Tips and Advice

Almost everyone who smokes understands the serious health consequences involved, and how addictive the habit is. A sign of the powerful nature of a cigarette addiction is that almost all smokers, when you ask them, say they would like to quit smoking. And yet, of course, they continue to smoke. To quit smoking is a difficult thing and a serious undertaking. With the exception of a few lucky people, to quit smoking requires a multi-faceted plan and mental dedication. One of the hardest things that people run into when they try to quit smoking is being able to summon the willpower to stay smoke free, especially when around other smokers or in situations that they associate with smoking.

When you first quit smoking you should do your best to avoid prolonged social situations where you can smoke and are surrounded by smokers. Inevitably, though, a time will come where you will be tested. Every ex-smoker’s fear is the first time you are offered a cigarette or drag by an unaware friend. One of the best willpower ticks to deal with this is to think of yourself as a non-smoker. So as soon as you quit – even if you only quit yesterday – define yourself as a non-smoker. When someone offers you a cigarette, you should be able to easily say “no thanks, I don’t smoke.” In a similar way, when you find yourself craving a cigarette, think to yourself “why do I want a cigarette? I don’t smoke.”

Although this trick may seem a little silly, it can work wonders. The reason it is effective is because a smoking addiction has a serious psychological component, and if you’ve smoked for many years a large part of how you define yourself is through smoking. You think of yourself as a “smoker” even after you’ve quit. If you don’t employ some mental tricks to try and break this habit, you’ll find a return to cigarettes much more tempting and logical – if deep down you’re still thinking of yourself as a smoker, then it will entirely make sense to you that you occasionally crave, or even have, a cigarette.

Mental tricks like this are important in maintaining your willpower when trying to quit smoking. Unlike like a chemical addiction to an illegal substance, or one that is socially unacceptable, a smoking addiction is very difficult to break because you are being constantly tempted: you see smoking ads in magazines and people smoking in the movies. When you go out to a bar or restaurant there will be people smoking.

As a smoker who is trying to quit, you will be faced with these sorts of temptations each and every day, and it is imperative that you come up with a mental strategy for dealing with them. One of the most effective mental tricks in your arsenal should, therefore, be the idea that you become an instant non-smoker the minute you butt out your last cigarette. This will do wonders for you willpower, and greatly increase you overall chances for success in your attempt to quit smoking.

Almost every smoker reaches a point with their addiction where they want to quit, and for most them is a very difficult task. Although people tend not to think of it this way, an attempt to quit smoking is an attempt to break an extremely serious addiction – in some studies nicotine is shown to be as addictive as cocaine. It is important therefore, that you provide yourself with as much support as possible when you attempt to quit smoking: when you first quit, you shouldn’t hesitate to tell people.

A lot of people, when they first attempt to quit smoking, have a tendency not to tell the people around them. There are a few reasons for this: in some cases, the ex-smoker feels that they will be putting pressure on their friends, especially those friends who smoke, or trying to make them feel guiltily; in other cases the ex-smoker will keep the quitting attempt to his or herself because of a subconscious fear of failure – if no one knows you tried to quit, then no one will know if the attempt failed.

If you don’t tell anyone that you’ve quit smoking, you’re leaving yourself completely alone with no support group. Most people will find that if they make a point of telling their friends and associates that they’ve quit smoking, they’ll be rewarded with instant support. At times of weakness, your friends are going to step in and make sure you don’t smoke in front of them.

As an added bonus, smoking friends that you have are probably going to be very interested in your attempt – after all, all smokers want to quite on some level. Your smoking friends will show interest in your progress and techniques, which will give you an opportunity for some positive reinforcement – a chance to remind yourself that what you’re trying to do is a good thing, and that you are doing well.

Anyone who is a true friend will neither offer you cigarettes nor allow you to smoke in front of them. This support system is crucial when you attempt something drastic like trying to quit smoking. Many people, out of a sense of stubbornness, have a tendency to want to “go it alone” when they try and quit smoking. For one reason or another a lot of people don’t like the idea of needing help (this is the same logic, of course, that leads many smokers to say things like “I could quit whenever I want to – I just don’t want to now.”) In order to be successful in your attempt to quit smoking, though, you will need help, and there is absolutely no shame in seeking support from your friends.

