Tips on how to stop smoking

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By admin | Oktober 31, 2009

Nicotine is one of the most addictive, harmful and widely available drugs in the world. Smoking is a bad habit and it is annoying and harmful to people who don’t smoke. Cigarettes are responsible for around 500,000 deaths each year. Quitting smoking is not impossible.

Steps

Get the strong determination to stop smoking. Consider making a list of the reasons you are thinking about quitting to shore up your determination. Specific, current, emotion-based reasons are better than factual, future-based reasons. For instance, “It’s embarrassing to ride the elevator at work smelling like a giant cigarette” is more motivating than “I don’t want to get cancer when I’m 40.”
Choose a specific quit date. Instead of trying to quit each year on your birthday or for your New Year’s Resolution, try quitting on a Monday! That gives you 52 chances in a year instead of just one -– making it more likely that you’ll succeed. The Healthy Monday Campaign, a non-profit national public health campaign associated with the Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, encourages people to quit smoking and take other healthy actions on Mondays.
Between your decision to quit smoking and your “quit date”, do not smoke the same brand. The difference in flavors and chemicals will making smoking less enjoyable, but not intolerable. Switching brands also helps to ‘de-automate’ smoking, which can help you become more conscious of your habit and increase your chances for success.
Remove all tobacco products, like lighters and matches from your home and office. Also, don’t even keep a pack of cigarettes at your home, because it will make it easier to start smoking again.
Find a medication or a doctor to help you quit smoking. Nicotine replacement therapy is one option. Nicotine patches release a steady stream of nicotine into your bloodstream through your skin, and nicotine gum delivers nicotine through the lining in your mouth. Other forms of nicotine replacement therapy include nicotine sprays and inhalers that also work by delivering nicotine to your body. You may also want to try an e-cigarette, which delivers nicotine in vapor form. Alternatively, ask your doctor about prescription medications to help you quit.
Survive the first week. Use a cigarette substitute like mints, sunflower seeds, toothpicks, and coffee stirrers to help you get used to not smoking. When you were smoking, your mind and body became accustomed to the physical act of smoking, holding the cigarette in your hand, and putting it to your lips; using harmless substitutes eases the psychological transition to not smoking.
Get some facts. Look up smoking on the internet and find out the history behind it, and what happens to smokers later on in life. Also, get the facts about any quit-smoking product or technique you are considering, as research shows that some are more effective than others.
Here you can find hypnosis CDs to stop smoking with low effort and biggest success: stop smoking with hypnosis
You can also stop the cravings by doing twenty pushups or something when you have a craving.

Tips

If you really want to quit, but are finding it difficult, self-hypnosis or a hypnotherapist may be able to help. They can help you to override the ‘programming’ in your mind that has formed the habitual desire for a cigarette. For hypnotherapy to work, you have to want to stop smoking; otherwise your habit may come creeping back over time.
Consider whether you also have a psychological addiction to smoking. Most people who have smoked for very long do. If you have ever quit for three days or more, and then gone back to smoking, you are most likely psychologically dependent. Explore psychological/behavioral smoking cessation programs designed to eliminate triggers and urges to smoke.
Don’t be discouraged if you gain a few pounds — exercise can curb the urge to smoke. And what’s a few pounds in the scheme of things? You are saving your skin, teeth, and life by quitting.
Give yourself rewards for milestones (1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month, 3 months, 6 months, etc.). For example, if you smoked 3 packs a week at $4 per pack, after 6 months you would have saved $288, probably even more. Reward yourself with that money.
Pinpoint times, locations, and stresses that trigger an urge to smoke. Think of activities you can occupy yourself with as an alternative.
Tell your friends and family that you’re trying to quit. Find support in those you love the most.
Don’t get discouraged if you “slip” and smoke while trying to quit. Forgive yourself and try again. The key is to not give up, no matter how hard it feels.
When you feel a craving coming on, take several slow, deep breaths until the feeling subsides.
Reduce your caffeine intake. When you cease smoking your body processes caffeine twice as efficiently, resulting in sleepless nights unless your intake is reduced.
Always start your new life with a sense of excitement and enjoyment.
Go online and look up former smokers who haven’t touched a cigarette in years — there are people who haven’t smoked in 50 years or more! You might find inspiration or an online penpal to help you along the way. You can be one of those people who go from an active smoker to a pink-lunged success!
Remember it is the cigarettes you smoked that cause cravings, not those you have abstained from.
An easy thing to do is to replace smocking by drinking water heavily; be careful not to drink too much or it will make your stomach look like a balloon for a few weeks. You may need to stay close to a bathroom. Have a low-calorie mint instead of a dirty, stinky cigarette.

Warnings

Don’t go crazy! You promised yourself you wouldn’t smoke and you need to develop some self control. Some smokers who try to quit end up sucking the nicotine out of their finger nails. You need to look at yourself with a cigarette in your hand. You will never look good no matter how charming you are.
If you are considering using a nicotine replacement therapy (nrt) product like nicotine patches, nicotine gum, or nicotine sprays or inhalers, be warned that they are also addictive, and people sometimes have difficulty getting off of the nrt product after quitting. Sprays and inhalers are particularly addictive, because they deliver the nicotine very quickly. Of the nrts, patches are the least addictive.
Taking any smoking cessation drugs can be dangerous, always seek help from a doctor before taking such drugs.

Article provided by wikiHow, a wiki how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Quit Smoking. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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