- Is this your only pack?
- Yes.
- How's that feel?
(percussive music)
- I started smoking when I was 13.
Seeing my dad holding a cigarette, puffing,
and I would be in my room and I would hold
my coloring pencils,
and I would pretend that I'm holding a cigarette.
I started smoking from 13 to 16,
then I took a year off,
and then from 17 to now, which I'm 26.
In 2017 I decided to quit.
I haven't been smoking for almost a month now.
Quitting cold turkey been the biggest achievement of 2017.
I snuck a cigarette, I was out with my friends,
and I just took a cigarette out.
I thought that I would be in control.
I would be in control of my mind,
I would not gonna fall in a pit of addiction.
I was wrong because one after another
after another, I ended up buying a pack,
and here we are, still smoking.
- Hi my name is Rocky Rosen,
I'm called the cigarette whisperer.
I get people off tobacco,
off of whether they're smoking or vaping.
I can have anybody smoke free in three days.
No tricks, no gimmicks.
I started smoking when I was 13.
At 22 I sounded like I was 85.
First time I helped anybody stop smoking was in 1991.
I the name the cigarette whisperer
from a doctor in Beverly Hills.
I got a person off cigarette,
then another person off cigarettes,
doctors started to use me,
I've probably helped over 1000 people get smoke free.
Amra
- Hi.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.
- Got two questions for you.
Do you smoke?
- I do.
- Do you wish you didn't?
- Yes.
- Alright, good.
- The reason why I want to quit smoking
is that I started realizing health problems.
I start coughing at night sometimes,
running out of breath.
It's bothering me because I'm only 26.
I think I've tried to quit smoking on a daily basis.
- I bet I can have you smoke free by our third session.
- Completely?
- Yeah.
And you'll be ready.
- Okay, that's, I can call this bull(bleep)
until it happens.
- Right.
- To be quite honest, I'm skeptical a little bit
about this whole method, so I'm not sure.
I don't know what to expect,
but I want it to work.
- If you're jonesing for a cigarette
while we're doing this, let's take a break,
go have a cigarette, okay?
- The program I teach is kind of taken from Albert Ellis.
Albert Ellis was a psychologist,
he wrote a book called Rational Cognitive Therapy.
It doesn't seem to be going away,
but you keep trying to fight it,
it keeps getting bigger and bigger.
If you have something going on,
why don't you learn how to use the urges
instead of always trying to fight the urge.
Don't deny what you feel, lean into it.
The tobacco industry has been brilliant
in hiding the truth about nicotine in dictionaries.
Nicotine is an insecticide, so when you smoke
or when you vape, the very best you're doing
is you're just spraying hot insecticide down your throat.
I once had two years off, but you know what?
I kept lightin' back up, and I couldn't figure that out
because I knew I was screwed by smoking.
I would cough if I laugh, I'd cough if I walked up steps,
I'd cough if I was sitting,
I'd cough if I was being intimate.
- It all sounds familiar to me.
Some of my friends smoke occasionally
where they don't get addicted,
the just smoke when they can, or when they want.
- You want to get there?
- That would be great because then--
- It aint gonna happen.
Every stop smoking methodology out there
that's available back when I stopped and even today,
is all designed to try to make the urge to smoke go away.
For those of us who have gotten addicted,
the urge never does totally go away.
Now I'm gonna make something very plain to you.
I don't care when you do it, where you do it,
why you do it, how you do it,
when you quit smoking, you have some discomfort to expect,
but the truth is, you're already uncomfortable,
and the truth is the discomfort of not smoking
is so much better than the discomfort
you get by smoking.
I always tell my clients, you and I may or may not agree
on much, but I do think that we can both agree
that you deserve better than all that crap.
Two big lies about quitting smoking.
Lie number one I gotta quit smoking.
Ever tell yourself I gotta quit smoking?
- Oh yeah every day, every day.
- For how long?
- For the past year.
- But what do you still do?
- I go buy a pack.
- You don't have to quit.
Cigarettes are available.
There's nobody alive who can tell you
whether you can smoke or not,
but you never have to stop smoking.
Lie number two, I don't want to smoke anymore.
How long you been telling yourself
I don't want to smoke anymore?
- For a year, even more.
- But what do you still do?
- I go still smoke.
- You know that you're still gonna want to smoke
even after you stop smoking,
that's how I'm gonna get you off cigarettes.
Wanting to smoke isn't the problem,
it's a person's condition.
Smoking is what causes problems.
If we're gonna work together,
you're still gonna have cigarettes
even after you quit smoking,
or you're gonna have a pack handy.
I know that seems what? That's nuts.
What Amra has to expect, is he's gonna learn
how to start smoking from a place of consciousness.
Instead of just lighting up whenever he wants to,
he's gonna be aware of what he's doing.
