Is the 12 step program for everyone? Some say no. Many clients of mine say they don’t like hearing depressing stories every meeting and they don’t feel like they fit in. They feel like going to AA and always introducing themselves as an alcoholic makes them feel like there is no hope and they lose their optimism.

Personally I think it’s all about the individual, for some AA is definitely the way to go and I usually recommend it to people that I see for therapy to go to AA in conjunction with our therapy.

I do have those clients that do really well with hypnosis alone. They want to put their alcoholism behind them and reminding themselves for the rest of their life that they are an alcoholic doesn’t work for them. These people are motivated and don’t feel like they need to hit bottom before they start getting better. It is a matter of changing your belief system from being an alcoholic to a person who is in control; a person who is choosing a healthy body and mind! When your mind stops associating alcohol with relief from pain, you will no longer find yourself reaching for a drink to feel good or to avoid your problems.

Hypnosis helps you create the outcome that you want. It supports the positive and reinforces that into your subconscious mind. You will find when you change your core belief about yourself and alcohol, making new choices will be much easier than you thought. Hypnosis is a safe and healthy way to become free of alcohol addiction! Click here for more info.

If you would like more information about alcohol addiction you may find these links interesting:

• Alcohol | The Partnership at Drugfree.org – When a person drinks alcohol,
  the alcohol is absorbed by the stomach, enters the bloodstream, and goes to all the tissues. The effects of alcohol are dependent on a variety of factors, including a person’s size, weight, age, and sex, as well as the amount of food and alcohol consumed. The disinhibiting effect of alcohol is one of the main reasons it is used in so many social situations.
• Alcohol Addiction: The Social Plague :Metabolism Equation … – Alcohol
  Addiction: The Social Plague. Wednesday, October 12th, 2011 at 1:09 am.
  Alcohol cravings divorce lawyers atlanta Nutshell … Alcoholism treatment centers- Making overcoming addiction possible • How to Get Rid of Alcohol Addiction …
• Videos on Alcohol Use and Older Adults – An expert on alcohol addiction and two older adults who have had problems with alcohol discuss answers to these and other questions in three new videos from NIHSeniorHealth, the health and wellness website for older adults. …

Gambling is an addiction. Like any addiction, it can take over your life and become the main focus of your attention. Before you know it, you’ve lost control as the lure of gambling becomes more important than anything else in your life.
Think of gambling as being robbed. Each time you bet, thinking it will make you rich you are allowing yourself to be tricked. You probably feel like you are addicted to this habit and you are powerless over it, but this is not true.
Admit to yourself that you have a gambling problem first, and make the decision that you want to stop gambling.
Here are some things you can do:

1.    Make a decision each morning that you will not gamble that day. Remember, you have decided to stop gambling, and each morning you need to remind yourself of this.
2.    Stop carrying any money, credit cards and checks with you. Block all access to money. Decide how much you need for the day and only carry with you what you need.
3.    Plan out your day, in 15 minute segments if you have to. Stick to your schedule. Make sure all your waking hours are covered with something to do
4.    Look into a support group like Gamblers Anonymous. Many people like the support of a group and being around other recovering gamblers is extremely helpful to them.
5.    If you gamble online get “Gamblock” you can download it for free and it will keep you from gambling.
6.    Keep pictures of your family and friends around you to remind you that this is for them too, and that your gambling is letting them down.
7.    Think of all of the great things you could afford with the money you waste gambling. Vacations, cars, home improvements, whatever you want you could now have the money for it.
8.    Think about all the bad things that have happened due to your gambling and the negative consequences it has brought into your life.
9.    Stay positive, don’t give up on yourself, know that there are thousands of people who once were addicted to gambling who are now recovering gamblers.
10.    Have a plan in place for when you have an urge again. What will you do? You need to know. Carry phone numbers of friends or support people and positive affirmations with you at all times.
11.    Make sure to find a sponsor or a therapist who has had an addiction and knows what it is like.
12.    Focus on productive activities that you can feel good about instead of gambling.