Rather than keeping it under wraps, every smoker who’s trying to quit should inform all of their friends, and ask them to support him or her if they see a lapse. With a group of friends watching out for you, your attempt to quit smoking will have a much higher chance of success, and may even lead to some of your friends trying to quit as well.

Nicotine, as most people know, is a drug with highly addictive properties. It takes very little time for the body to get addicted to it, and the addiction is very difficult break, as any smoker will tell you. For this reason alone it can be very difficult to quit smoking, but to complicate matters, smoking also has a social element that other addictions lack. Because smoking is both legal and in many situations socially acceptable, it is an extremely hard thing to get away from completely, and many smokers have a very difficult time trying to quit smoking.

One of the reasons that quitting smoking is such a difficult task is that many studies show that the average smoker requires multiple attempts before they quit for good. Almost any smoker will tell you of times where they’ve quit for a period before taking the habit up again. Usually there is an excuse associated with beginning again: “I quit for 3 months” the smoker will say “but then I broke up with my girlfriend and started again.”

The problem is that when you try and quit smoking, you are playing with your own sense of self-esteem. When you honestly say to yourself that you want to quit, and then you fail, it’s hard not to think of yourself as a failure, and that much harder to try quitting again. This is why it’s extremely important that you don’t give up if you have a lapse while trying to quit smoking. Remind yourself that this is normal – that this is nothing to be ashamed of – and immediately try to quit again.

You do, however, have to be somewhat careful with this concept: taken to its extreme, it becomes easy to justify a lapse in your non-smoking whenever you choose. Be careful, therefore, to avoid this line of thinking: “all smokers need a few tries to quit, so I should start again now because I really want to.”

Instead, you have to strike the right balance between understanding that a lapse in your attempt to quit smoking is all too common, while at the same time doing everything in your power to avoid this. You should never, ever, think of a lapse as part of the overall plan: don’t think when you quit smoking that you’re just going to quit “for a little while.”

If and when you do break down and have a drag or a cigarette after you’ve quit, don’t give up, and make sure that you immediately quit again. Far too many smokers quit for some time, have a bad night where they smoke some cigarettes, and then give up completely and start smoking again in earnest. Instead, if you lapse, remind yourself that it is normal, and is not an indication of overall failure. Stick with your plan to quit smoking, and most importantly: you should still think of yourself as non-smoker.

By understanding that an attempt to quit smoking is a long term process that requires a healthy dose of stick-to-itiveness, your chances for success are raised considerably.

One of the reasons that quitting smoking seems like such a daunting task, is that for many smokers it requires that the smoker makes some lifestyle changes. Smoking, unlike many other types of addiction, is both legal and in many cases socially acceptable, and for that reason quitting smoking requires a tremendous amount of willpower.

Unless you are one of the rare, lucky smokers who are able to quit with relative ease, it’s not always a good idea to rely on your willpower alone. Putting too much faith in your willpower is going to place you in many situations where you’re facing a lot of temptation, and if you give in to this temptation it will be hard to try to quit smoking again: once you lapse in your attempt to quit smoking it affects your self-esteem and ability to try again.

It is for these reasons that it’s important you help yourself by making some lifestyle changes when you decide to quit smoking. Especially in the early stages of your attempt, you should avoid social situations that are going to present you with a lot of temptation – don’t hang out in bars with other smokers, for example. It’s also a good idea to try and become more active. Most smokers will notice that when they first try to quit they experience feelings of anxiety and restlessness, and becoming more active is a good way to deal with this.

The changes you should make to your lifestyle when you first quit smoking needn’t be major ones. What you are trying to do is break some of the associations you have with smoking. For many people the most difficult aspect of the smoking addiction is the psychological one – the way in which you’ve incorporated smoking into various aspects of your life. If you’ve been smoking for a long time, it’s likely that there are many situations in which you smoke without even thinking about it: when you’re waiting for a bus, when you’re coffee in the morning, etc.

By changing your lifestyle and beginning to do things that are new and different for you, you will be slowly building a list of activities that you don’t associate with smoking: you will be gradually breaking the psychological addiction. In many ways, when you quit, you can begin to think of a new phase in your life – a “post-smoking” phase, and you can make the transition easier by creating a “post-smoking” lifestyle: one in which you exercise more, and socialize in different ways.

