Do Smokers Ever Quit Smoking? What to Do?

Good stories here! Some inspirational, some cautionary, all worthwhile.

I started at 15, started quitting at 21 - that took almost 2 years. Was free for about 9 years, then had a cigar. 6 years later, hadda quit cigars, pipe and cigarettes again. Finally decided that not having the 1st one is a heluva a lot easier than trying to not have another one.

I guess I'm one of the "lucky" ones: I don't think about 'em at all. I know some folks struggle long after they've quit.

Stay strong, find soemthing better to do than think about smoking.
 
Good stories here! Some inspirational, some cautionary, all worthwhile.

I started at 15, started quitting at 21 - that took almost 2 years. Was free for about 9 years, then had a cigar. 6 years later, hadda quit cigars, pipe and cigarettes again. Finally decided that not having the 1st one is a heluva a lot easier than trying to not have another one.

I guess I'm one of the "lucky" ones: I don't think about 'em at all. I know some folks struggle long after they've quit.

Stay strong, find soemthing better to do than think about smoking.

Dad once told me the secret to quitting smoking:

"Make up your mind you don't want to smoke, then just don't smoke again. Don't cut back, don't tell yourself you'll quite after this pack or carton. Just stop."

That's how he quit when I was a wee lad back in the late 60s. He had gone to the doctor for something (a rare event for Dad) and the doc told him he needed to quit smoking. Dad, ever the practical person who did not like wasting money or time, figured if he went to the doctor and then didn't follow his advice, he might just as well have burned the money and never gone in the first place.
 
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I smoked 2+ packs of cigarettes a day for 20+ years. I quit with the help of Nicorette and have never looked back.

I never realized how badly heavy smokers like me *reek* of cigarette smoke till I quit. It's a terrible , disgusting and fatal habit.
 
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I smoked from ages 12-25. Tried quitting several times like most smokers. One day at work I gave out. The next night I bummed one from a coworker. Haven't smoked since. Right after quitting my worse times with right after I got through eating and when I was bored. After about three months I didn't want them anymore. Did pick up some weight though. Had to work on that. I remember my 8th grade Math teacher saying when they got to $1 a pack she was quitting. They did and she didn't. At $5-$6/pack now I definitely do not miss it.
 
Not gonna lie, I miss it. I smoked from 17-30. Stress brings back the desire, so that pretty much all the time for me 🤣
But all the bad mentioned above will keep me from going back and the fact have you seen the price lately?
 
Don't do it!

FWIW, I was just diagnosed with lung Cancer for the 3rd time since 2005

PET scan tomorrow. Bronchoscopy next week. Chemo to follow.

Trust me, you DO.NOT want to be in my situation, weigh the odds if you continue smoking.

Don't do it brother, I am not so sure I will win this time!


Hate to hear that. Anything I can do?
 
Do it.

Smoked a pack + per day (more when drinking) for over 10 years. Quit cold turkey the day I had a heart attack at age 36.

Dont really miss em...when I would get an urge I would just think about the massive pain in my chest and how that sucked.
 
I started smoking cigarettes when I was 13, quit when I was 23, and picked it up again with a vengeance when I started drinking heavily. Got tired of waking up in weird places with a horrible taste in mouth and didn't like the idea of being controlled. Bought a pack of nasty USA Gold Menthols, smoked all of them and dropped all the butts in a water bottle with a couple fingers of water. For the next week, whenever I wanted a smoke, I would unscrew that MFer and take a big huff and nearly vomit every time.

Wife still smokes because she's afraid she will gain enough wait to not be a skinny little shit. I wish everyday she would stop. I can't believe how much those damned things cost now. I remember 35 bucks a carton Camel Wides, 3 packs for 3 bucks Montclaires and other such.

On the scale of things I've quit, it's definitely second or third.
 
Yeah stay tue course. I smoked off and on from the mid 80s until 12 years ago. My wife was pregnant with my first daughter. She said "You're a grown man. You can smoke all you want. You just can't smoke AND live in the same house with our daughter. You choose."

Man, I'm glad she put her foot down.

The human body is an amazing design. You change your ways and it really can undo many of our bad choices. Right now your body is repairing itself. Let it keep going. Congrats on quitting. Hang in there.
 
