So You Want to Stop Smoking - How to Become A Non-Smoker
By Susan Leigh
At one time cigarette smoking was regarded as an important part of looking good. The advertising portrayed people dressing well, living fast elegant lives. Film stars smoked on and offset. Then the health implications became more widely reported and smoking became less acceptable. Let us look at the best ways to understand and move on from a smoking habit.
For many people the original reasons for becoming a smoker have long ago moved out of their mindset. Many people started smoking quite young, often at school. 'Everyone else' smoked and so they wanted to fit in, be accepted as part of a gang, or thought that they would look tougher, more macho if they smoked.
The behaviour stayed long after the gang lost its appeal.
Often people carry on smoking for a whole variety of reasons. Very few actually enjoy the taste of a cigarette and if they think back to their first cigarette often they will say that it made them feel sick, cough, go dizzy. They had to really persevere to become a smoker.
It is generally accepted that there are three parts to smoking; the habit pattern, the addiction to nicotine and the psychological dependancy. In truth our bodies are self healing organisms, so when we take in excess of 4500 chemicals, toxins and pollutants into our bodies they go into overdrive to try to detoxify and clear our bodies of harmful things that should not be there. Our hearts may well have to beat up to an extra 10000 beats each day to clear these pollutants from our blood stream. Our lungs become congested with tar and all the cigarette dust in the air that we breathe in. As a result of this healing reaction nicotine can be out of our bodies and blood stream within two days. Healing the other parts, skin, lungs takes somewhat longer.
The habit pattern is the conditioning that has occurred over time. Reaching for the phone, watching television, relaxing with a drink, after a meal, with friends. These are often the times when people like to feel that they are relaxing with a cigarette. Interesting, when you think what I have described as happening internally in our bodies - it does not sound like a relaxing experience, does it?
The key to breaking a habit pattern is to distract oneself. We can only think of one thing at a time, so find ways to distract your mind. If you were thinking of having a cigarette and an important business client arrived, your mind would instantly focus on the client and forget about the cigarette. This happens several times throughout the day with smokers. They think about a cigarette, something happens and they move on to something different, completely forgetting about the cigarette. Build that distraction into your daily life. Reorganise your routines so that they have no connections with smoking. Do things in a different order, sit in a different chair, change the room around. Also put away all smoking associations, clear away ash trays, clean the car, make all your clothes smell fresh and smoke free.
The psychological aspect of smoking is often the biggest hurdle. Many people fear putting on weight if they stop smoking, or they use it to manage stress or problem situations. It is important to recognise the 'amber lights', the time when stress or pressure is building up, and find better, more appropriate ways of managing those situations. Build regular quality 'me' time into your schedule. Find ways of relaxing, taking a walk, enjoying the fresh air, having a pleasant evening with friends or at home alone and doing nice things that provide a pleasurable break for yourself.
Hypnotherapy is frequently used to reinforce a persons commitment to becoming a non-smoker and find better, healthier ways of achieving a more balanced lifestyle. Overcoming the original reasons for starting to smoke and becoming more positive about the choices that we make that affect our health are all part of the benefits of using hypnotherapy as a treatment option. All these understandings help us to commit to becoming healthier and fitter, free from a damaging, ageing habit that is increasingly unacceptable and anti-social. Ask yourself, 'who is in control of me - me or 3'' of paper with rolled up leaves inside it? '
Susan Leigh is a Counsellor and Hypnotherapist who works with
- stressed individuals to promote confidence and self belief,
- couples in crisis to help improve communications and understanding
- with business clients to help support the health and motivation levels of individuals and teams
For more information see [http://www.lifestyletherapy.net]http://www.lifestyletherapy.net.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Why People Smoke Cigarettes - Five Reasons That Might Surprise You
Cigarette smoking is a personal choice. However, if you are considering stopping smoking, you may already realize that quitting requires more than willpower or scaring yourself with statistics of why smoking is bad.
Conventional smoking cessation systems often don't work in the long term because they do not address the real reasons that people smoke. Listed below are five often unidentified reasons that people smoke. These reasons might surprise you.
Before you engage in your stop smoking process, take some time and identify the important underlying motivations of why you choose to smoke. By understanding those real reasons, you can generate a personalized stop smoking plan that incorporates new strategies of coping and dealing with life.
1. Smoking Is A Lifestyle Coping Tool
For many people, smoking is a reliable lifestyle coping tool. Although every person's specific reasons to smoke are unique, they all share a common theme. Smoking is used as a way to suppress uncomfortable feelings, and smoking is used to alleviate stress, calm nerves, and relax. No wonder that when you are deprived of smoking, your mind and body are unsettled for a little while.
Below is a list of some positive intentions often associated with smoking. Knowing why you smoke is one of the first steps towards quitting. Check any and all that apply to you.