By changing your lifestyle you’ll create a whole new set of associations that have nothing to do with smoking, and as a bonus you’ll begin to feel a lot better. Exercising more will make you not only look better but feel better as well, and will provide you with some concrete merits to being smoke free.

No one wants to lose their friends, or completely change their lifestyle, and by no means does quitting smoking require this. Making a few small changes in your habits, however, will greatly increase your chances of success.

Smoking is a highly additive habit, and most people who smoke find it very difficult to quit. The reason that it is so difficult to quit smoking is that the addiction is multifaceted: not only is there a physical addiction to the nicotine, but there is also a strong psychological component to the addiction as cigarettes are both legal and in many situations socially acceptable.

One of the greatest indicators as to weather your attempt to quit smoking will be successful is how mentally prepared you are. You have to truly want to quit in order to be successful, and if you try to quit without this mindset it is unlikely that it will work. A good way to motivate yourself – to get yourself to a point where you really and truly want to quit smoking – is to think of the health risks involved, and the many benefits of quitting.

The health risks associated with smoking are well known, but if you are trying to quit it is a good idea to revisit them. By smoking, you greatly increase your chances of lung cancer and heart disease. As well as the increased risk of a premature death, you will also, as a smoker, be plagued with breathing difficulties. Another thing you should consider is that as a smoker you are putting others at risk through second hand smoke. It is a well known fact that second hand smoke can be very detrimental to the health of your loved ones, especially over the long term.

Now, if you smoke there a good chance you’re aware of these factors, and the knowledge can be fairly sobering. All is not lost, however, and in order to motive yourself to quit your should think about the immediate benefits involved if you stop. Almost instantly you’ll notice that your sense of smell will improve. Smell plays a crucial role in the taste of food, and therefore your taste sensation will improve considerably, and you will find yourself enjoying food more.

Also consider the money that you will save. Depending on where you live, cigarettes can be very expensive, and the general trend is that the price will continue to increase in the future. Even a fairly generous assumption of $5 a pack means that if you quit a pack a day habit you will save almost $2000 in the first year. A great technique to motive yourself when you first stop smoking is to put the money you would spend every day on cigarettes into a jar, where you can see it steadily accumulate: even after the first week you’ll have $35 – enough to treat yourself to a nice meal.

By constantly reminding yourself of the benefits of quitting smoking you give yourself an important mental motivator: think of not only your own health benefits, but those of the people around you who suffer from second hand smoke. Add to this the amount of money you’ll be saving, and it becomes hard to justify a smoking habit. Quitting smoking is a win-win situation, and thinking of it in this way will provide you with an important mental weapon in your attempt to quit.

Nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known. Study after study shows that one can get addicted to nicotine as quickly as cocaine and other illegal drugs that we generally associate with crippling addictions. It is for this reason, of course, that is can be so difficult to quit smoking. One top of this physical addiction – that is, the body’s craving of nicotine – there is a psychological component: because smoking is both legal and socially acceptable in many situations, it can be difficult to avoid it completely. Any attempt to quit smoking, therefore, should involve a comprehensive plan that deals with both the physical and psychological side of the addiction. One way to address the physical addition to nicotine, to leave yourself free to concentrate on the psychological aspects of your addiction, is to use a nicotine patch.

The nicotine patch is one of the oldest, and certainly best-known, medical aids to quitting smoking. Patches are placed on the skin, and work by releasing a slow and steady supply of nicotine into the bloodstream. The idea is that the patch helps wean your body off nicotine – instead of nicotine being immediately absent from your system when you quit smoking, it is gradually reduced.

The way the patch works is to break your body’s desire for nicotine “spikes.” When you smoke a cigarette, your body receives an immidiete spike in its nicotine levels. As the level of nicotine slowly dissipates after the spike, it will eventually drop to a point where you desire to have it “topped up” again – the need for another cigarette. If you picture a graph of your body’s nicotine levels when you smoke, you would see a steady series of peaks and valleys – the peaks corresponding to the spike in nicotine levels when you smoke a cigarette. A graph of your nicotine levels when wearing the patch, on the other hand, would show a steady line: the line wouldn’t be as high as your peaks, but it wouldn’t be as low as your valleys either. The idea is that the patch goes for the middle ground, and your body slowly adjusts to not having spikes in its nicotine levels.