If you stopped cold turkey and are not addicted to them that is great. If you pick it back up cause “I’m gonna die anyways” then with all due respect you are a total moron.... now if you are planning on shooting yourself, smoke up and pull the trigger.
 
I started smoking cigarettes when I was 13, quit when I was 23, and picked it up again with a vengeance when I started drinking heavily. Got tired of waking up in weird places with a horrible taste in mouth and didn't like the idea of being controlled. Bought a pack of nasty USA Gold Menthols, smoked all of them and dropped all the butts in a water bottle with a couple fingers of water. For the next week, whenever I wanted a smoke, I would unscrew that MFer and take a big huff and nearly vomit every time.

Wife still smokes because she's afraid she will gain enough wait to not be a skinny little shit. I wish everyday she would stop. I can't believe how much those damned things cost now. I remember 35 bucks a carton Camel Wides, 3 packs for 3 bucks Montclaires and other such.

On the scale of things I've quit, it's definitely second or third.

When I first went overseas in the Corps it was $1.65 a carton for Marlboro Reds or Winstons on the ship once we got outside the 3 mile limit.
 
Dad once told me the secret to quitting smoking:

"Make up your mind you don't want to smoke, then just don't smoke again. Don't cut back, don't tell yourself you'll quite after this pack or carton. Just stop."

That's how he quite when I was a wee lad back in the late 60s. He had gone to the doctor for something (a rare event for Dad) and the doc told him he needed to quit smoking. Dad, ever the practical person who did not like wasting money or time, figured if he went to the doctor and then didn't follow his advice, he might just as well have burned the money and never gone in the first place.
My dad did the same sort of thing. Quit a 2 pack a day for 30 year habit one day on a whim. We asked why he was quitting and he said because he wanted to. Never smoked again. Doesn't talk about it ever.
 
Was pretty much done with them the day Doc told me I had cancer.

Ask @Chdamn or @DCGallim how much I smoked.

Yeah...part of putting them down is physical, but to me, it was mostly mental; really no different than the day I found out about the cancer. At that point, I only knew “cancer”. I didn’t know what stage it was or if it had spread and if so, where and to what extent.

What I do know is that in my mind, I convinced myself that surviving it was the ONLY option, no matter what the tests and scans showed. Not saying I rejected reality or what it may prove to be, but mentally, I had this condition beat before the treatment plan was even drawn up. Some folks may dismiss that as “fairy tale” thinking and even some in my own family believed me to be in a state of denial. It wasn’t that at all, rather, it was the human will to live/survive and personally, I believe it to be one of the strongest things on earth.

Approach quitting smoking the same way. You gotta convince yourself that you’re a hell of a lot stronger than the urges that say, “One more won’t matter” or “After this pack, I’m done.” Easy? Not at all, but the mind is a powerful thing.

There have been times in the last 20 years I was so tired, I thought I would kill for just 5 minutes of sleep or times I was so exhausted, I didn’t think I could take another step or go on...

But my mind said, “You HAVE to...you ain’t got another option.”
 
Was pretty much done with them the day Doc told me I had cancer.

Ask @Chdamn or @DCGallim how much I smoked.

Yeah...part of putting them down is physical, but to me, it was mostly mental; really no different than the day I found out about the cancer. At that point, I only knew “cancer”. I didn’t know what stage it was or if it had spread and if so, where and to what extent.

What I do know is that in my mind, I convinced myself that surviving it was the ONLY option, no matter what the tests and scans showed. Not saying I rejected reality or what it may prove to be, but mentally, I had this condition beat before the treatment plan was even drawn up. Some folks may dismiss that as “fairy tale” thinking and even some in my own family believed me to be in a state of denial. It wasn’t that at all, rather, it was the human will to live/survive and personally, I believe it to be one of the strongest things on earth.

Approach quitting smoking the same way. You gotta convince yourself that you’re a hell of a lot stronger than the urges that say, “One more won’t matter” or “After this pack, I’m done.” Easy? Not at all, but the mind is a powerful thing.

There have been times in the last 20 years I was so tired, I thought I would kill for just 5 minutes of sleep or times I was so exhausted, I didn’t think I could take another step or go on...

But my mind said, “You HAVE to...you ain’t got another option.”

