Methods To Quit Smoking

Nicotine is a powerful drug that is contained in tobacco. When you smoke, your body builds up a nicotine tolerance level. When your nicotine level drops below your tolerance level, you will want to smoke because your body starts to crave nicotine.

There are many effects of nicotine. Nicotine makes you feel stimulated, energized and it also can calm you down. This might confuse some as the feelings noted are opposites of each other. However, you can change the affect on your body by the way you drag on a cigarette. If you feel hungry, you can smoke to make you feel full. Smoking is a good way to stop hunger cravings.

This is why some people gain weight when they quit smoking. When you feel angry, smoking can soothe you and calm you down. Smoking has even been known to relieve physical pain. Some people use food as a reward and some people use smoking to reward themselves for an achievement. From what we’ve talked about, smoking sounds like some sort of miracle cure.

The reason why nicotine works so well is because of how fast it travels to your brain through your blood stream. With one drag of your cigarette, the smoke fills your lungs and is absorbed into your blood stream. The nicotine travels to your brain and will fulfill the feeling that you seek. However, when you smoke your heart start working faster and your arteries constrict.

Nicotine is so powerful that it controls lives. If you doubt that control, think about how you may have gone out in a snowstorm or torrential rain to get cigarettes because you were running out. Or maybe you continued to smoke when you had bronchitis so bad, you thought you would choke. Have you planned activities or travel around smoking? Maybe you chose a gambling vacation over a trip to visit museums and historical sites where smoking is not allowed.

Now that you know how powerful nicotine is, you can start to learn how to quit smoking. Quitting cold turkey is very hard and you will experience nicotine withdrawal. Nicotine therapy is the way quit smoking as quitting cold turkey will cause you to start smoking again. Many people deal with nicotine withdrawal by keeping themselves busy by finding healthy alternatives to smoking.

Everyone wants to quit smoking but only a few are determined to actually do something serious about it. The ability to cease your nicotine addiction is directly reflected in your laziness and ambitions. In order to stop smoking cigarettes you have to make a commitment; you have to put an end to your old way of life and start another, a tobacco free and healthy existence.

Smoking cessation is a process that totally depends upon your will, your character and attitude. You have to make commitments when you are striving to obtain things in life. Overcoming nicotine dependence means that you want a better health and you aim at changing something directly in what you do on a daily basis. Most of the people that smoke are unhappy and they think that cigarettes are going to help them in a way or another. Oh boy ” they are so wrong!

When quitting smoking, one of the most important things to realize is that it’s not going to be easy. Trying to get rid of this habit is like a real fight. There is no perfect smoking cessation program. You can’t get out of a real fight without any scratches. Your chances to overcome smoking will constantly grow as you realize that your success totally depends on your will to continue fighting.

Smoking cessation might seem an extremely complicated process if you are too worried about it. Don’t! Just do what you have to do and sooner or later the results are going to show up. However, don’t expect quitting smoking to be an easy task if all you do is staying at home and doing nothing all day long. Having a busy schedule might protect you from thinking about cigarettes.

Psychologists claim that getting involved a little bit into studying death statistics strictly related to smoking and cancer can inspire a lot of people to put a final stop to this addiction and start a new life. When we are young and strong we think that nothing can harm us but when we stumble upon the first serious health problems in life we realize that we are nothing but mortals.

Smoking is horrible. It is one of those so called pleasures that actually kills without looking back, without making the difference between good and bad people. Cancer, as probably most of you people know, is the most wide spread manifestation of smoking related diseases. The famous Im sorry phrase that doctors tell you when they spot this infection in your body is the beginning of the end. You dont want that to happen. Well, for that not becoming a reality you have to work on your attitude. You have to take action.

We are trying to convince as many people as possible to quit smoking. Take into consideration that this is not an easy task. However, dont panic if you are one of those persons that simply cant make it. You have to start thinking positively. You must believe in your success. Exclude all the possible failure options from your head and you are going to have results. This method is based on psychological determination and helped thousand of people all over the world.

The necessary attitude that ones needs to have in order to quit smoking is based upon realizing that things have to be changed in life and that we have to learn how to adapt to different realities and situations. Giving up and not succeeding should be eliminated as a possible option in your way to actually achieve your goal. If you want to have results, you will get them but you have to work hard, you have to fight your addiction each and every second.