___ Coping with anger, stress, anxiety, tiredness, or sadness
___ Smoking is pleasant and relaxing
___ Smoking is stimulating
___ Acceptance - being part of a group
___ As a way to socialize
___ Provides support when things go wrong
___ A way to look confident and in control
___ Keeps weight down
___ Rebellion - defining self as different or unique from a group
___ A reminder to breathe
___ Something to do with your mouth and hands
___ Shutting out stimuli from the outside world
___ Shutting out emotions from the inside world
___ Something to do just for you and nobody else
___ A way to shift gears or changes states
___ A way to feel confident
___ A way to shut off distressing feelings
___ A way to deal with stress or anxiety
___ A way to get attention
___ Marking the beginning or the end of something
2. Smoking Tranquilizer
The habit of cigarette smoking is often used to tranquilize emotional issues like anxiety, stress, or low self-esteem. In addition, smoking provides comfort to people with conditions of chronic pain and depression. Smokers with emotional stress or chronic pain often turn to smoking as an attempt to treat their pain. For instance, they may use it to reduce anxiety, provide a sense of calmness and energy, and elevate their mood.
Some evidence does suggest that nicotine has some pain-relief benefits. Nicotine releases brain chemicals which soothe pain, heighten positive emotions, and creating a sense of reward. However, any benefit from smoking only eases the pain for a few minutes. Cigarettes contain many other chemicals shown to worsen healing ability of bone, tooth, and cartilage.
The mental association between smoking and pain relief can make quitting quite difficult, as can the increased short-term discomfort that quitting smoking adds to a person already suffering with chronic pain, depression, or emotional distress. What are effective ways for people with chronic pain - whether physical or emotional - to make the decision to quit smoking? First, evidence shows that in people who suffer chronic pain, smokers have more pain than nonsmokers do. Also, accept that smoking cessation may indeed make you feel worse in the short run, but may be key to regaining enough vitality to live fully with pain.
3. The Feel Good Syndrome
Smoking is a way to avoid feeling unpleasant emotions such as sadness, grief, and anxiety. It can hide apprehensions, fears, and pain. This is accomplished partly through the chemical effects of nicotine on the brain.
When smoking, the release of brain chemicals makes smokers feel like they are coping and dealing with life and stressful emotional situations. Nicotine brings up a level of good feelings. Cigarette smokers are aware when nicotine levels and good feelings begin to decrease, and light up quickly enough to stay in their personal comfort zone. However, they may not realize that avoiding their feelings is not the same as taking positive steps to create a life of greater potential and meaning.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports that people suffering from nicotine withdrawal have increased aggression, anxiety, hostility, and anger. However, perhaps these emotional responses are due not to withdrawal, but due to an increased awareness of unresolved emotions. If smoking dulls emotions, logically quitting smoking allows awareness of those emotions to bubble up to the surface. If emotional issues aren't resolved, a smoker may feel overwhelmed and eventually turn back to cigarettes to deal with the uncomfortable feelings.
4. Smoking Makes You Feel Calm and Alive
Smokers often say that lighting up a cigarette can calm their nerves, satisfy their cravings, and help them feel energized. Indeed, nicotine in tobacco joins on to receptors in your brain that release "feel good" chemicals that can make you feel calm and energized all at once. Smoking acts as a drug, inducing a feeling of well-being with each puff. But, it's a phony sense of well-being that never produces a permanent satisfying or fulfilling result. Smoking lures you into believing that you can escape some underlying truth or reality. However, smoking doesn't allow you to actually transform your day-to-day life and live connected to your deeper hopes and dreams.
Instead, when you smoke, the carbon monoxide in the smoke bonds to your red blood cells, taking up the spaces where oxygen needs to bond. This makes you less able to take in the deep, oxygen-filled breath needed to bring you life, to active new energy, to allow health and healing, and bring creative insight into your problems and issues.
5. You Are In The Midst Of Transition
If you previously quit smoking, and then resumed the habit once again, consider the idea that perhaps you are in the midst of some "growing pains." Perhaps you were feeling dissatisfied with some aspect of your life and contemplating making change. However, developing spiritually, emotionally, and physically brings with it the experience of discomfort. Old beliefs rise up, creating sensations of hurt, pain, sadness, anxiety, and uneasiness. You were feeling dissatisfied, restless, ready to change, but then felt the fear that change often ignites.
Smoking provides an escape from those uncomfortable feelings. However, smoking also brings an abrupt halt to personal transformation and the evolution of self. Although painful, these feelings are necessary in your personal development. Learning to accept feelings in a new way can help lead you out of disempowering or limiting beliefs, and into a life filled with greater happiness, satisfaction, contentment, or purpose. When you stop smoking and start breathing - conscious, deep, smoke-free, oxygen-filled breaths - your evolution will start up once again.
Why Do You Smoke?