As a reformed smoker myself, explaining to my wife (who has never been addicted to anything) it isn’t just a matter of quitting. It is winning an argument with yourself every single day.

In the beginning that bastard will argue all day long. Then it’s finally once a day and it gets less from there. But he’s a sneaky bastard.
 
I had been feeling like a dirt sandwich for quite a while. I was grading papers in February 2002 feeling really rotten when I decided that there was one thing I could control that might be making me feel bad. I put my pipe down half way through a bowl and have not picked it up since. I had been a pipe and cigar smoker for over 35 years. A pack of Carter Hall a day was about the average. My pipe was in my mouth almost all the time. I even would turn it upside down and smoke in the shower. I miss it terribly and will get a pack of tobacco on my way to the Harley Davidson dealership if I am ever diagnosed with a terminal disease.

My wife smoked cigarettes since high school. Two packs a day was about her average. She quit in late August 2017 when she had a massive stroke that almost killed her several times. She hopefully will be able to walk again with a walker one of these years but is now in a wheel chair. I am her primary care giver, and both of us are unable at the moment to enjoy the active lifestyle we have known. I can not leave my darling alone for very long but do have some nice ladies who come in twice a week for a few hours so I can get out of the house to run errands and to go shoot a few rounds at the range.

Stop. Just stop. Something has to kill you, but make it something more fun than smoking.
 
If it helps, since I stopped smoking, I started looking a good bit less my age.

Really though, as others said, it's an internal dialogue. Let your stubborn bastard that don't hold quarter from anybody win.

And for God's sake, don't throw the whole thing to the wind if you slip up and do smoke. It's one minute at a time, an hour at a time, in a day per day.
 
My Dad smoked from about age 15 until age 45 or so. He is 85 now. Quit cold turkey. He says if he is out and smells cigarette smoke he stills wants to have a smoke. So in my limited experience cold turkey and a steel will is the way to go. There is a strong physical and psychological pull even after many years. Be strong and accept help from others.
 
Honest post.

Almost 34, smoked since 16. 6-15 cigarettes a day. A pack in an evening of heavy drinking(1-2 times a year). 2 kids(6&4). Wife never smoked. Been together 15 years in November. I do enjoy smoking. At one point, everyone in my 7 member immediate family smoked. Dad has smoke since 1965, still does. Mom quit during each pregnancy. Her last smoke was about 15 years ago, 15 years after I was born. My brother had a heart attack at 39 in Dec 2019 and I watched CPR performed on him and the paramedics shock him. He had a triple bypass. All of the men in my family(8) except me have all had a heart event to some degree that warranted a surgery. 4 died of heart attacks. Grandfather died of emphysema. During my brothers recovery, his heart surgeon gave me a referral for tests as he learned our family history of heart issues. All of my tests passed with success.

I argue with my wife about smoking. I don't do it in front of my kids, when they are awake or when out on family events/vacations. I won't smoke when with a group of people and I am the only smoker. I won't excuse myself from them either to go and smoke. But I drive for work every day and work by myself. Driving is the largest trigger for me as it cures the boredom. I am active, can run a mile. Within weight for my age.

All of the above are excuses for my smoking. As others stated, it's the effing annoying bastard in my head. It's the lack of will power. The gas station stops. Alcohol. Money isn't a problem, never spent my last dollars on smokes. Of everyone in my family only my dad and I smoke.

I've tried turkey, patches(absolutely horrific vivid dreams), gum, lozenge, phone counseling via work, straws, toothpicks. Knew a couple people that did chantix with bad reactions, so that made me timid. And I got chantix from my doctor 2 days before my brothers heart attack, and reading the insert in his ICU room didn't help either. His surgeon(while not my primary doctor) suggested trying something else as the family history of heart failure could be concerning while taking chantix.

Not sure what other routes to take to stop. If having kids didn't work, and all my other methods didn't as well.


What's left?
 
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Honest post.

