Getting The Royal Treatment
19th September 2009
According to reports in the news Prince Harry has been reading Paul McKenna's book and listening to the CD to help him to stop smoking. He has been a smoker since the age of 14 although has given it up on several occasions. Sources say that the prince began smoking again recently because of the stress he was experiencing from his pilot training.
If he is reading Paul’s book then right now he is aware that his assumption that cigarettes relieved his stress was a mistake, and that his affection for the fume is not because of an addiction but down to a myth created by his subconscious. A habit yes! A routine yes! A ritual yes! Not an addiction.
Nicotine is a powerful poison more powerful than Strychnine. Is it a narcotic? Not according to America who defines a narcotic as being made from opiates, or synthetically produced substances. Withdrawal from nicotine is not as severe as coming off heroin or morphine. That is to say that it is not life threatening. Although there are feelings of lack or loss. Nicotine is after all a very powerful nerve poison
But surely if it is just the high from the nicotine that a smoker wanted why not go for nicotine patches. A clean delivery system that stops the danger. The problem is it's not that simple, this is where the ritual comes in. A smoker enjoys putting that white stick in their mouth and pulling on it. You see a "cigarette is an efficient and highly engineering drug delivery system" By inhaling, the smoker can get nicotine to the brain very rapidly with every puff. A typical smoker will take 10 puffs on a cigarette over a period of 5 minutes that the cigarette is lit. Thus, a person who smokes about 1-1/2 packs (30 cigarettes) daily, gets 300 "hits" of nicotine to the brain each day.
It's not just the high from the nicotine the smoker is wanting to combat it is the associations with that feeling of wanting to smoke, from the buying, to opening the packet and lifting out a cigarette, and all other reminders such as a favourite meal or the company you keep. For those that roll their own the ritual is even more ingrained. Here lies the problem. The price that the smoker has to pay for ingesting all those chemicals and poisons into their lungs and blood stream: the cough, the smell, the risk from cancer, the general feeling of being unwell or under the weather and the long term prospects of drowning in their own lungs What ever it's pleasurable rewards the poisonous side of nicotine far outweighs them. As soon as that poison along with the thousands of other chemicals go into your blood stream your body recognises it as an invader and immediately goes into defence mode which is known as fight or flight, and there you have it, the stress response. So you see cigarettes don't relieve stress. They cause it.
The other thing is nicotine is a nerve poison. No one actually says that it feels nice to have smoked. Most cigarette smokers can't describe what having a cigarette does for them. Apart from that it gives them a break from life and allowing them a moment of thought and clarity (which by the way only lasts for a few seconds). They can only tell you about what not having a cigarette does for them, how they get irritable and listless, but everybody gets that way when they are learning a new habit.
Fact is, no one ever died from not having a cigarette, and many people give it up without experiencing any real disruption to their daily lives. Smoking is learned behaviour and what has been learned can be unlearned. You don't have to break a habit; you just have to learn a new one.
Why not come and see me in Wellington, Telford and I guarantee you an interesting experience that will help you to stop smoking easily without having to suffer. Many people have successfully attended my smoking cessation session and are now happy healthy non smokers. Why not give it a try. You have nothing to lose!