If you smoke, then you do so because the act of smoking is personally meaningful to you. Therefore, if you are considering quitting, take some time and explore the reasons underlying your decision to smoke. Become interested, observe yourself, and get curious. Allow yourself an opportunity to turn into a smoking journalist, ready to uncover an intriguing mystery. Before lighting up your next cigarette, ask yourself:
a. What positive functions do I believe smoking provides me?
b. How will smoking help or change the situation?
c. What situations make me smoke the most?
d. What emotions or feelings am I trying to avoid or deny?
e. If I didn't smoke right now, what would I feel? How would I handle that feeling?
f. What would I do with the energy that is freed up from smoking cessation?
The most important factor in stopping smoking is a genuine desire to stop smoking. You were not a born smoker; it's something you learned to do. Learning new ways of coping with stress is possible, as is learning new ways to relax and raise confidence levels. Use the reasons presented above as clues to uncover the underlying reasons why you smoke. Then, in addition to making a firm decision to stop smoking, also make a firm plan to address your underlying needs. You're not only kicking the habit, you're also creating a new balance with your body, mind, and self!
Dr. Annette Colby, RD can help you take the pain out of life, turn difficult emotions into joy, release stress, end emotional eating, and move beyond depression into an extraordinary life! Annette is the author of Your Highest Potential and has the unique ability to show you how to spark an amazing relationship with your life! Visit www.AnnetteColby.com to access hundreds of content filled articles and sign up for a Free subscription to Loving Miracles! newsletter.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Annette_Colby
Second Hand Smoke - A New Perspective
It has become politically correct to demonize smoking. It's not enough to force owners of offices, factories, restaurants, and bars to forbid smoking, now they're going after the parks and beaches.
First of all, let me make it clear that I'm a non-smoker, I haven't smoked for over 35 years and don't intend to start. I have no vested interest in smoking itself, but worry about all the unwarranted laws that are currently being passed concerning the subject. When they're done with smoking, there's many other issues these corporate alien lawmakers will be legislating on. Our freedom gets gradually eaten away, as they pass more and more silly restrictive laws.
Whenever the government wants to push an issue, they use highly exaggerated statements and statistically unsound studies to try to scare us. Getting people to quit smoking is one of the current issues of choice.
Here's a quote from the surgeon general's web site.
We know that secondhand smoke harms people's health, but many people assume that exposure to secondhand smoke in small doses does not do any significant damage to one's health. However, science has proven that there is NO risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. Let me say that again: there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.
I want to examine the subject from a different point of view, to see if statements like the one above are warranted. I will use real world facts, observation and logic to challenge this statement.
Do I believe that smoking kills? Yes, I know it does. But there are interesting facts behind smoking deaths that are not quite clear. Lets look at two famous personalities that unquestionably died from smoking related diseases. First is Edward R. Murrow who died at 57 from lung cancer. He was a very heavy smoker. He once remarked he couldn't live a half hour without a cigarette. Johnny Carson was another personality that died at 79 from emphysema. He too was a very heavy smoker.
Both these individuals abused their bodies by overindulging in cigarettes for many, many years. Smoking didn't just kill them a year after they took their first drag. In fact, they lived longer than some non-smokers. It appears that Carson was more resistant to chain smoking than Murrow. That could explain why Carson lived longer than Murrow.
I personally witnessed a neighbor, who was a heavy smoker, succumb to emphysema while in his seventies. You could go on and find many, many such cases. One conclusion you can draw from such examples is that the development of smoking illnesses come from many years of overindulgence. Exactly how long it takes for such illnesses to develop depends on the amount of cigarettes smoked per day and the person's natural resistance to toxins.
Now how about light smokers? The longest living documented person was a French woman named Jeanne Calment. She died in 1997 at the age of 122. At the age of twenty-one in 1896 she began smoking. She smoked no more than two cigarettes per day. She quit when she was 114 because she could not see well enough to light her cigarette and not because of problems from smoking. She died from old age and not smoking.
Most people are more familiar with the comedian George Burns. He died in 1996, forty nine days after reaching his hundredth birthday. He smoked up to ten cigars per day for seventy years. He once commented that if he had listened to his doctor and quit smoking, he wouldn't have been able to attend the doctor's funeral. He didn't die from smoking.
Let's apply some logic to our examples. Do you suppose that if Edward R. Murrow, Johnny Carson, and my neighbor were light to moderate smokers they would have lived longer? Logic says yes! In fact it looks like Johnny Carson had a lot of natural immunity. He could have conceivably lived to be a hundred or more. Light smoking may have had no effect on him or it could have even helped him live longer.
What if Jeanne Calment or George Burns smoked two or three packs a day? They could have lived longer than most heavy smokers because of their strong immune systems, but I doubt that either one of them would have been alive to celebrate his or her ninetieth birthday.