Almost 34, smoked since 16. 6-15 cigarettes a day. A pack in an evening of heavy drinking(1-2 times a year). 2 kids(6&4). Wife never smoked. Been together 15 years in November. I do enjoy smoking. At one point, everyone in my 7 member immediate family smoked. Dad has smoke since 1965, still does. Mom quit during each pregnancy. Her last smoke was about 15 years ago. My brother had a heart attack at 39 in Dec 2019 and I watched CPR performed on him and the paramedics shock him. He had a triple bypass. All of the men in my family(8) except me have all had a heart event to some degree that warranted a surgery. 4 died of heart attacks. Grandfather died of emphysema. During my brothers recovery, his heart surgeon gave me a referral for tests as he learned our family history of heart issues. All of my tests passed with success.

I argue with my wife about smoking. I don't do it in front of my kids, or when out on family events/vacations. I won't smoke when with a group of people and I am the only smoker. I won't excuse myself from them either to go and smoke. But I drive for work every day and work by myself. Driving is the largest trigger for me as it cures the boredom. I am active, can run a mile. Within weight for my age.

All of the above are excuses for my smoking. As others stated, it's the effing annoying bastard in my head. It's the lack of will power. The gas station stops. Alcohol. Money isn't a problem, never spent my last dollars on smokes. Of everyone in my family only my dad and I smoke.

I've tried turkey, patches(absolutely horrific vivid dreams), gum, lozenge, phone counseling via work, straws, toothpicks. Knew a couple people that did chantix with bad reactions, so that made me timid. And I got chantix from my doctor 2 days before my brothers heart attack, and reading the insert in his ICU room didn't help either. His surgeon(while not my primary doctor) suggested trying something else as the family history of heart failure could be concerning while taking chantix.

Not sure what other routes to take to stop. If having kids didn't work, and all my other methods didn't as well.


What's left?
That’s rough man, I don’t know the answer. For me, I just stopped. It was shitty but eventually it wasn’t.
 
@Chriselalto from what I gather you just quit, and deal with it.
Sometimes it sucks, sometimes you don't notice, and sometimes it sucks bad when you quit smoking.
Just using the above examples as a reminder that it can be a lot worse if one continues to smoke opposed to struggling with not smoking you choose either selflessly, or selfishly.
The two options of payment I suppose when enjoying an addictive drug that will kill you are dying a nasty death, or missing something stupid we should have never done in the first place.
Nothing is Free in this life, and we pay for our actions, one way or another.
 
Honest post.

Almost 34, smoked since 16. 6-15 cigarettes a day. A pack in an evening of heavy drinking(1-2 times a year). 2 kids(6&4). Wife never smoked. Been together 15 years in November. I do enjoy smoking. At one point, everyone in my 7 member immediate family smoked. Dad has smoke since 1965, still does. Mom quit during each pregnancy. Her last smoke was about 15 years ago, 15 years after I was born. My brother had a heart attack at 39 in Dec 2019 and I watched CPR performed on him and the paramedics shock him. He had a triple bypass. All of the men in my family(8) except me have all had a heart event to some degree that warranted a surgery. 4 died of heart attacks. Grandfather died of emphysema. During my brothers recovery, his heart surgeon gave me a referral for tests as he learned our family history of heart issues. All of my tests passed with success.

I argue with my wife about smoking. I don't do it in front of my kids, when they are awake or when out on family events/vacations. I won't smoke when with a group of people and I am the only smoker. I won't excuse myself from them either to go and smoke. But I drive for work every day and work by myself. Driving is the largest trigger for me as it cures the boredom. I am active, can run a mile. Within weight for my age.

All of the above are excuses for my smoking. As others stated, it's the effing annoying bastard in my head. It's the lack of will power. The gas station stops. Alcohol. Money isn't a problem, never spent my last dollars on smokes. Of everyone in my family only my dad and I smoke.

I've tried turkey, patches(absolutely horrific vivid dreams), gum, lozenge, phone counseling via work, straws, toothpicks. Knew a couple people that did chantix with bad reactions, so that made me timid. And I got chantix from my doctor 2 days before my brothers heart attack, and reading the insert in his ICU room didn't help either. His surgeon(while not my primary doctor) suggested trying something else as the family history of heart failure could be concerning while taking chantix.

Not sure what other routes to take to stop. If having kids didn't work, and all my other methods didn't as well.


What's left?

