Hypnotherapist calls for tighter rules on smoking

IT HAS recently been reported that the Royal Society for Public Health would like to see smoking bans extended to include more public places.

They are calling for local authorities to support this by prohibiting tobacco smoking from areas such as:

■ university campuses; ■ the immediate vicinity of schools and colleges;

■ public parks, particularly around children’s play areas;

■ sports and leisure facilities, including stadiums; ■ public events aimed at families; ■ beaches; ■ pedestrianised shopping streets and public squares;

■ outdoor areas at pubs, bars and restaurants;

This is another step towards encour- aging the younger generation to never even start the habit in the first place as it becomes more and more anti-social to smoke.

Professor John Britton of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies has stated: “This is the kind of move which will reinforce the idea that you do not have to smoke.

“It’s the sort of thing that changes the next generation.”

Smoking levels are at an all-time low since records began and when the indoor smoking ban was introduced in 2007, an estimated 400,000 people made the decision to stop smoking.

However, there are still 9.1 million people in the UK who smoke and the habit will kill around 100,000 of them each year.

That’s an awful lot of preventable deaths.

We can be sure that the “die-hard” smokers, will not welcome the news but perhaps we need to look beyond the cloud of smoke that obscures our vision and think more clearly about our children and our children’s children.

We know, for example, that children are very easily influenced and that twice as many teenagers start to smoke if their parents smoked.

Can smokers afford the philosophy of “do as I say and not as I do” when smoking around their children? Mixed messages just won’t work.

Experts believe one third of cigarette smokers will turn to e-cigarettes in a bid to stop smoking but there are already concerns being raised about other safety issues relating to vapeing.

As a hypnotherapist at Trance for a Change Hypnotherapy, in Elizabeth Road, in Hinckley, I work regularly with clients who want to stop smoking.

I’m an ex-smoker myself – not an anti-smoker by any means, but certainly one who can breathe a sigh of relief that I stopped long enough ago that my body has now healed.

Most smokers tell me that they don’t even really enjoy smoking anymore – it’s a habit they started as teenagers which they wish they had never started.

Using hypnotherapy to quit smoking is an effective and quick method to help reduce cravings and continue feeling calm while giving up.

One thing smokers can be clear about, smoking laws will keep getting tougher and there’s never been a better time to kick the habit for good.

Vicky Tunaley Trance for a Change Hypnotherapy, Hinckley