We can deduce that the immune system determines how people react to smoking. Your immune system will eventually be overwhelmed after you've been chain smoking for years. I've never heard of a light smoker dying from cigarettes. (There are always exceptions. Someone with a very poor immune system will die of anything.) Light smoking might even have beneficial effects for some people like Jeanne Calment and George Burns.
What about second hand smoke? Wouldn't inhaling second hand smoke be even less toxic than being a light smoker? If you smoke a cigarette a day, then you smoked 365 cigarettes per year. According to one study, being in a room filled with second hand smoke for eight hours a day would amount to smoking 4.3 cigarettes per year. Even if that's a miscalculation, and its really equivalent to 100 cigarettes per year, that's still much less than Jeanne Calment's one or two cigarettes a day. We should be able to easily assume that being exposed to second hand smoke has a much smaller effect than being a light smoker.
I'm a member of the baby boomer generation. There are about 77 million baby boomers living today. It turns out that smoking was so prevalent during the 50's, 60's, and 70's that practically everyone living during that time period was exposed to some form of second hand smoke. Everyone was smoking at work, many parents were smoking in front of their children, some parents would let their teens smoke, even in Army boot camp the barracks were always full of second hand smoke. When I was going to college, many teachers would allow smoking in class. Some teachers would even lecture with a cigarette in hand. During that time, even if you didn't smoke, exposure to second hand smoke was unavoidable.
How has all this exposure affected the baby boomers? The ones that are currently suffering from smoking related illnesses are the ones that are heavy smokers who refused to quit. People like me kicked the habit years ago. No matter how much second hand smoke they were previously exposed to, they have no smoking related problems, except, perhaps, heart disease. I know people in their late seventies that smoke moderately and still show no signs of any disease.
Heart disease is not only a smoking related disease, but can also originate from food, genetics, and frustration. It's practically impossible to prove that baby boomers who have heart problems and currently don't smoke got their heart disease from exposure to second hand smoke that occurred years ago. Of course if they're currently heavy smokers, their heart disease probably was caused or aggravated by their habit.
Let's look at my smoking history. My father was a moderate smoker. So for about 13 years I was exposed to second hand smoke from him alone. When I was thirteen I started smoking and smoked for about twelve years. So I was exposed to some form of primary or secondary smoke for about 25 years in my early life. Ever since I quit, I have had very little exposure to second hand smoke. Because I don't really fear second hand smoke, friends and acquaintances expose me to short periods of passive smoke several times a year. I have no smoking related lung disease, or heart disease. I'm in my early sixties.
Politicians have come out with a lot of studies that show that second hand smoke is dangerous. Unfortunately, most of these studies are not statistically significant, which means that they prove nothing. There are also studies that have shown that that second hand smoke has beneficial effects. Some are even more statistically relevant. Of course, it is not politically correct for anti-smoking factions to mention them.
In spite of the fact, that I defend the right of people to smoke, I also think it's a good idea for most people to quit. There is no doubt that heavy smokers eventually die from smoking, but years before they die, they must undergo the harsh effects of their debilitating disease. Even though, light smokers may never get a smoking related disease, it's almost impossible for most people to remain light smokers. One reason for this is that smoking is addictive. It draws you to an ever increasing daily cigarette quota. In today's corporate alien society, many people claim that they smoke because of frustration at work. If profits fall, corporations are quick to blame their workforce and subject them to a barrage of endless harassment. The calming effects of cigarettes are used to cope with many of today's on the job abuses. The light smoker under stress then quickly evolves into a chain smoker.
Does it really seem logical, that when it takes thirty years of smoking to kill a chain smoker, that a few hours of second hand smoke is going to hurt you? Get real! Yet the government has convinced a lot of people that this is a reality. Just recently Chicago has banned smoking on playgrounds and beaches. With all the problems this city is facing, why do Chicago politicians concern themselves with such nonsense? It's, probably, just greed, since violators of this ordinance face a hefty fine of $500.
The fewer substances you depend on the better. If you depend on cigarettes, try quiting. If you can't quit, cut down. If you encounter second hand smoke, don't worry, it may annoy you, but it won't hurt you. It could even strengthen your immune system.
George Lunt is someone who feels the world is getting too corporate. His writings relate the individual's struggle with big government and big corporations. His website is http://www.corporate-aliens.com
This article is © George Lunt. All usage of this article must include a citation to the author and a link to http://www.corporate-aliens.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=George_Lunt
How to Quit Smoking for Good
If you have ever attempted to quit smoking cigarettes, you've obviously found out how difficult it can be. The famous American author, Mark Twain once quipped, "to quit smoking is one of the easiest things in the world, I must have done it over a dozen times."
Although it will take much effort and hard work on your part to quit smoking, you can do it. Or maybe you would like to consider the alternative which is nearly half of all those who don't quit smoking will die as a result of health problems that are directly related to smoking.
Research has indicated that most people who smoke want to quit. Sales of books written to help people quit smoking have soared by over 260%.
