I'm sitting staring at the computer screen, unable to think about anything other than a cigarette. The words of hypnotist Andrew Hill are echoing around my head. "Whenever you feel like you need a cigarette," he said, "do something to take the thought out of your mind. "That's pretty difficult when you're half way through an article about the blasted things.

I started smoking at university and have wanted to give up pretty much ever since. I've tried many times, once giving up for nine days, but it's easy for non-smokers to underestimate just how addictive tobacco is. My happy-go-lucky outlook on life becomes a dour, depressing existence where my one means of easing all the stress and tension has been cruelly snatched away. That's how it seems anyway, so when Andrew Hill offered me the chance to undergo hypnosis to beat the weed I jumped at it.

After explaining what he is going to do, Andrew sits me down in a comfortable leather chair in his Dean Street office. The lights are dimmed and a single candle is lit, while some relaxing oriental music plays in the background. The idea is to stare at the candle and relax. Despite being a bit cynical about these things, I soon drifted off into a state somewhere between sleep and consciousness.

Andrew, talking in a deep slow voice, filled my head with how I didn't need to smoke and cigarettes aren't very pleasant anyway. But has it made any difference? Well, it's now 3.20pm and I would usually have put away five or six Marlboro Lights by now, and I've not had a single one. And I can't tell you that I really want one, despite having thought of nothing else for the past hour I've been writing this feature. I don't know if it will work in the long term but it seems that something has certainly changed. Let's see what happens in the pub tonight.