As you become more and more used to lower levels of nicotine in your system, you can reduce the dosage of the patches you wear, until eventually your body is nicotine free. Another good thing about the patch is that it is an extremely strong deterrent against smoking: if you smoke while you’re on the patch, your levels of nicotine will become too high and you could suffer from a nicotine overdose, which can result in sickness and even death.

The patch is a very effective stop smoking aid. It does, however, have some disadvantages: it is fairly expensive, and at the early stages of quitting it can often cost more than cigarettes did. The patch can also cause problems with sleeping if you wear it to bed – and at the same time if you don’t you will wake up with no nicotine in your system, and feel pretty bad until you put on a morning patch and it starts working. Despite these drawbacks, the patch remains the medical aid of choice for people dealing with serious nicotine addictions.

In general, an addiction to smoking can be a very difficult one to overcome. Depending on how long you’ve smoked, how much you smoke, and genetic factors, you may find it extremely difficult to quit smoking. It is a well known fact the genetic factors are at play and determine how susceptible someone is to a nicotine addiction, and for this reason some people need more than their will power to quit smoking. There are medical aids to quit smoking that help address the body’s dependence on nicotine, leaving you to concentrate your will power on other aspects of the addiction: namely, the social associations you likely have with smoking.

For many years the standard medical stop-smoking aid was the nicotine patch, which is attached to the skin and releases a steady supply of nicotine to the bloodstream. Fairly recently, though, another approach has become popular: the use of the drug Zyban (bupropion hydrochloride.)

Zyban’s development as an anti-smoking aid is a curious one: it was originally designed as an anti-depressant, and during clinical trials of the drug is was discovered that as a side effect, many smokers participating in the trails lost interest in cigarettes and found it very easy to quit. Further research revealed that the drug was an effective stop-smoking aid, and it was approved for use as such in 1997 by the FDA.

Zyban works in a completely different way from the nicotine patch. Instead of supplying nicotine to the bloodstream, Zyban alters brain chemistry in such a way that the desire for smoking is greatly reduced – many people find that cigarettes simply become unappealing after taking the drug. At no point does Zyban supply or regulate nicotine in the bloodstream.

To work effectively, Zyban is usually taken a few weeks before you actually stop smoking. Like all anti-depressants, it takes time for its effects to manifest. Once you’ve been taking the drug for some time, you stop smoking, and if all goes well you’ll find the process much easier than an unaided attempt.

It is important to keep in mind, however, that Zyban is a prescription drug that alters brain chemistry – in fact researchers are not even exactly sure how it works, only that it does for many people. Naturally, you doctor will be consulted in your decision to take Zyban, and it is crucial that Zyban is not taken in combination with other drugs. Make sure you talk to your doctor about the possible side effects of using Zyban to quit smoking: some common side effects include insomnia, dizziness, and dry mouth. In rarer cases, more serious side effects like seizures can occur. You must also discuss with your doctor the situations in which Zyban should not be taken, like if you are abruptly stopping the use of alcohol, or have a history of seizures.

While Zyban should be approached with some caution, as long as it is properly discussed with your doctor, it can be a very effective aid in your battle to quit smoking.

An addiction to nicotine is a serious one indeed. Many studies have shown that it is one of the most addictive substances known, and most people will gain a dependency to it soon after they start smoking regularly. When you smoke a cigarette, you body receives an instant rush of nicotine – there is a spike in your nicotine levels which slowly dissipates, and when your nicotine levels drop below a certain point you will crave another spike, in the form of another cigarette.

As a smoker, part of your body’s physical addition to nicotine has to do with relieving it in these “hits,” and it is for this reason that an attempt to quit smoking can be so difficult. The most important thing in any attempt to quit smoking is willpower, and the chances that you will succeed in staying smoke free without the use of willpower are extremely slim. In same cases, however, you can benefit from using a medical aid in addition to your willpower. The most common and well known aids to quitting smoking are those that supply and regulate nicotine in the bloodstream.

