Heh. Close to home on this topic, lol.
There are certain regulations that affect what you can do with television, and how you can't you overtly hypnotic patterns.


And, you are striking at the very core of "The problem" without hitting the key.

On another level, anybody can enact change to their lives if they put
their minds to it, just as anybody can let another amnipulate them if
they set their minds to it. When it comes to shedding habits, you
just need to quit being stubborn, quit making excuses, quit succumbing
to your cravings and habits, etc.

It is true that anyone at any point can enact change in their lives. People do it all the time. What prevents someone from doing so is that the current status quo provides them with value greater than the "improvement."(often from a very fucked up justification)

In addictions like smoking, it's a chemical mechanism that hold the person in the pattern. That chemical mechanism is pretty much gone after 72 hours. The main reason most people keep smoking is the mass hysteria belief that "Quitting is Hard." You'll notice that the people who push that message the most are the people who benefit from quitting being hard (the state, the tobacco companies)

In negative behavior patterns, it's usually a misunderstanding of a situation from a child's perspective that affects the adult's encounters with similar situations.

Like how perfectly friendly dog who as A puppy was abused by a tall man with blond hair and glasses will react with excessive aggression to any tall blond bespectacled man.

Or, how a young child will (irrationally) blame themselves for the divorce of their parents as a way of affirming their importance and influence over the dissolving parental unit. In adulthood they know that the divorce was not their fault, but the conclusion that they drew still gives them that power, and they hold on to it, in spite of the consequences.

Cognitive Behavioral therapy addresses these sub conscious "fucked up justifications" via the conscious mind. Helping the adult mind diffuse the childhood mind conclusion that it was their fault, and realize that their parents still loved them, etc etc etc. A good hypnotherapist should approach the problem in a similar fashion, meerly sidestepping the conscious mind.

In skilled and competent hands, this can be a very good thing.

In an earlier post I was describing how the guy at the plumbing supply store walked me through the whole catalog of parts, even though he knew exactly which one I needed. This set me at ease, and assured me that he was, in fact, giving me the right part. Effectively subduing my natural response of distrusting plumbers and wanting to know for sure on my own.

That process took 10 minutes (for a $0.50 washer), give or take, and is a good allegory for standard CBT. Most of the time is holding the client's hand and assuring them that what the therapist knew was right after the first 10% of interaction (and bilking their insurance for all it's worth).

Hypnosis bypasses that, and it does it under what seems to be a placebo effect. So cool. but also, as you point out, highly risky for quackery.

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