.
- It would cost an estimated $6.3 billion annually to provide 75 percent
of smokers 18 years and older with the intervention—counseling, nicotine
patches, nicotine gum, or a combination—of their choice. This would result
in 1.7 million new quitters at an average cost of $3,779 per quitter—a
move that would be cost-effective in relation to other medical
interventions such as mammography or blood pressure screening.
- Epidemiologic data suggest that more than 70 percent of the 50 million
smokers in the United States today have made at least one prior quit
attempt, and approximately 46 percent try to quit each year. Most smokers
make several quit attempts before they successfully kick the habit.
- Only 21 percent of practicing physicians say that they have received
adequate training to help their patients stop smoking, according to a
recent survey of U.S. medical school deans published in the Journal of
the American Medical Association. The majority of medical schools do
not require clinical training in smoking cessation techniques. It is hoped
that this guideline will serve as a call to action.
Fact Sheet #2
The Basics: The high cost of Smoking
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Add it up:
cigarettes, dry cleaning, insurance, breath mints. And the toll
doesn't stop there.
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By Hilary Smith
If the threat of cancer can't convince you
to quit smoking, maybe the prospect of poverty will.
The financial consequences of lighting up stretch far beyond the
cost of a pack of cigarettes. Smokers pay more for insurance and
lose money on the resale value of their cars and homes. They spend
extra on dry cleaning and teeth cleaning. Long term, they earn less
and receive less in pension and Social Security benefits.
Researchers at Duke University found that the total cost of smoking
-- the cigarettes, lost earnings, impact on insurance on mortality,
even the impact of secondhand smoke -- runs about $40 per pack for
the average 24-year-old. The Centers for Disease Control estimates
46.2 million adults in the United States smoke cigarettes. The
economic burden of smokers totals more than $75 billion per year in
medical expenditures, and $80 billion per year from lost
productivity.
Yet large-scale economic statistics may not prove any more
convincing than large-scale cancer statistics. Better to add up the
tally on your own.
Start with the obvious
According to the
National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids, per-pack prices vary from
about $3.20 in Colorado and Kentucky to around $6 in New York and
New Jersey. The average is about $4 per pack.
Using this number, a pack-a-day smoker burns through about $30 per
week, or approximately $1,600 per year. That's a fat house payment
or a nice vacation with the family. A 40-year-old who quits smoking
and puts the savings into his 401(k) earning 9% a year would have an
extra $250,000 by age 70.
But only you know exactly how much you pay and how often. Plug your
yearly tally into our
Savings Calculator and see what it'll cost you over the coming
decades.
The one place many smokers feel free and comfortable to light up is
in their car. Without consistent and thorough cleanings, however, a
car that is smoked in will soon start to resemble an ashtray on
wheels. The interior will inevitably smell like smoke, and stray
ashes and butts can burn holes in the upholstery and floor mats.
None of these things has much financial impact until you try
to sell the car. Figure a minimum of $150 for a good cleaning with
an extractor
On a trade-in, dealers can easily knock off more than $1,000 on
higher-end vehicles like vans, SUVs and expensive sport-types. Terry
Cooper, a car dealer with seven new- and used-car stores, says he
recently took a 1999 Porsche 911 Cabriolet in on trade for $37,000.
That sounds okay, but the previous owner could have fetched $40,000
for it had he not “smoked out” the car’s interior.
The criteria that apply to cars apply to homes as well, only on a
bigger scale.
Smokers' houses often require all new paint and/or wall treatments,
as well as professional drapery and carpet cleaning. According to
Contractors.com, priming and painting an average-size living
room, dining room and two bedrooms would cost around $2,100. The
Carpet Buying Handbook puts the average cleaning cost per square
foot at 28 cents, and the average home has 1,000 square feet of
carpet. That's $280. Add $55 to clean a typical sofa and $25 for a
chair, says Diversified Carpet in San Diego.
Walt Molony with the National Association of Realtors says that
“certainly the smell of cigarettes can be a turn-off to potential
buyers,” but he also notes that it is less of a problem in tight
housing markets.
The insurers weigh in, and they're not
happy
We pulled some online quotes on 20-year term life insurance (a
$500,000 policy) for a healthy 44-year-old male through
BudgetLife.com. The range for a non-smoker was $610 to $1,115 in
premiums per year; for someone smoking a pack a day, the prices
skyrocketed to as much as $4,495 per year.
The difference in health insurance isn't as dramatic. According to
eHealthInsurance.com, the monthly premium for a policy from
Regence Blue Shield with a $1,500 deductible for a 44-year-old male
nonsmoker is $98. The same policy for a smoker is $113 per month. He
will pay nearly $200 more per year.
A few state governments also charge their employees extra for health
insurance if they smoke, and others are gradually joining the trend.
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley is pushing legislation that would charge
state employees and teachers who smoke an extra $20 per month.
When shopping for homeowners insurance, nonsmokers can generally
expect to receive a minimum 10% discount, according to Ray Neumiller,
an agent with Farmer’s Insurance in Seattle.
The insurer’s point of view: Smokers burn down houses.
The most common homeowners insurance policies range from
approximately $290 to $900 per year, depending on the home’s
location. With the discount, a non-smoker would realize savings of
at least $30, but most likely more.
Benefits unclaimed, wages lost
Few people set out to cut their life short, but smokers greatly
increase their chances of dying sooner than nonsmokers. In his book,
“The
Price of Smoking,” Frank A. Sloan, director of the Center for
Health Policy, Law and Management at Duke University in Durham,
N.C., details the financial impact of a shorter life span on
retirement benefits.
“Smokers, due to higher mortality rates, obtained lower lifetime
benefits compared to never smokers, even after accounting for their
smoking-related lower lifetime contributions,” the research says.
Sloan and his colleagues found the effects of smoking on lifetime
Social Security benefits were $1,519 for 24-year-old female smokers
and $6,549 for 24-year-old male smokers. Essentially this is money
paid into Social Security but never collected because the
beneficiary died prematurely of a smoking-related illness.
“You could be paying into Social Security year after year, and if
you die at 66 because you’re a smoker, it’s money down the drain,”
says Sloan.
Numerous studies find that smokers earn anywhere from 4% to 11% less
than nonsmokers. It's not just a loss of productivity to smoke
breaks and poorer health that takes a financial toll, researchers
theorize; smokers are perceived to be less attractive and successful
as well.
Keeping up appearances
Bad breath, yellow teeth and smelly clothes are just a few of the
personal side effects of smoking, and all cost money to correct.
An extra pack of mints or gum a week adds up to about $50 per year.
Need your teeth whitened once a year? Brite Smile, which has offices
across the country, retails its service for around $600. Most
professional-grade teeth whitening products retail for a minimum of
$200.
Dry-cleaning bills are likely to be higher also. Clean that suit one
extra time a month at a cost of $12 and there goes another $144.
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