A popular choice is nicotine gum. This is gum that resembles ordinary chewing gum, but of course it contains nicotine. The reason nicotine gum can be effective is because is can replicate nicotine spikes in your bloodstream without the need for cigarettes. The problem that some people run into with the nicotine patch – the other popular nicotine supplier – is that a nicotine patch supplies a steady amount of nicotine into your bloodstream. There is no spike, or “hit”, with a patch, and for this reason some people still find themselves craving cigarettes when they use the patch: even though the body is receiving nicotine, it desires the hit that the cigarette provides.

With nicotine gum, you can attempt to replicate this hit without a cigarette. The gum is not chewed like normal gum — rather you hold in your mouth without chewing it for long periods of time, and then give it a few chews when you want a release of nicotine, much as you would take a drag on a cigarette for a quick nicotine hit. A typical guideline for nicotine gum would be to chew it 3-4 times, until you feel a tingling sensation, at which point you should flatten it and place it between your cheek and gum. Repeat the brief chewing process at occasional intervals as necessary. Under no circumstances should nicotine gum be chewed like ordinary gum, as too much nicotine will be released into your bloodstream.

Nicotine Gum comes in 2mg and 4mg strengths (the 4mg is recommended if you smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day.) It is recommended that you use the gum every 1-2 hours throughout the day, for a period of up to 3 months. The only drawback of nicotine gum is that you cannot drink anything except water for 15 minutes before and during chewing. For this reason nicotine gum isn’t helpful at a bar, which is where many ex-smokers need the most help. Despite this, nicotine gum can be an effective tool — when combined with your willpower — in an attempt to quit smoking.

Millions of people smoke, and to many, particularly those that have been smoking for some time, the prospect of quitting seems daunting. An addiction to nicotine is a serious one, and is multifaceted: there is a physical component, in that your body craves the nicotine the cigarettes contain, and a psychological one, in that many habits and situations become associated with cigarettes for the smoker. For these reasons it is important that you come up with a plan of attack in order to quit smoking: although the cold-turkey technique works for some people, the vast majority of smokers will have success only with a more comprehensive plan.

When you first consider the prospect of quitting smoking, it’s probably going to seem far fetched, but keep in mind that thousands of people – people that are no different from you – quit smoking every year. If they can do it, there’s no reason that you can’t. Many smokers also feel that after a certain age it is “too-late” to quit smoking. Simply put, this isn’t true, and should not be used as an excuse to avoid an attempt to quit smoking: the health benefits of quitting smoking begin the very day you stop.

Before you actually have your last cigarette, begin to build up your willpower. Your willpower is going to be your most important tool in quitting, and it’s very unlikely that you will be successful without it. Spend some time thinking of the reasons you want to quit smoking. Learn about the health benefits of quitting, for both yourself and the people around you. Do some math and come up with some figures for the amount of money you’ll save by not buying cigarettes, and think of something you’ll use that money for.

Once you’ve built up your willpower, it’s time to have your last cigarette. To keep your spirits up, understand that the human body is incredibly resilient, and your health will improve as soon as you stop smoking – literally. 8 hours after your last cigarette, carbon monoxide levels and oxygen levels in your blood stream will return to normal. At 24 hours after your last cigarette, you statistically reduce your chance of a heart attack. Only 48 hours after your last cigarette, your sense of taste and smell will improve as your nerve endings start growing.

As you continue to stay smoke free, think of the longer-term benefits to quitting in order to keep your willpower up: even after 2 weeks your lung power will begin to increase, and continue to do so over time. Other aspects of your health will continue to improve in various ways. The ultimate motivator should be the knowledge that 15 years after quitting, your risk of death is almost the same as someone who has never smoked – a remarkable fact that illustrates our the human body’s surprising ability to restore itself.

By coming up with a concrete plan to quit smoking you will greatly increase your chances of success. Crucial is understanding the important role that your willpower will play in the process, and planning to build up this willpower weeks before you attempt to quit. Once you’ve stopped you have to keep the strength of this willpower up, and to do so, remind yourself of the health benefits you will be privy to immediately after butting out that last cigarette.