How to quit smoking? This is a difficult answer for most. Quitting smoking is a step by step process and you need to start from the basics. Tobacco contains an addictive substance called nicotine. When you smoke for a long amount of time, your body gets accustomed to a certain amount of nicotine in your bloodstream. Once this level drops below your threshold, your body goes into a “craving mode” and you will want to smoke another cigarette.

Nicotine affects the body in many ways and will fulfill many of your bodies needs. Smoking will calm you down when you feel angry. People can relieve chronic stress from work by smoking. Smoking also can relieve physical and emotional pain.

This is why some people gain weight when they quit smoking. When you feel angry, smoking can soothe you and calm you down. Smoking has even been known to relieve physical pain. Some people use food as a reward and some people use smoking to reward themselves for an achievement. From what we’ve talked about, smoking sounds like some sort of miracle cure.

The reason why you might feel all of these feeling are because nicotine can travel to your brain at a rapid rate. Even from one puff of smoke, you chemicals that are released into your blood stream will activate your brain to give you the effect that you want. However, there are harmful effects to smoking. Your heart is working harder, your blood pressure increase and your arteries constrict. Once you become dependent on this drug, you will smoke more and more to get the feeling that you desire.

Nicotine is so powerful that it controls lives. If you doubt that control, think about how you may have gone out in a snowstorm or torrential rain to get cigarettes because you were running out. Or maybe you continued to smoke when you had bronchitis so bad, you thought you would choke. Have you planned activities or travel around smoking? Maybe you chose a gambling vacation over a trip to visit museums and historical sites where smoking is not allowed.

Once you know how powerful nicotine is, your resolve to quit smoking can be just as powerful. If you decide to quit “cold turkey”, you may experience nicotine withdrawal. Research has shown that if you quit smoking completely and do not use nicotine replacement therapy, the nicotine will be excreted from your body within 72 hours. Many people deal with the nicotine withdrawal by keeping themselves busy, taking a drink of water, doing deep breathing – finding healthy alternatives to smoking.

Being a smoker is more fun. This widespread myth has now been busted by British scientists. The survey, which included 880 ex-smokers, showed that roughly 70% of the ex-smokers found themselves to be happier after the smoking cessation. The fear of losing life quality is why many smokers don’t want to quit smoking, but after the initial difficult time with withdrawal symptoms, it seems that life a a non smoker by no means is worse than life as a smoker. Quite the opposite actually, a study shows, which was recently published in the journal “Nicotine & Tobacco Research”. No ex-smokers regrets having stopped smoking, but what is important is to “survive” the first difficult time with withdrawal symptoms.

Out of the 879 ex-smokers, who took part in the survey, almost 70% felt that they were happiers after they had quit smoking. Less than 4% were less happy and about 26% felt no change in their mood.

The findings corresponds well with my own experience: people don’t regret that they have stopped smoking, rather they regret that they started.

Quitting smoking might prolong your life, but loss of life quality is inevitable – at least this is a common myth. Rather, ex-smokers actually can have the cake AND eat it too: quitting smoking boosts self confidence and mental energy, and the ex-smokers receives wirespread recognition for their achievement. Ex-smokers are on the winning team.

Focus on life quality rather than health

Instead of focusing on all the harmful consequences of smoking, moving the focus on the positive aspects of a smoking cessation is by far the most efficient method, when trying to motivate people to quit smoking. Fear and condemnation does not motivate.

Instead, we are developing new methods in which we dont to focus on diseases and health, but rather on the improved life quality, which freedom from smoke brings. The methods were developed from experiments with advice on smoking cessation for cancer patients. They were excited, partly because they felt that with a smoking cessation they themselves made a difference. Rather than being part of the problem, they were now part of the solution instead.

Better in time

The increased satisfaction is more pronounced, the longer the time that has passed since they stopped smoking. But even with ex-smokers, where the smoking stop was quite new, it was still the majority who feel happier now. Younger ex-smokers was more excited after their cessation than older people. However it did not matter whether they were heavy smokers or only smoked a few cigarettes a day.

The subsequent methodologies include several of those very popular with ex-smokers.

Remember that winning schemes are as diverse as the people who use them.

What may seem ridiculous to others may be just what you require to quit – so don’t be awkward to test something new-fangled.

These methods can make your own personal attempts a little more uncomplicated.

Single out the thoughts that make sense to you – whether it be a quit smoking pill like Chantix, quit smoking hypnosis or something else. And then follow through – you’ll have a much better chance of triumph.

