SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW!
Bearded boffins and the down to earth “man on the street” all ponder this question from time to time. In fact this has been going on for close to 200 years. How does hypnosis work? Does hypnosis even work for that matter? The various theories and myths continue, with skeptics and fanatics alike. Despite all this rhetoric, no one has even so far managed to come up with an accepted definition of exactly what hypnosis is.
So we don’t know what it is and we don’t know how it works. Not a great start really. This may be why there is so much misinformation about the subject. There is room to maneuver the facts. Room to create interesting and sensational stories, even of the truth is erm…pushed aside a little.
Perhaps we need to see the bigger picture. To understand exactly how hypnosis works, we need to ultimately discover how the human mind works. Due to the immense power and complexity of the human mind, this is practically impossible right now, leaving many of the workings of hypnosis a mystery.
Psychiatrists do understand the general characteristics of hypnosis, and they have some model of how it works. It is commonly accepted that it is a trance state that is characterised by greater suggestibility, relaxation and increased imagination. It is a natural state of mind rather like daydreaming. You are fully conscious, but you become consciously unaware of most of the stimuli around you. This is rather like when you are deeply absorbed in a book or film, and cannot hear someone trying to talk to you.
The problems of explaining how hypnosis works are compounded by the fact that everyone’s experience of hypnosis is unique, and the readiness and ability of patients to be hypnotised varies considerably. Hypnosis is the very opposite of a trip down to McDonald’s - no two experiences are exactly the same. In one case it might be a Chicken Bhuna, and the next a seafood soufflé. However modern technology is beginning to allow us to take a deeper look, and almost peer inside the mind at what is actually happening to the brain whilst in hypnosis.
Recently the University of Geneva published a study in the journal ‘Neuron’ using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for a series of hypnotic studies. They noted that there were differences in the activity of the brain when a subject was placed in a hypnotic trance.
The researchers used fMRI to scan brains of 12 people who were tested on hand movement before and after being hypnotised for left hand paralysis.
Despite the paralysis, neurons in the motor cortex region were still firing in preparation for the task. However the cortex appeared to be ignoring parts of the brain that it normally communicates with for controlling movement.
These results suggest that hypnosis does not inhibit the motor cortex and directly stop the hand from moving. It seems like the hypnotic suggestions allow the individual to choose to have left arm paralysis.
This makes sense from my observations of being a clinical hypnotherapist for many years. It is commonly accepted in hypnosis that a hypnotherapist cannot actually make a subject change. They can only facilitate it. For example a clinical hypnotherapist could do a very good and professional job with a quit smoking session. However the subject can choose to ignore this and immediately light up after the session. They can (and sometimes do) take the attitude “I’ll show them that I can still smoke…puff…see it doesn’t work”. It’s rather like deliberately paying to go and watch your least favourite musician and booing all the way through – a waste of your own time and money. If they really want to quit, and accept the therapy rather than fight against it, then they will find it relatively easy to quit. But they always seem to have the choice.
And I think it’s good that the subject can ultimately choose. What if their nagging spouse sent them to see me when they did not really want to quite smoking? They could ultimately exercise a choice. After the session they may on reflection decide their spouse was indeed right and quit, or they may wave to them with a two cigarette salute and continue. I’m very comfortable with this. I don’t personally want to be part of ‘making’ someone change.
This runs counter to some popular myths of hypnosis that are sometimes portrayed in the media. For example the classic clucking like a chicken when the doorbell sounds. In reality the person has a choice, and if they don’t want to, then they can easily resist any poultry related urges. If an emergency should break out whilst a subject is in hypnosis, then they can easily snap out and deal with it in an appropriate way.
This is rather like what is commonly termed ‘highway hypnosis’. This is where a person can drive a distance of many miles without remembering the journey. Does this sound familiar? They are literally in a natural hypnotic trance whilst driving. If during that journey something happens where the driver needs to react, then this is no problem. The driver will immediately snap out of the trance and respond accordingly.
There are still many questions regarding hypnotherapy and how it actually works. It would seem that hypnosis can help us make changes, but ultimately it is up to use to choose whether to accept these changes. Modern technology is beginning to help us to uncover more of the answers, but there is still a long way to go. A stronger scientific foundation for hypnotherapy can only help people realise what a powerful and effective form of therapy it really is, and dispel some of the myths that are plainly untrue.
Click here for details of online hypnosis http://www.AllHypnosisDownloads.com
source
This is a nicely written article for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with the use of Quit Smoking Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists in London.
SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW!
Showing posts with label Freedom2Choose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Freedom2Choose. Show all posts
Friday, July 17, 2009
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
NRT: Studies Destroy “Four Times More Likely To Quit With NHS” Claim
SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW!
2009-07-11 21:06:51 - Freedom2Choose, working with hypnotherapist Chris Holmes, reveals that the continued use of the Department of Health’s claim “you are up to four times more likely to quit with NHS help” has no evidential basis. Freedom2Choose can show that the Department of Health routinely uses misleading statements to promote Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) products as its preferred method of treatment for smoking cessation. This promotion is a very costly exercise, at a time of imminent cutbacks to public services.
Belinda Cunnison, of pro-choice group Freedom2Choose, investigated the common claim that you are “four times more likely to quit with NHS”, which is used in most promotional materials for NRT products, and frequently in press releases on the subject of smoking cessation. “I traced this claim to a Department of Health web page,(1) which also claimed a 15 per cent
success rate at 12 months for NRT. The evidence that was supposed to demonstrate this 15 per cent success rate and the ‘four times more likely to quit’ phenomenon was not listed in the footnotes, so I wrote to the Department to ask for it.”
It took over three months to get the information. The following reports were made available by Cameron Gordon of the Department of Health in relation to smoking cessation studies:
• The Ferguson Health Inequalities Reduction Paper(2)
• The Evaluation Report(3)
• The Shiffman Report(4)
• The Cochrane Reviews(5)
• The Hughes Report(6)
• The Borland Report(7)
The documents revealed neither a 15 per cent quit rate at 12 months, nor any evidence that quitting with the NHS is four times more effective than willpower alone. The Borland Report recorded a 12-month success rate of 6.5 per cent (higher rates were achieved only in the smaller scale studies), whereas the largest study done on quitting using willpower alone achieved a rate of around 6 per cent.
“On the government’s own evidence, the claim ‘up to four times more likely to quit with the NHS’ is completely untrue. How can this claim be justified?” continues Belinda Cunnison. “The use of NHS treatments makes almost no difference at all to quitting success. A recent study published in the British Medical Journal(8) has also documented the long-term success rate of NRT at a mere 1.6 per cent. The whole exercise is futile as well as being enormously expensive.”
Freedom2Choose also has evidence that General Practitioners are given payments for patients who set a quit date, and an additional payment for patients who remain quit at four weeks. The payments are listed in NHS Warwickshire’s board report, March 2009.(9) This reflects the urgency of smoking cessation on the Trust’s list of priorities – an unfortunate choice of priority since patients seem just as good at giving up smoking under their own volition as they are with NHS help.
“At a time when we need to economise, particularly in the Health Service, why is our Government pumping tax-payers’ money into a failed product and using misleading claims to the service user?” questions Belinda Cunnison. “Will-power alone has a comparable success rate for those who choose to give up smoking. This is a complete waste of our resources.”
Author and hypnotherapist Chris Holmes(10) agrees and states, “We are exposing a systematic and deliberate policy to seriously mislead the public over the true effectiveness of these services. The actual extent of long term failure was being quietly covered up - which we now know from the Borland report is 94 per cent failure at 12 months - whilst four-week results were shamelessly promoted, even including published 'success rates' as high as 90 per cent. Since they knew that to be the exact opposite of the real outcomes, this is a fraudulent misappropriation of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. NRT simply doesn't work.”
References:
1 NHS Stop Smoking Services & Nicotine Replacement Therapy -
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Healthimprovement/Tobacco/Tobaccogeneralinformation/DH_4002192
2 The Ferguson Health Inequalities Reduction Paper -
http://opus.bath.ac.uk/6357/
3 The Evaluation Report -
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118739516/issue?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
4 The Shiffman Report -
http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/12/1/21
5 The Cochrane Reviews -
http://www.cochrane.co.uk/en/index.html
6 The Hughes Report -
http://www.hospitaldofuturo.com/imagens/Shape%20of%20the%20relapse%20curve%20and%20long-term%20abstinence%20among%20untreated%20smokers.pdf
7 The Borland Report -
http://fampra.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/cmn046
8 British Medical Journal -
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/338/apr29_1/b1730
9 NHS Warwickshire, page 7, Appendix 2H -
http://www.warwickshire.nhs.uk/trustboardenclosures/march09/Enc%2016%20Tobacco%20Control%20and%20Smoking%20Cessation%20Board%20Report%20-%20March%202009.pdf - Page 7, Appendix 2H
10 Chris Holmes: Truth Will Out -
http://www.truthwillout.co.uk
source
This is a nicely written article for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with the use of Quit Smoking Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists in London. SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW!
