A note from Roly Hi, this is Roly. I meet a lot of amazing people in my line of work and it’s a joy to help them all through their ups and downs. What follows is a letter from the mother of a client whom I had the pleasure of treating. It’s a wonderful story that I hope inspires you as much as it does me. Here it is. A letter from a mother So I made the call……. Everything had come to ahead. My 22-year-old daughter was a heavy cannabis smoker and was wanting to travel. Alarm bells went off in my head, she was off to Bali with her boyfriend who is a heavy smoker also. Months before the planned trip we had all discussed them trying to slow down and ultimately stop smoking . The goal was to use this trip as a turning point in her life to detox. One week before they were due to leave on their trip her partner broke up with her. Not only did this devastate her but it ruined her plan to stop smoking and detox together. Over the past few years I have tried to get her help. Recently she excepted some counselling after going through a serious car accident. The counselling didn’t seem to be doing any good so she stopped going. So as you can imagine with her detox plan now cancelled. The breakdown of her 2 year relationship.I felt that she may hit rock bottom again. I felt so helpless and alone and didn’t know how to help her. She has been smoking since she... Little is known about the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes on the human body, but what is most concerning from early experiences and reports is the impact on the lungs. In one recent case, a teenager in Canada developed acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), also known as ‘wet lung’, possibly as a result of inhaling vapour from an e-cigarette. How do e-cigarettes work? E-cigarettes, or vaporisers, are an alternative to smoking more traditional forms of tobacco. They are handheld devices that vaporise a liquid into vapour on demand as you draw on the mouthpiece. The liquid usually contains a mixture of nicotine, flavourings, and other chemicals, and is then drawn into the lungs like cigarette smoke to deliver the nicotine into the bloodstream. Why are they popular? E-cigarettes have rapidly increased in popularity, primarily because they are marketed as a tool to quit smoking. Although there is evidence to suggest that they can help in this regard, it’s important to remember that most e-cigarette liquid still contains nicotine, and so they are not a solution to dependence and addiction. What are the potential impacts of using e-cigarettes? As alluded to, e-cigarettes are now linked to severe respiratory diseases. Specifically, in at least one case, an 18-year-old woman developed ARDS, probably because of e-cigarette use. ARDS is a disease that affects the lungs’ ability to extract oxygen from the air that has been breathed in. It’s caused by pulmonary oedema, which is excess moisture in the lungs (hence the name ‘wet lung’), which in turn is caused by damage to the alveolar walls and pulmonary capillaries (the parts of the... What You Really Need to Know About e-cigarettes Perhaps you have seen others using wand-like implements that emit a puff of vapour and want to get the low-down on e-cigarettes? To make sure you are informed about all the facts of this new fad, we have put together a handy guide below. What are e-cigarettes? E-cigarettes, or electronic cigarettes, are a market of products that have been designed to deliver nicotine or other substances that are reduced from oils into vapour and then inhaled. E-cigarettes are smokeless systems that use an electric fuel source, rather than fire, to combust the products emitted. They are battery operated and have a slot to input replaceable cartridges which usually contain nicotine but can hold other chemicals or products from time to time. The atomizer in an e-cigarette is heated to convert the contents into a vapour that is then inhaled by the user. Sometimes e-cigarettes look like conventional cigarettes, and at other times they look like regular items such as pens or USBs so they can be used more discreetly. E-cigarettes are popular alternatives in indoor locations because even though they sometimes look like they are emitting smoke, it is actually vapour that is coming out. This is how the habit received the common slang name of ‘vaping.’ What risks are involved? Before running out and grabbing yourself an e-cigarette, it is important to understand what these products actually contain. Most people believe e-cigarettes are harmless or are much less harmful than tobacco alternatives, but new studies are suggesting that this might not actually be the case. A recent article by... It comes as no surprise that cigarette smoke drastically increases the risk of lung cancer. Whether you are a smoker yourself or are regularly exposed to second-hand smoke, the harmful chemicals inhaled can cause cancerous tumors to develop in your lungs. Lung cancer is a leading cause of death in Australia and smoking is linked to 80-90% of cases. In addition, people who smoke are 15-20 times more likely to develop lung cancer than those who don’t. Unless treated in the very early stages, lung cancer can be very difficult to beat. Once the symptoms of lung cancer are prevalent, the disease has spread beyond the chest, and the chance of survival is greatly reduced. The symptoms of lung cancer include coughing, weight loss, pain and fatigue. Once symptoms are visible, patients usually have less than two years of life left. There are many reasons to quit smoking, but the possibility of contracting lung cancer is by far the scariest. The chance to prevent the development of lung cancer is undoubtedly the most motivating reason to quit on offer. Think of your family, your friends and all those that your smoking puts at risk. Quitting at any age lowers your risk of getting lung cancer. However, quitting cold turkey is extremely difficult and doesn’t work for everyone. In order to help you take positive steps towards quitting, we have compiled some tips that have been tried and tested among many who have said goodbye to cigarettes for good. Take Medications Certain medications can double your chances of quitting long term. Nicotine replacement products help to break your nicotine addition... Bullying – it’s one of the most difficult things any individual can face during their lifetime, and it’s not just something that affects kids. We most often think of bullying as something that happens at school, but in fact, sadly, it usually continues into adult life in far more subtle but equally devastating ways. Whether it’s a bigger kid stealing your lunch money or calling you hurtful names, or a co-worker repeatedly disrespecting you and telling lies in the staff room, it’s all hurtful behaviour that can take its toll on your self-esteem. In this article, we discuss how you can use hypnotherapy to heal yourself, even when one or two people are intent on making you miserable. Bullying It is perhaps the ultimate frustration for a bully, watching someone you dislike flourish even as you try to torment them. It’s also likely to take away some of the power that they’ve managed to build up for themselves within their own head. This will actually help other people too who might have otherwise been potential victims, as the bully realises they are not indestructible, and that their petty methods for intimidation and cruelty aren’t always going to work. Whilst the anxiety bullies manage to create in both adults and children can seem scary, it’s easy to understand and therefore possible to counteract. Hypnotherapy Whilst hypnotherapy and bullying might seem an unlikely pair of words to be linked in a sentence, the two are being increasingly talked about in cohesion, with research showing hypnotherapy as an effective method for dealing with bullying-related anxiety. When an individual is bullied, especially during... As a hypnotherapist, I regularly come across clients who want to know whether hypnotherapy can help them cure an addiction, treat a phobia, relieve pain or soothe an anxiety. One of the most common questions clients ask is whether hypnosis can replace drugs to treat a health condition. The first task of a hypnotherapist is to explain to the client what hypnosis is and what it isn’t. Unfortunately, the reputation of hypnosis has taken a beating from movie scripts and staged shows. The general perception of hypnosis is that it turns people into clucking chickens or soaring eagles. Thankfully, science is beginning to debunk the myth by presenting facts that show hypnosis is a serious alternative to treating a variety of ailments and conditions. If you are investigating hypnosis as an alternative or complementary treatment, the following FAQ on hypnosis and drugs will help you understand this treatment better. What is Hypnosis? Also known as hypnotherapy, hypnosis induces a trance-like state of deep relaxation in order to treat psychological or emotional disorders. Hypnosis employs techniques to bypass the conscious thinking mind to make powerful positive suggestions to the unconscious mind. A session usually involves the client experiencing a sense of deep relaxation, allowing the mind to focus on the positive reinforcements, adaptations or lifestyle changes suggested by the therapist. Hypnosis is, therefore, not a state of deep sleep but rather a state of deep concentration and focus. Hypnotherapists use the power of hypnotic suggestions to change triggers in the brain, stop self-sabotaging issues, extinguish trauma and redirect neural networks. Hypnosis and Drugs There is a place for both conventional... 