PREPARING YOURSELF FOR STOPPING SMOKING…

Make your mind up that you want to stop smoking. Try to steer clear of disapproving thoughts about how grueling it might be.

Begin to condition yourself physically: Start a modest exercise program; drink more fluids; get plenty of rest; and avoid fatigue.

List all the grounds for why you want to quit smoking. Each late afternoon before going to sleep, review one of the motives 10 times.

Grow robust personal causes in regards to your health and obligations to others. For instance, imagine of all the time you throw away taking cigarette breaks, hastening out to get a pack, searxching for a light, etc.

Set a target date for quitting – perhaps a special day such as your birthday, your anniversary, or the Great American Smokeout. If you smoke heavily at work, stop smoking during your vacation so that you’re already committed to quitting when you return. Make the date sacred, and don’t let anything change it. This will make it easy for you to keep track of the day you became a nonsmoker and to celebrate that date every year.

KNOWING WHAT TO EXPECT…

Have realistic expectations – quitting isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible either. More than 3 million Americans quit smoking every year.

Understand that withdrawal symptoms are TEMPORARY. They usually last only 1-2 weeks.

Know that most relapses occur in the first week after quitting, when withdrawal symptoms are strongest and your body is still dependent on nicotine. Be aware that this will be your hardest time, and use all your personal resources – willpower, family, friends, and the tips in this booklet – to get you through this critical period successfully.

Know that most other relapses occur in the first 3 months after quitting, with situational triggers – such as a particularly stressful event – occur unexpectedly. These are the times when people reach for cigarettes automatically, because they associate smoking with relaxing. This is the kind of situation that’s hard to prepare yourself for until it happens, so it’s especially important to recognize it if it does happen. Remember that smoking is a habit, but a habit you can break.

Realize that most successful ex-smokers quit for good only after several attempts. You may be one of those who can stop smoking your first try. But if you’re not, DON’T GIVE UP. Try again.

The dependency on nicotine is the chief problem for people who want to stop smoking without using nicotine replacement (NRT). Mark Twain did not know that he had a nicotine addiction by he was cheeky enough to say that it was easy to stop smoking as he had done it a thousand times. Smokers are able to find a large amount of self help material, they can use drugs or NRT to try and stop, but no matter what you try, it is just not a simple thing to do.

And we do not all have the willpower of General De Gaulle who was a heavy smoker. He just realized one day that the cigarettes were controlling him, and not the other way around, so he just stopped! But we are not all made of the same stuff. Physical, psychological and emotional addictions are very difficult to control and changing the way we do things is also not easy, particularly if we still want to be around others who smoke. You can’t all of a sudden stop being friends with smokers because they smoke and you don’t want to.

What seems to be working very well is the free telephone counseling some states in the US have started. Counseling is a far better alternative to nicotine replacement therapy and has actually proven to be working. Findings have shown that with this kind of support, smokers are twice as likely to stop.

As nicotine is such a difficult drug to give up, in order to be successful it is not only about the smoker. It is about the kind of support and encouragement they receive from others. This includes counselors, friends, family and the people they work with, all of these people play a role in the support team of someone trying to quit smoking. We often hear ex-smokers say that they would never have been able to quit if it was not for the support they were given.

Information for the smoker who wants to stop is available from many resources. Health insurance companies, your local gym, hospitals, support groups and even your employer. However these just make some of the resources available, and the most efficient assistance does come from a trained counselor.

Counseling may be undertaken on an individual or group basis, and even over the telephone it has its merits. Because counselors are trained to help the smoker deal with the physical and emotional side of giving up this addiction, their assistance it so much more valuable, and much more than just a shoulder to cry on, it is also about understanding the withdrawal.

The thing to remember is that once you stop smoking, the nicotine remains in the body for as long as three to four days and it is when this period is over that the withdrawal symptoms begin to manifest. These are liable to last just a couple of days or in some instances even weeks. It is this time when the support is needed most so that the smoker has someone to turn to rather than back to the cigarettes.

Counseling is far more effective than NRT, because with NRT you are still putting this addictive drug into your body. You don’t need to do this, nor do you have to use other dangerous drugs if you have the right people on your side in your quest to stop smoking. Medical research has shown that individuals who receive counseling are 4 times more likely succeed than by using any other method to quit smoking.