You may want to listen to our Stop Gambling MP3

Smokers should be prepared to be confronted with graphic labels that will soon cover almost half of the cigarette packages. Images will be showing sickness and death; which is designed to evoke disgust and revulsion. Congress passed a law requiring tobacco makers to put graphic health warnings on cigarette packages. This month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published nine labels, which will appear on cigarette packaging by the fall of 2012.

Americans today fully understand that smoking is unsafe but will these labels make a difference? Despite all the efforts to stop smoking, advertising, taxes, educational campaigns and smoking bans, nearly 50 million Americans continue to put themselves in harms way. The hope is that the nauseating photos on the cigarette packages will kill the urge.

I don’t know if graphic images will stop people but I do know that hypnotherapy works! Typically after 1 or 2 session of hypnosis my clients quit for good. What is interesting to me is that most smokers think it will be too hard for them to quit so they never really try. Once they have spent a couple hours with me their belief system around it being too difficult to quit seems to change and their behavior follows soon after. They find out that an urge only lasts 3 to 5 minutes and then that urge will run its course and pass. They find that quitting using hypnosis is an enjoyable way to become a non-smoker and they didn’t have to be grossed out to do it. The graphic pictures may work for a small percentage and I hope it does because dying of lung cancer is not something anyone wants to do!

It might be a good goal to stop smoking before the new packaging comes out. You can go to our website and see about a session or download a Smoking Cessation MP3.

If you would like additional info on how to quit smoking you may want to check out these articles:

• Stop Smoking to Lower Your Chances of Getting Cancer – Stop … – Why am I writing about a childhood cancer that doesn’t want to go away? Because cancer is the second leading cause of death, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death, and most lung cancer is linked to smoking.
• A Couple Of Techniques To Help You Stop Cigarette Smoking Naturally – Getting rid of your longtime cigarette smoking addiction is going to be a hard task, but it must be accomplished eventually. Smoking is harmful for you and also anybody near you, and will result in a variety of health problems and …
• Question 4: Has The Time Come For Us To Take A Long, Hard Look At … – Why smoke? Why fail to stop? Why succeed quitting smoking? How do you quit effectively? These are just some of the questions we should be asking ourselves.
  We.

Stacy Ferguson, better known as Fergie is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, fashion designer and actress as well as the lead singer of the Black Eyed Peas. Previously she had performed with a female trio called Wild Orchid. While performing with Wild Orchid, Ferguson developed an addiction to crystal methamphetamine which followed her after she left the group in 2001.

Ferguson felt that her addiction to drugs had a lot to do with being a child actor and having learned to suppress her feelings at an early age. When she was 17 she found fame through the Wild Orchids. But when the band tanked, she turned to Ecstasy and eventually crystal meth. She has admitted that as a teenager, she became addicted to illegal drugs in an attempt to escape her troubles. She loved Ecstasy and found her outlet in the underground club scene and raves.

Fergie has been clean for more than ten years, but is only now revealing that her pre-fame drug addiction left her paranoid and delusional. Unlike other drugs, methamphetamine’s can directly cause a permanent psychosis, the technical term for a delusion or a hallucination. The paranoid delusions of a drug user and the experience of a person with mental health issues barely differ.

Fergie said “I had about 20 different conspiracy theories. I painted the windows in my apartment black so they couldn’t see in,” she thought the FBI was after her during her brief addiction to methamphetamine’s around 2001.

She was down to 90 lbs. and was doing meth day and night and had run out of money. she said. “I was hearing voices. I thought people were after me. I wasn’t talking to any of my friends or family.” She said “It ruins you and it’s important to talk about it because it’s a very, very hard thing to stop.”

Ferguson has stated in several interviews that she enlisted the help of a hypnotherapist to help her overcome her crystal meth addiction and to relax. She is an avid user of hypnotherapy and now she admits that she only indulges in a glass of wine here and there.