Even though we realize that it is very difficult to quit smoking you shouldn't be discouraged. Remember that millions of Americans have given up the smoking habit for good. In fact it is estimated that over 46 million Americans have quit smoking permanently.
Before you know it, after you decide to stop smoking, you can be free from smoking forever. You want to keep reminding yourself that it is never too late to kick your tobacco habit.
You May Be Wondering Where You Begin to Quit Smoking
Before you begin down the road of quitting smoking, you must first ask yourself if you really want to stop. If you can honestly answer 'yes' to this question, you are now ready to begin your journey towards becoming an ex-smoker.
As you begin your journey you will discover there are a number of ways to quit smoking and many programs available to help you quit. Keep in mind that there is no one perfect way for you to quit smoking but there will be one way or a combination of ways that are best for you.
How you are able to cope with stress when you quit smoking will profoundly affect your comfort level and your ability to remain an ex-smoker.
To help you to increase the chances of success, you may perhaps consider including medication, such as is available in a nicotine replacement therapy program for instance. However not everyone who makes the decision to quit smoking will want or need to use these certain medications.
However, although many smokers are able to quit smoking without using nicotine replacement therapy, it is found that most folks who attempt to quit without NRT may not be successful on their first attempt.
You will find that there are many stop smoking aids that can assist you with quitting smoking such as nicotine gum, nicotine patches, prescription medications such as Zyban and Chantix, herbal stop smoking products, stop smoking hypnosis, and acupuncture.
Most folks who decide to quit smoking may decide to use a combination of these methods and we will discuss some of them further on.
Harmful Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking
You've heard it all before I know, smoking cigarettes is bad for you. If you didn't already know this you wouldn't be here, right?
But Just How Bad is Cigarette Smoking?
When asked why they want to quit smoking, most people stated their concerns for their health as one of the top reasons for wanting to stop smoking. Quitting your tobacco habit is singularly one of the most important decisions you can make for yourself. Your decision to stop smoking will not only improve your health but also the health of people around you.
We are all aware that smoking cigarettes can result in a large number of health problems including lung cancer. However what most folks don't realize is that smoking cigarettes is a major risk factor for many other kinds of cancers as well. These include cancer of the mouth, larynx, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney, cervix, stomach, pancreas, and even some leukemias.
It is estimated that one out of every ten moderate smokers and close to one out of every five heavy smokers (exceeding 15 cigarettes a day) will die of lung cancer.
Unfortunately for men smokers, we are 22 times more likely to develop lung cancer compared with women smokers who are 12 times more likely to develop lung cancer than are non-smokers.
Of those smokers who do develop lung cancer, men who smoke are 10 times more likely to die from lung cancer than those folks who do not smoke. Also lung cancer is a bigger killer of women that is breast Cancer.
And even if you survive the lung cancer for now, the surgery to remove diseased lung and the ongoing chemo treatment will not be pleasant.
And let's hope you don't live in Canada - the wait for treatment might just kill if you are needing rapid treatment.
However lung cancer is not the biggest killer of a smoker - its circulatory disease.
Smoking plays a large part in increasing your risk for heart disease, stroke, emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and various other lung diseases. Smoking has also been found to increase your risk of periodontal disease which results in swollen gums and teeth that fall out.
Smoking has also been found to increase one's risk of age related loss of vision. Smokers have a much greater likelihood of developing the eye disease called macular degeneration.
The surgeon general has for decades been reporting on the health risks that are associated with smoking. The surgeon general concluded in 1990 that quitting smoking has major and immediate help benefits for both men and women of all ages.
Quitting smoking is one of the best things you can do for yourself to dramatically improve your life and health.
Stop Smoking Medications
The use of nicotine replacement therapy such as found in nicotine gum, patches, inhalers, or nasal sprays, can be quite helpful in your attempt to quit smoking. The inhalers and sprays are only available by prescription but the nicotine patch and gum are available without a prescription and over-the-counter at pharmacies or online.
Nicotine patches and nicotine gum help to lessen the severity and discomfort of nicotine withdrawal symptoms by controlling the release of nicotine into your body. This can help you deal with the physical component of nicotine addiction and can drastically reduce your withdrawal symptoms.
Nicotine gum and nicotine patches may also enable you to control your weight as well while you are involved in your smoking cessation program as nicotine acts as an appetite suppressant. This may keep you from having to rely on a restrictive diet, appetite suppressant drugs or diet pill to help you not gain weight.
The nicotine patch is applied like a Band-Aid to your skin and slowly releases a controlled amount of nicotine into your system throughout the day. The patch can be used by folks who may have problems with gum due to dental work or may find the gum inconvenient due to school or work place restrictions.
The nicotine gum is chewed slowly to release nicotine and then placed between your cheek and gum until another nicotine urge arises. Nicotine gum can also replace some oral gratification that cigarettes may have given.
