I’m Rick Bush
and Clinical Hypnotherapist

STOP
RELAX
CHANGE
Smoking and Other Addictions
STOP
It only takes a moment.
RELAX
When you relax, you are in control.
When you relax you see things clearly and you can do the things you really want to do.
CHANGE
The way you think, feel, react, respond, behave.
The primitive brain’s primary function is to preserve it’s proprietor’s life and comfort. We need beneficial chemicals in our nervous system to feel good, great or indeed to feel anything at all (typically psychologists talk about ‘balance’ and ‘steady serotonin levels’. for good mental health). Serotonin is the most common of 60 or so ‘neurotransmitters’ all beavering away to keep us reasonably sane. When we develop a habit we create a short cut to achieving that end. Unfortunately instead of exercise, genuine achievement, self satisfaction or even just pleasant thoughts or daydreams resulting from our efforts which are the natural ways of changing mood, we condition our primitive mind to accept the chemical signatures of all manner of counterfeit substances instead.
The overwhelming paradox for us addicts is that our primitive minds will then tell us that we need whatever substance is concerned to alter our mood because we have conditioned it to do so. Pretty soon we’ll need a supply to function at all. We’ve conditioned it to respond if we’re likely to run short of whatever chemical ‘fix’ we need to maintain our desired equilibrium and our primitive brain has no way of knowing that its efforts to preserve and enhance our life are in fact killing us. It recognises chemicals in our bloodstream as the naturally occurring neurotransmitters that we all need, but they are the chemicals (together with all their poisonous chums) which will contribute to our untimely demise. In many cases people can complete a couple of hundred press ups, go for a long run, then do a line of coke or speed and a few fags as a reward. The natural buzz they should have got from exercise is replaced by the counterfeit high whilst the physiology steadily loses the capability of producing the real beneficial neurotransmitters.
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Personal Strength
STOP
It only takes a moment.
RELAX
When you relax, you are in control.
When you relax you see things clearly and you can do the things you really want to do.
CHANGE
The way you think, feel, react, respond, behave.
The good news however is that there is a very special part of the Brain which we can use to assist you in your resolve. Its the same part that stops any futile cravings when your on an airplane or in a hospital or public building. It works also when your asleep (when you give up smoking almost every day for long enough to extinguish the ‘addiction’). Its called the ‘anterior cingulate ‘ and it ‘orders’ on behalf of your thinking or rational brain your primitive brain to ‘cut it out’ and stop, encouraging a supposed ‘need’ for a smoke. It is just like having your own internal ‘NO SMOKING’ sign which is permanently on and visible in your ‘minds eye’. Thereafter the thought of smoking becomes a nuisance easily dismissed by the rational brain.
The Anterior Cingulate is very important in dealing with more serious addictions and works in conjunction with the immune system and indeed the primitive brain itself when the addiction or consequential illness is ‘finally’ recognised as the real threat that it is. That’s when the ‘survival’ instinct part of the primitive brain starts working for you. It’s like an all conquering army simply changing sides. When the vast intellectual resource that is your brain starts to apply itself to your real well being and happiness, often others will become aware of the positive changes taking place before you are. It seems almost miraculous but this positive change is a normal consequence of Solution Focused Hypnotherapy .
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Mobile
Regent Street (Clifton Village), Cotham Hill,
Westbury on Trym and Bath.
