Voss Hypnotics

Ben Affleck tells Oprah: I quit smoking w/ hypnosis

Actor Ben Affleck appeared on Oprah's television show on January 20th, 2008 and talked about quitting smoking.

Ben said he finally kicked his 20-year smoking with hypnosis. He smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for years, until he learned he was becoming a father. "I finally decided to quit smoking when I was going to have a child, and that was the thing that sort of put it over the top for me," Ben says.

Once he made the final decision, Ben says he went to a hypnotist recommended by his friend, Matt Damon. "He sips water and just talks to you for an hour and explains to you how nicotine is poison," Ben says. "And it seems really, like, 'How could this help me?' And all of a sudden you think, 'This is asinine that I had been doing this to myself for all these years.'"

According to Dr. Mehmet Oz, understanding your reasons can be vital. "Ben stopped because of his kid. That's internal. That's not someone else giving him a hard time and browbeating him. He's doing it for the right reason," he says. "We should be very cautious about the reasons we pick. Otherwise, we'll run into that same ambivalence that many of us have when we make any kind of behavioral change. Deep down inside, in our core essence, looking at the authentic us, what's the reason to stop smoking? We've got to figure that out to get going."