Sorry to hear about all the problems your family has suffered. It took me many tries before I actually quit for good. I tried everything from cold turkey to smoke one an hour for a couple days then cutting back to one every two hours and so on. In my opinion cold turkey is the way to go. My issue was my attitude and being grouchy for about a month. One time when I had quit, me and the ex-wife were coming back from a trip. Got into an argument over something petty. I was being an asshole. Next thing I knew she was pulling into the gas station. I asked her why she stopped, commenting we had plenty of gas. Her response was “to buy you a pack of cigarettes. That was the a eye opening experience. I didn’t realize how the addiction was affecting me mentally. Couple moths later, I went for it agin. This time I was aware of my attitude so when I noticed I was being an asshole for no reason, I would step out alone for a little bit until the craving and mental struggle past. It is a hard battle, but one well worth the fight.


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Dad once told me the secret to quitting smoking:

"Make up your mind you don't want to smoke, then just don't smoke again. Don't cut back, don't tell yourself you'll quite after this pack or carton. Just stop.
That reminds me... I quit cold turkey the first time, and it took a long time. [whiney] It was hard! The second time, I knew a bit more, and I understood human nature/myself a little better. So I played a head game with me.

I used to smoke at the pub; had a good group of friends, I made plenty of money, was self-employed and surprisingly disciplined as far as getting to work in the AM was concerned. I could go to the pub any night of the week and hang with people I knew. I ate a lot of dinners there, and drank & smoked a lot as well. I was healthy despite it all. But I knew I had to quit (again) eventually.

I realized I enjoyed one or maybe two smokes a day, and the rest were trying to live up to those few while I satisfied the addiction. In short, I associated smoking with pleasure and good times.

So I did two things: 1) cut my pub time waaay back, and did something else either at home or out - broke my behavioral habit; 2) Realizing that humans is mammals, I went about training myself like I would a dog: get a treat for good behavior! So instead of going to the pub with cigars or cigs & dropping beau coup bux on dinner, etc., I went to the grocery, bought a nice steak, an expensive beer or wine (or stopped at ABC), went home, and put the difference in cash in an envelope that nobody else knew about. When I was ready to go buy cigars or cigs, I would instead force myself to put what I would have spent on tobacco in cash in the envelope.

One month later, I was stunned at the bonus money. It really brought home how expensive that habit was, in part because of the cost of the tobacco and in part because of the associated lifestyle. But in any case, I'd been free for a month -- and I also had a big fat wad of cash to play with!

Moral of the story is: don't forget to reward yourself for good behavior. If all you ever do is crave and sweat and fight, no wonder you cave in sometimes! Then you beat yourself up about caving in... and all you've got is a negative association with quitting. Find some way to reward yourself for sticking to it, at least in the short term. Even though you know it's a head game, it works.
What's left?
You've already started. You are aware you ought to quit, you (kinda) want to, and you've admitted it.

Set a date and go one day without a smoke. It will prove to you you can actually stop yourself from lighting up. As soon as you can do one day, set a new date and go for two. Don't forget to reward yourself for even the slightest success. And don't beat yourself up if you can't do it right away. Just keep plugging away at it until you can meet whatever the current goal is.

I know it sounds childish, but the reward-reinforcement system and avoiding negativity work for those of us with less than iron wills.
 
Honest post.

Almost 34, smoked since 16. 6-15 cigarettes a day. A pack in an evening of heavy drinking(1-2 times a year). 2 kids(6&4)...What's left?

Have you tried anger?

Seriously...it helped me.

Anger, when used properly, can produce positive outcomes. What you have to do is reach the point where you are absolutely madder than hell that you’re a 34 year old grown-ass man with a wife and two young kids, yet an object/habit has this much control over you.

That is one of the ways I attacked it. I’m 47 and while I believe my cancer was most likely due to job-related exposures, I’m certain that smoking did not help and contributed to some degree.

My anger was not directed toward the tobacco companies...they didn’t make me smoke; that was a personal choice. I directed my anger toward the habit itself, so really, most of it was directed towards ME.

Anybody who knows me knows exactly where I stand and how I feel about being a free man. I looked at my habit, how bad it was and thought, “Damn, Shane...you are a slave to your habit and you are a slave of YOUR OWN CHOOSING. That got me good and pissed off. The more I thought about it/stewed on it, the madder I got until I finally reached the point where I decided, “F’ it! I’ll be damned if I will be a slave to anything!”.
 