Maybe you had an injury that required a prescription painkiller, or maybe a friend convinced you to try cocaine or crystal meth “just once” for fun. You may have wanted to fit in so much with your friends, that you gave in and tried it, thinking you would have the power to say no the next time. But then you tried it just once more and one more time after that and before you knew it, you were an addict .Now you’re faced with a very real problem. How do you free yourself from this addiction before it ruins your life? You know it will but you don’t know where to turn.   Perhaps you have watched others lose their physical well being and perhaps even die and you are now realizing that this could happen to you! You know it is time to stop and you want to, what do you do?

Fergie had to make a decision just as you do if you are reading this and know that drugs are a problem for you. You can choose to be free from drugs and you can do it easily and comfortably through hypnosis. Hypnosis may not be the only treatment you need but it certainly will help make the process easier and by using our drug addiction hypnosis MP3 and our anxiety and Stress management MP3 or some of the other MP3 downloads on this site you can be well on your way to more self respect and a positive attitude towards life!

~Mariah

Being addicted to Alcohol is something that most people do not recognize or acknowledge. However, there are some simple questions to ask yourself that will clue you in: 1. Do you have to have a drink every day, other than four oz. glass of red wine for your heart? 2. Do you crave a drink when you don’t have one?  3. Do you feel that you need it to make you feel better? 4. Does it already impact your health and your well-being?  5. Does it change your behavior?

Are you wondering about your answers? Do yourself a favor right now – You need to get a grip. Realize that you can feel great without alcohol consumption, and there is an easy way to limit your drinking while at the same time prevent backsliding (falling off the wagon).

Taking control of a drinking challenge can be easier when using hypnosis. It’s one of the most highly effective ways to address this challenge. Alcohol rehab facilities, with psychiatrists on staff, often implement hypnosis regimens to assist patients with reprogramming themselves to get a handle on their emotional instability while they work with fighting the addictive cravings.

Using hypnosis mp3’s allows anyone to overcome hurdles, and have breakthroughs by destroying the biggest obstacles that they bring to the table. Difficult cases have benefited from the use of hypnosis in rehabilitation programs because the focus can be put squarely on the symptoms and the emotional ones can be addressed as separate issues, as they indeed are.

Individuals have successfully used hypnosis mp3’s on their own to overcome alcoholism and the issues related to it.  Certainly, a great many people feel they have the endurance to use the mp3’s at home. In doing so, they can go on to live healthier lives. Physical and emotional improvement can be made through the use of hypnosis which circumvents the need to drink.  Often, people find that hypnosis creates the states of being they have really sought – when they drank, they hoped to have a certain calm, relaxed mind, no worries, and a light heart – but never achieved it. The majority of those using hypnosis reach those states naturally, and therefore, the need for alcohol disappears. Take the first step towards lasting sobriety with our Conquer Alcohol Addiction Hypnosis MP3:  http://journeysinwardhypnotherapy.com/mp3/addictions/conquer-alcohol-addiction-hypnotherapy

I am not going to be the Whistleblower, and therefore I steadfastly refuse to be the one to tell you that smoking will kill you. After all, hasn’t the Tobacco Industry shown you all kinds of cool images, saying you’re in Marlboro Country and that’s cool to be here? Wait, the Marlboro Man died long ago from some horrid form of cancer, and isn’t around to enjoy it. Maybe Marlboro Country isn’t the place to be.

And, the tobacco companies show you South Pacific beaches or snowy Colorado mountains with skiers with menthol cigarettes to show you how really KOOL it can get. But in reality, if you smoke that stick, you’re in for a life sentence. We all know it, we all know someone who has or is suffering from it, and man – it’s addictive and you can’t stop without help. And, here’s the help you need to stop right now.

First, listen to this: While traveling abroad I found that the medical community outside the US took a more severe approach to the health threats of tobacco and printed pictures of tombstones, dead fetuses, and things like that on the cigarette pack itself, often on the flip top lid. Now, that’s scary.

