Read Laural's story of using hypnosis to reduce weight, stop smoking and stave off diabetes

Laural was finding it difficult to quit smoking. He'd tried everything over the years and yet nothing seemed to last more than a day or two. He knew it was causing him some health difficulties e.g., wheezing, easily getting out of breath, and feeling very agitated when he couldn't have one. The cost was also getting him down as his finances were limited and he would forego other things to be able to spend the money on his cigarettes.

Laural lived alone and felt quite isolated where he was with few friends and no partner as his wife died earlier that year.

Laural's goal for using hypnosis was to try a method he hadn't tried yet to quit. However, he was also overweight and was recently diagnosed as pre-diabetic. He was worried that if he quit smoking, his only friend and method of relaxing himself, he would have a tendency to eat more which could tip him over the threshold of becoming a diabetic and other health-related issues.

With hypnosis when someone has both smoking and weight concerns we typically have to tackle the weight first for this reason; tackling the smoking only for the problem to make someone eat more wouldn't be the best practice.

With Laural, we needed to tackle what was so attractive about smoking that was causing it to stick around. He believed it was simply a habit, however after a lot of discussions during the initial assessment, he realised his attraction to cigarettes was much deeper than that.

Having recently lost his wife and put on extra weight, feeling somewhat depressed and anxious about his future, and feeling isolated & lonely, his confidence had dropped considerably. Laural realised he was using cigarettes to maintain a habit in a world where everything was changing for him and needed some sense of comfort and stability.

So even before dealing with the weight, we're now helping Laural to build his confidence. With hypnosis, this can be done relatively quickly and effectively. Once the confidence to explore new options is there we can find ways to help him break his cycle of isolation and discuss the grief and loss of his wife.

Alongside this we can reduce his reliance on his cigarettes and food and help him imagine good ways to start meeting new people e.g., joining art classes and walking groups both of which he enjoyed, and spend more time in the company of people his age to help brighten his mood and give him hope for the future.

Once his weight is back in check his prediabetes status will be a thing of the past as his blood sugar levels and blood pressure return to normal.