Other Quit smoking aids include Zyban (same active ingredient as Wellbutrin) which is a prescription antidepressant, bupropion hydrochloride, and is thought to work on the reward/withdraw receptors in your brain.
Another prescription stop smoking drug that has been designed exclusively as a stop smoking aid is Chantix. Chantix is not an antidepressant so is not subject to the same types of side effects.
Also some natural herbal products like the herbal patch, which works like the nicotine patch but uses herbs instead of nicotine and herbal drops which are added to water or your favorite fruit juice, have shown promise in helping to alleviate nicotine withdrawal symptoms, reduce your irritability, curb your hunger, and eliminate toxins from your body.
Hypnosis as an Aid to Stop Smoking
Some folks find that hypnosis or hypnotherapy can be helpful to help them stop smoking. Hypnosis is a suggestion to your subconscious mind while your body and mind are in a deep state of relaxation.
Research seems to suggest that stop smoking hypnosis can be successful in helping folks to quit smoking and if visiting a hypnotherapist seems a bit inconvenient, self hypnosis tapes and audio CDs are available online.
The Medical Hypnosis and Counseling Center believes that while not a cure all, hypnosis can play a long-term role in keeping folks away from cigarettes.
Support for Smokers Who Would Like To Become Non-Smokers
Most folks who have been successful at quitting smoking make the suggestion that you develop a network of support from friends and family. Research that has come out recently seems to suggest that continued support as well as encouragement from friends, family, and health care providers can be extremely helpful.
Studies also suggest that people will find greater success with their quit smoking efforts if they combine several stop smoking supports. As an example, gettting on board with a support group as well as perhaps using nicotine patches or gum can be quite effective. To locate support groups or a stop smoking helpline, you might want to check with the American Cancer Society at 1-800-ACS-2345.
With the combination of smoking cessation aids, support, and good old-fashioned determination you will soon find yourself if the ranks of ex-smokers.
Learn more strategies and tips to help you quit smoking for good at http://quitsmokingforgood.org
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=R._Edward_Jones
There but for the Grace of God go I ... Stopped Smoking Cigarettes
I don't remember exactly what day I started smoking cigarettes, but I do remember the day that I quit smoking as if it were yesterday. At about ten years of age, started acting cool like grown ups with a couple friends by acting as though we smoked by rolling up dried lawn grass from backyards and the Merrill Park in the Jeffery Manor at Chicago, Illinois. We also tried smoking dried tree leaves rolled up inside notebook paper, typing paper, old Chicago Transit Authority transfer fare paper, torn pages from a phone book or whatever was available. Trying to imitate my father, cousins, other adults, movies stars, soldiers, cowboys, musicians, tough guys, bad guys, good guys and any other heroes who smoked cigarettes. I guess it was cool and glamorous when they inhaled/exhaled smoke in their lungs. It made them look smarter and in control. I did not know how to smoke at all. I just puffed and coughed from the burning sensation that I felt in my chest and lungs. It was awfully painful! One day a friend stole an open pack from his mother and we tried to smoke a real cigarette. I think it was either Benson & Hedges or Virginia Slims cigarettes. By the way, we learned that a cigarette is also called a "square". We almost got busted because my friend's mother found out her cigarettes were missing and it seemed like trouble was coming fast. Somehow I dodged that bullet. If you ask me today, then I wish I had been busted so I could be punished. And back then we used to get beatings for disobedience and doing wrong. Today it is called child abuse. I think that is what's wrong with this world today. Spare the rod; spoil the child. I needed a beat down just on GP alone.