Not the pictures themselves, although they are scary enough, but that someone who had a pack of cigarettes would take them out of their pocket and lift the hinged box lid which had some awful picture on it, and would take out a cigarette and see the picture and put the cigarette in their mouth and light it, and would close the box top, see the picture again and put in back in their pocket and start smoking. That’s really scary to me.

But, when you come to dollars and sense about it – gee, there are some great alternatives to the costs of smoking and perhaps you didn’t realize it. A person who smokes a pack a day is wasting about $1500 up just on cigarettes and lighters. Now, their insurance costs for health and life insured goes up considerably for the early years, health insurance is just like 15% more, after 40 the numbers really rack up, and by the time you compute how much health and life insurance cost, figure your annual cigarette cost is just unbelievably high until about 40 and from there it all depends what vile form of sickness the inhaling of poison causes, it could raise in your final years to hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, just the price of needless suffering, instead of enjoying that beach that the cigarette companies promise you.

How would you like to have a different reality? Well, you can and I’ll help you. How about taking a Journey Inward with me, and later really enjoy a week on Maui, or Bali, or a Beach in South East Asia, or anywhere in the world you want instead for the money you saved for not smoking for a year. You can do it!

And what is the value of a week vacation ……. a major reduction in the stress that kept you smoking. And you’ll avoid years of health miseries by STOPPING SMOKING. You want to know the secret – come visit the world of  http://journeysinwardhypnotherapy.com/mp3/addictions/smoking-cessation-hypnotherapy and just close your eyes, draw in a deep breath, and listen to the audio along with me. You’ll relax and before you know it, your own subconscious will be reprogrammed to be FREE and YOU will be FREE from smoking quickly. So, then … save your money and I’ll meet you at the beach.

Once and a while I’ll see a client that I haven’t seen for a long time. When I ask them how their smoking issue is coming along, surprisingly many times they tell me that their cravings are so diminished that they actually forget to smoke. Many of these clients have smoked for most of their lives and they thought that it would be impossible for them to stop. Often after just the first two sessions my clients come back for their next session saying that it is so much easier to be smoke free, than they suspected.

Hypnosis can help smokers quit by addressing the problem at a subconscious level. You can re-frame your thinking so that you no longer crave cigarettes. In fact, hypnotic suggestions can make cigarettes completely undesirable. Instead of wanting them, you will want to avoid them.

Smoking is like a best friend to those who smoke, it is always there, always available when you need it. Isn’t it interesting that after 30 years of a daily habit that one day you could just stop it, just like that. It amazed me too when I just started my practice!

My feeling is that people are afraid to be without their best friend, they have depended on them for so many years, many since their teen age years when friends are so important. They are not sure they can live without them. It takes some “change work” in their minds, but very quickly they realize that cigarettes were not their friend at all in fact just the opposite. Clients also tell me that it is a way for them to take a break from their day, a way to connect with other smokers on their lunch break. It makes them instantly part of a club. Maybe there is the fear of changing your friends and the places you are used to going, although there is hardly anywhere that you can go and smoke these days.

When I ask people what they really like about smoking it seems those were the two responses I get most. I guess it is important to think about that a little. Are you are depending on a best friend that really isn’t a best friend at all. A friend that won’t be there for you in the hospital to hold your hand or comfort you when you really need them? If it’s a break you need why not just go outside and breathe! Take 3 long deep breaths and remind yourself, when you are doing it, why you are quitting smoking. I have many breathing techniques that I teach my clients, to replace that break with cigarettes that they think they need. Just take your break like you normally would but call it a breathing break instead of a smoking break. We all need a break. We don’t need to fill our lungs with smoke and poisons, just to take a break. Think about it!

For more information try our Stop Smoking Hypnosis MP3:

http://journeysinwardhypnotherapy.com/mp3/addictions/smoking-cessation-hypnotherapy

~Mariah