While Halsey was chatting about makeup and beauty on Manny Mua's YouTube channel, the singer said hypnotherapy helped her quit cigarettes after smoking for 11 years.
"I had to get hypnotized," she said, describing the quitting process as a "journey."
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During the first session, a hypnotherapist asks questions about your smoking rituals, and tries to replace the habit with a new one. "It's not enough to just remove smoking, you have to replace it with a new ritual," Smith said.
That's when, Smith said, you're hypnotized, and your brain shifts to a "theta" brainwave state, in which you're more relaxed than daydreaming, but more alert than sleeping. In this relaxed state, you're more open to hearing healthy alternatives to smoking, and hypnotherapists ask you to visualize your day with a new, healthy habit.
But you have to be open to hearing these suggestions. Smith cautioned that hypnotherapy is not mind control, and the desire to change smoking habits needs to come from within. "Let's say that your spouse just really wants you to quit and you're tired of them nagging you, but you yourself don't want to quit. Save your money and your time because this will not be effective," she said.
In a small 2007 study of 67 smokers, researchers found that hospitalized patients who went to one hypnotherapy session were more likely to be nonsmokers after six months, compared to patients who used nicotine replacement therapy or quit cold turkey.
But in another analysis of multiple studies, comprising 957 smokers, researchers at Cochrane found no proof that hypnotherapy provided any extra benefit in helping people quit smoking than counseling.
"There is no clear evidence that hypnotherapy is better than other approaches in helping people to stop smoking," said the New Zealand study's authors.
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Halsey says hypnotherapy helped her quit cigarettes after 11 years of smoking, but it doesn't work for everyon - Business Insider India