Time passed and I learned to smoke the real McCoy, cigarettes fresh out the pack or crush-proof box! Newport brand cigarettes, an attractive green square shaped pack or box with the upside Nike swoosh on the front label and the surgeon general's warning on the side, to be exact. Twenty, filtered menthol cigarettes, jam packed with nicotine, tar, embalming fluid and couple hundred more flavorful low-dosed toxic deadly poisons. I learned to hold the cigarette like a real man should. I held the square between my index finger and middle finger with a slight curve on the pull, like a cool way of holding a pool stick at a speak-easy pool hall, tavern, bar or a club. I was cool at 12 years old. Stunting my growth and development already. It took me a couple days to learn exactly how to inhale smoke without choking. And of course, I did choke. I got light-headed and dizzy in the beginning of my 24-year life sentence as a smoker of cigarettes. That light-headedness made me feel relaxed after enjoying a refreshing cigarette. Oh, I did not discriminate in the beginning. I smoked many different brands without prejudice. For example, Kools, Marlboroughs, Salems, Players, Camels, and Viceroys (the brand that helped to give my dad emphysema and cancer), oh well, whatever, never mind. Put it this way, if you had a cigarette, I would probably smoke it without hesitation. I was cool, calm and collected, an in control smoker. I mean I was bad, the best of the best, top cat, cool, can you dig it man. (So I thought)
Always coughing up cold. Spitting hockers ranging from off-white to yellow, to tawny, to brown and green, orange and red and the occasional black hocker. Sometimes getting a solid chuck that resembles a broken sunflower seed that stank worse than Rex the dog's breath on a hot and humid day in Maywood, Illinois in the month of July. Cigarettes were cheap to buy back in the day. I mean the early 1980's when I started smoking. They were more or less about 75cents a pack. I heard in the military, they were about $7 for a carton of 20 packs of squares back then, in the early 80's. It just didn't cost that much to kill yourself back then. Now the cost of living is high and the cost of dying is higher. My oldest brother and I used to hang out at a friends house. There we were enabled to smoke, drink and listen to loud music in his basement. At home, we hid our bad smoking habit by sticking our heads out of the bathroom window while smoking cigarettes. We used air fresher and aerosol hairspray to kill the smell of cigarette smoke. Who were we fooling? One snowy evening, in the winter of 1982-83, my brother and took a walk down the avenue where we lived, to smoke cigarettes. My mother, for some reason, open the door, looked down the street, just as my brother was taking a few hearty drags, on a freshly lit Newport 100 cigarette. She came out the house and saw him smoking. I almost got busted that day because I was just about to pull my cigarettes out my pocket. Well, just say that eventually I confessed to my habit of smoking around that time also. My mother told us not to smoke around her or in her house, period. She was very disappointed in us but she knew that it was basically nothing she could do because we were big young boys and officially addicted to inhaling nicotine, tar and about 400 other low dose poisons.
Shortness of breath, bad colds and flu symptoms, yellowish (coffin) fingernails, eyes looking lowly and dimly lit up were signs of the unhealthy aspect of smoking cigarettes. What a drag after taking so many drags. Clothes and hair stinking like smoke. Holes burned in clothing. I apparently loved cigarettes and it was a marriage of convenience that kept us together as one. And for 24 years it took its toll on my life and me. Nicotine controlled me and I was not the wiser. A friend once told me that with every pull of smoke I took, 5 seconds was taken from my lifetime. My rational answer was, we are all gonna die from something, you'll never know what or how. Enough said for the glory of smoking cigarettes.
While visiting an elder near Green Bay, Wisconsin in about the spring of 1984, I remember eating an authentic home-cooked Polish dinner for the very first time. We ate Polish sausage and sauerkraut and some kick ass horseradish. It was the bomb! I was about 14 years old at the time. I had a girlfriend. She didn't smoke. I use to always brush my teeth, use mouthwash, chew gum, and use a breath mint or spray or something before I kissed her, if I smoked. It really wasn't right, to be honest. I mean, my smoking. But I denied the truth about it. Back to Green Bay, the people I was visiting found out that I was a young boy smoking cigarettes, after trying to hide it and cover it up from them. I remember, Joseph a man I love and respect like a father, telling me don't be a hypocrite and admit that I smoke. It felt like a weight was lifted off my chest after telling the truth. Yet, I still smoked. So, I asked Joseph's father, Gramps, did he smoke? He said "yes, but he quit about 15 years before our conversation." I asked him "how did he quit?" He said, "he just stopped." And that, "when it is time for you to quit, then you will know it and just quit for good." I had a fresh addiction to nicotine flowing through my veins and I craved for a cigarette after that delicious meal. I thought to myself, "easier said than done old man". That meeting with him has stayed with me ever since.
As time went by, year progressed. The same thing, I smoked after eating food, drinking alcoholic beverages, drinking coffee, drinking soft drinks and especially drinking highly caffeinated colas. I smoke when I felt happy, sad, upset, or just to be smoking a cigarette to have something to do like people who play baseball, a past time. Even when someone ticked me off, when problems and trouble came up, before and after relieving myself, I had to smoke another cigarette. That is the plain truth. And it's somethen rong with that pickture!
I remember trying to quit off and on with no success whatsoever. I would quit a day or two, a week or so and "bam!" I was back at it again, "Smokin'!" It was off to the races again, baby. Addicted to nicotine. You see, as the years went on, I became allergic to dogs, cats, dust, pollen and grasses. I later developed bronchitis. I wonder did smoking have something to do with my developing these health problems. Hmm. I wonder... Well, anyway, I'm in my mid-30's. I am now a little older and I believe a tad bit wiser. I no longer need to look cool, act cool and think that I'm cool, in order to be cool. Sometimes in order to be cool, you have to be uncool. You will surprise your friends and confuse your enemies. I felt like Pavlov's dog when it came to smoking cigarettes. I also began to remember when my mother use to say that "I do not want to use anything that has that much power over me." Yes, she was right and basically said " I am powerless over cigarettes." Until I realized the truth in that statement, I would probably have smoked for the rest of my natural life. It is not so much as the physical dependence of nicotine or cigarettes but the mental dependence caused by my thinking and the force of habitual thinking and acting upon the thought of physically craving nicotine. And the best way I could get my nicotine fix was to fire up a cigarette and inhale the smoke. If I do not pick up the cigarette, then I will not smoke.