I like people posting the "I remember when it used to cost..." comments!

Being born in the early 60s, I can remember when Mom used to send me to the grocery store with a note and a $5 bill to buy her a carton of King Size Chesterfields. About half that $5 bill came back in change.
 
Honest post.

Almost 34, smoked since 16. 6-15 cigarettes a day. A pack in an evening of heavy drinking(1-2 times a year). 2 kids(6&4). Wife never smoked. Been together 15 years in November. I do enjoy smoking. At one point, everyone in my 7 member immediate family smoked. Dad has smoke since 1965, still does. Mom quit during each pregnancy. Her last smoke was about 15 years ago, 15 years after I was born. My brother had a heart attack at 39 in Dec 2019 and I watched CPR performed on him and the paramedics shock him. He had a triple bypass. All of the men in my family(8) except me have all had a heart event to some degree that warranted a surgery. 4 died of heart attacks. Grandfather died of emphysema. During my brothers recovery, his heart surgeon gave me a referral for tests as he learned our family history of heart issues. All of my tests passed with success.

I argue with my wife about smoking. I don't do it in front of my kids, when they are awake or when out on family events/vacations. I won't smoke when with a group of people and I am the only smoker. I won't excuse myself from them either to go and smoke. But I drive for work every day and work by myself. Driving is the largest trigger for me as it cures the boredom. I am active, can run a mile. Within weight for my age.

All of the above are excuses for my smoking. As others stated, it's the effing annoying bastard in my head. It's the lack of will power. The gas station stops. Alcohol. Money isn't a problem, never spent my last dollars on smokes. Of everyone in my family only my dad and I smoke.

I've tried turkey, patches(absolutely horrific vivid dreams), gum, lozenge, phone counseling via work, straws, toothpicks. Knew a couple people that did chantix with bad reactions, so that made me timid. And I got chantix from my doctor 2 days before my brothers heart attack, and reading the insert in his ICU room didn't help either. His surgeon(while not my primary doctor) suggested trying something else as the family history of heart failure could be concerning while taking chantix.

Not sure what other routes to take to stop. If having kids didn't work, and all my other methods didn't as well.


What's left?
Of all the things I read here, none of them involved anyone's plan but yours.

I tried everything. I happened on a Duke university study. I decided that I would do whatever they told me, and would leave it up to God. Basically Ieft the outcome in Gods hands. That took the pressure off of me and let me concentrate on flowing their plan.

I smoked over a pack a day from about 18 to 50 years of age. Been quit 8 years.

I recall very little pain or discomfort from the process and I am 100% convinced that it doesn't matter the plan so much as letting go, and putting that shit in Gods hands.

That is all
 
Smokers are people who smoke but maybe not all the time.

Non-smokers are people who don't smoke.

Smokers never quit. Non-smokers don't do it.

Instead of focusing on trying to quit, focus on becoming a non-smoker.









*advice from a non-smoker who watched many people fail to quit.
 
Take the money you spend daily on those coffin nails and put it in a mason jar. At your 1 year anniversary of quitting go buy your self a very nice gun. If you fall off the wagon, you gotta give the cash to your wife. Give a update next year and there better be a gun picture here for us to see.

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Of all the things I read here, none of them involved anyone's plan but yours.

I can not say for sure whether my wife's smoking caused or contributed to her unfortunate medical disaster, but I would bet big money that it did. That stroke not only involved her plans but also put my plans on hold for 3.5 years already plus who knows how many years in the future.

Consider the impact to other people around you, and I am not talking about second hand smoke. Unless you live without any friends or family, people will share your misery with you if smoking or some other unhealthy habit causes medical problems or death.
 
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First. You cannot make somebody do something they do not want to do. You have to convince yourself that smoking is bad for you and not smoking will save your life. When you are completely and thoroughly convinced- Then you may make the next step. Find yourself a Clinical Hypnotherapist. Not some motel room side show or a one session quick fix. A clinical hypnotherapist will help you quit and you will have no withdrawal symptoms. It may take three to six sessions and about the cost of 6 months of cigarettes'. It should be one on one in an office with a credentialed Hypnotherapist.
 
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