- Why do I have to carry a pack with me?
- What do you think about when you have cigarettes with you?
- I want to smoke one.
- No, you don't think that all the time,
you think about everything else,
and a cigarette thought occurs to you,
but when you have no cigarettes,
you just get focused on it.
That's why.
Plus you can't get rid of them.
They're all around you.
The single biggest obstacle we smokers have
at getting smoke free, is finding a way
to overcome this feeling of deprivation
when I want a cigarette but I feel like I can't have it
because I had to stop or I gotta quit.
Do you want to know the only reason why you smoke?
You smoke to make the urge to smoke go away.
It's the only reason why we smoke.
It's 'cause we don't want the urge to be there.
You smoke to end the jones,
and as a result, you're jonesing all the time.
So what we want to do before we get you off cigarettes
is teach you how you gonna offset deprivations
by coming from the truth.
- This is all on point.
- So I'm gonna give you this card.
I want you to write the word benefits here.
Let's talk about some of the benefits you may want.
How 'bout better health?
- Absolutely.
- Write down better health.
I'm not just talking about your physical health,
I'm talking about your mental health,
your emotional health, your intimate health.
How 'bout a better life?
- Absolutely.
- How bout just to feel better?
How 'bout more energy?
How 'bout for my family?
How 'bout freedom?
- Yes, yes.
- Let's look at these words
I put in your cigarette pack.
What do they say?
- I'm nicotine addicted, I want to smoke.
I can smoke, I don't have to stop.
Think about your benefits.
Make them large and powerful.
- So what I'm gonna ask you to do starting now
is before you light any cigarettes,
is you say these words first.
Are you capable of doing that?
- Yes.
- Do you deserve better than what cigarettes
are doing for you?
- Yes.
- Can you say these words before you light a cigarette?
- Yes.
- Will you read the notes over before I talk to you
for the next session?
- Yes.
- Do you have any questions?
- No.
Okay, I'm honestly very overwhelmed
because what he said, it was things that
I usually just tell myself I just didn't believe it,
I didn't want to push myself.
Even though they already say smoking kills,
it's not resonating as much as
remembering all the things that means a lot to you.
Maybe I'm not gonna stop,
but I think these words kind of do a lot a change.
I think constantly my mind's gonna remember
that I have the freedom to do it,
but I decide not to.
I'm excited to see what,
if this is the first session,
what is it gonna be the second and the third session?
- [Rocky] Hi Amro, how are you doin' man?
- I'm good how are you?
I'm in the middle of the session right now,
and he asked me to go and have my last cigarette.
It's a goodbye kiss to an abusive relationship.
So I'm having my last one to
thanks for ruining my 13 past, my 13 years of life,
and I'm gonna read the words,
and have my last one.
Um, day one and I didn't wake up at four a.m.
Because of coughing.
This is the first night I just slept
throughout the night and I just woke up.
I guess this is working.
So I'm at my friend's.
He's having a little house party.
I want to smoke so bad.
Everyone I know is on the balcony right now smoking.
But right now I'm just hiding in the bathroom.
Oh my god this is a lot harder than I thought.
Okay, this is crazy.
I almost smoked a cigarette right now by accident.
I literally forgot.
Rocky told me to keep a pack in my pocket all the time,
so I pulled my pack.
I literally pulled it and put it in my lips
and I'm like okay hold up.
I don't know, I put it back,
and I start reading the things that I have to read.
I'm a nicotine addict.
I want to smoke.
I can smoke.
I don't have to stop.
Think about your benefits.
It helped me to kind of like calm down,
but I'm just glad that I stopped.
That was a very very very close call.
Here we are, it been two weeks,
and I haven't smoked a cigarette, and I'm very proud.
I really wanted to quit smoking.
Even when I started the process,
whenever I would have these sessions with him,
I would always say to myself this is not gonna happen,
this is not gonna happen, this is not gonna happen.
Eventually I got to the point where I'm like
I'm gonna do this, I have to do it
just to see what is the difference.
The first four days I think were the hardest.
After two weeks of non smoking,
I literally feel my body has cleared up.
I was able to kind of think about cigarettes
whenever I have the thought, I still have the urges,
I wanted to smoke, but something in me
just didn't want to, and I think I just want to
see the difference.
I just wanted to see what would happen if I didn't smoke.
He made me think of it, just give yourself a chance.
Give yourself one chance to see
what would happen to your body,
and I think I just took it to,
okay just let me see,
and I think the benefits from the first night
from not smoking, literally made me convinced
that like why do it.
I think sometimes we don't give ourselves credit
to, we don't believe in ourselves,
and sometimes we just need to remind ourself
that we have it.
We have it all, it's all in our head.
We are so powerful and I think we just need to believe that.
(soft music)