Belinda Cunnison, of pro-choice group Freedom2Choose, investigated the common claim that you are “four times more likely to quit with NHS”, which is used in most promotional materials for NRT products, and frequently in press releases on the subject of smoking cessation. “I traced this claim to a Department of Health web page,(1) which also claimed a 15 per cent
success rate at 12 months for NRT. The evidence that was supposed to demonstrate this 15 per cent success rate and the ‘four times more likely to quit’ phenomenon was not listed in the footnotes, so I wrote to the Department to ask for it.”
It took over three months to get the information. The following reports were made available by Cameron Gordon of the Department of Health in relation to smoking cessation studies:
• The Ferguson Health Inequalities Reduction Paper(2)
• The Evaluation Report(3)
• The Shiffman Report(4)
• The Cochrane Reviews(5)
• The Hughes Report(6)
• The Borland Report(7)
The documents revealed neither a 15 per cent quit rate at 12 months, nor any evidence that quitting with the NHS is four times more effective than willpower alone. The Borland Report recorded a 12-month success rate of 6.5 per cent (higher rates were achieved only in the smaller scale studies), whereas the largest study done on quitting using willpower alone achieved a rate of around 6 per cent.
“On the government’s own evidence, the claim ‘up to four times more likely to quit with the NHS’ is completely untrue. How can this claim be justified?” continues Belinda Cunnison. “The use of NHS treatments makes almost no difference at all to quitting success. A recent study published in the British Medical Journal(8) has also documented the long-term success rate of NRT at a mere 1.6 per cent. The whole exercise is futile as well as being enormously expensive.”
Freedom2Choose also has evidence that General Practitioners are given payments for patients who set a quit date, and an additional payment for patients who remain quit at four weeks. The payments are listed in NHS Warwickshire’s board report, March 2009.(9) This reflects the urgency of smoking cessation on the Trust’s list of priorities – an unfortunate choice of priority since patients seem just as good at giving up smoking under their own volition as they are with NHS help.
“At a time when we need to economise, particularly in the Health Service, why is our Government pumping tax-payers’ money into a failed product and using misleading claims to the service user?” questions Belinda Cunnison. “Will-power alone has a comparable success rate for those who choose to give up smoking. This is a complete waste of our resources.”
Author and hypnotherapist Chris Holmes(10) agrees and states, “We are exposing a systematic and deliberate policy to seriously mislead the public over the true effectiveness of these services. The actual extent of long term failure was being quietly covered up - which we now know from the Borland report is 94 per cent failure at 12 months - whilst four-week results were shamelessly promoted, even including published 'success rates' as high as 90 per cent. Since they knew that to be the exact opposite of the real outcomes, this is a fraudulent misappropriation of hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. NRT simply doesn't work.”
References:
1 NHS Stop Smoking Services & Nicotine Replacement Therapy -
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publichealth/Healthimprovement/Tobacco/Tobaccogeneralinformation/DH_4002192
2 The Ferguson Health Inequalities Reduction Paper -
http://opus.bath.ac.uk/6357/
3 The Evaluation Report -
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/118739516/issue?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0
4 The Shiffman Report -
http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/12/1/21
5 The Cochrane Reviews -
http://www.cochrane.co.uk/en/index.html
6 The Hughes Report -
http://www.hospitaldofuturo.com/imagens/Shape%20of%20the%20relapse%20curve%20and%20long-term%20abstinence%20among%20untreated%20smokers.pdf
7 The Borland Report -
http://fampra.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/cmn046
8 British Medical Journal -
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/338/apr29_1/b1730
9 NHS Warwickshire, page 7, Appendix 2H -
http://www.warwickshire.nhs.uk/trustboardenclosures/march09/Enc%2016%20Tobacco%20Control%20and%20Smoking%20Cessation%20Board%20Report%20-%20March%202009.pdf - Page 7, Appendix 2H
10 Chris Holmes: Truth Will Out -
http://www.truthwillout.co.uk
source
This is a nicely written article for those who want to Stop and Quit Smoking with the use of Quit Smoking Hypnotherapy Courses, methods and aids with the help of hypnotherapists in London. SAVE YOUR LIFE NOW! GRAB YOUR HOW TO QUIT SMOKING IN A WEEK FLAT BOOK NOW!
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