A few months ago, one night I had awakened very early, like 3am. Immediately, I got the thought to write down all the pros and cons of smoking cigarettes. Besides looking cool, which is a lie, I could not find one good reason to smoke cigarettes. I have some pretty good reasons why I should not smoke, though. I came up with over 35 reasons. Here are some reasons why I should stop smoking cigarettes from the top of the list.
1. Stopping smoking now reduces your chances of getting throat cancer, lung cancer, emphysema, asthma, allergies, bronchitis, colon or stomach cancer and other serious health problems.
2. Pregnant women reduce the chances of having miscarriage, or a child born with birth defects.
3. Cough less and have fewer colds and flu symptoms.
4. Breathe better, more freely and easily.
5. Outlook on life will improve.
6. Run, walk and climb stairs with less effort.
7. Smile wider with brighter eyes.
8. Mental keenness and alertness improves dramatically.
9. Hair, skin, teeth and fingernails smell and look better.
10. You will save a lot of money.
Just read the side of a pack of cigarettes. It comes with a grave warning. Those are the consequences you get for smoking. I know because my biological father died of throat cancer and emphysema. Yes, he smoked cigarettes, suffered the consequences and died prematurely. God rest his soul. One day, while I was talking with a good friend about his recently stopping smoking cigarettes. He made it sound easy and in fact it is. First, let's look at the score. The price of cigarettes have recently gone up due to city/state excise taxes in Illinois for health cost/benefits, the military budget, and lot of other things. It costs $7 for a fresh pack of cigarettes at many stores in Chicago. But the true cost is of smoking is one human life at a time. Many cities have now imposed ordinances that ban smoking in public facilities even outdoors. People are aware that second hand smoke causes cancer and emphysema just as well as inhaling/exhaling the smoking gun, firsthand. So it is becoming more and more socially unacceptable to smoke. Ahhh, the pressure...
Well, Charles, the good friend of mine that I mentioned told me that he stopped smoking with the help based upon his realizing that he too is powerless over cigarettes and that his life was unmanageable as far as the time and effort put into smoking cigarettes. And only a Power Greater than himself or I call God, could remove the mental obsession of a nicotine fix or shall I say smoking cigarettes. Also, he did not mention that he feigned or had nicotine fits or a bad attitude associated with many smokers because there were basically none. In fact, when I finally quit. I had only two big cigarette cravings that I could really remember. The rest was just my choice and desire not to smoke at all, which God gave me to remove it, Himself. "God did for me what I could not do for myself!" Also, my good friend Charles told me that he just picked a date to quit smoking "cold turkey". No nicotine patches or nicotine gum because the problem is not the patch or the gum, the problem is the person smoking. You don't need a crutch. Besides, you are only taking the thing that you are trying to remove, "nicotine". He said that after two days, the cravings went away. It was just that his desire not to smoke cigarettes had outweighed his desire to smoke cigarettes. Also, believe that a Power Greater than yourself or God can restore your thinking to sanity. Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. Sanity is knowing and believing and acting upon the truth that you cannot successfully smoke cigarettes without grave consequences. When you realize that you are powerless over tobacco or smoking cigarettes that means that you surrender the belief that you can beat a cigarette's power to causes death to yourself and others. You have no power over cigarettes whatsoever. So stop fighting the cravings and let them go right past you. Stop anticipating how you will act upon stopping smoking. Try exercises such as jogging, cycling, or swimming. Read a book; write a short story or poem or two. For example, enter a poetry and writing contest such as Dream Quest One Poetry & Writing Contest http://www.dreamquestone.com. It is a great avenue to share your thoughts, feelings and dreams with the world. It helps to take you outside yourself. Just don't think about smoking and don't try to figure out how God works. God works in mysterious ways. So make a decision to turn your will and life over to your Higher Power, as you understand Him. That means that every morning you wake up, during the day when you feel like smoking a cigarette and before going to bed turn your will and life over to the complete care and abandon of God as you understand Him. Give yourself completely to God. You will see a change. You better believe it. He will direct your paths to quitting smoking cigarettes one day at a time. Take a deep breath whenever your feel an urge to smoke. And if you really want to stop smoking, you will understand that when a craving comes to you, you are powerless over it. And to just let it go by you instead of being strong and trying to resist something you cannot resist by yourself. Let it go and let God have it. Let God handle it. If He brings you to it, He will walk you through it. You will see the results, one day at a time. In the long run, you will be smoke free and healthier. For more info on stopping smoking please visit the following websites:(God Bless!)
· http://www.americanheart.org
· http://www.dreamquestone.com
| Andre West smoked cigarettes for 24 years and was imprisoned in his own mind to suffer what most smokers deny. He came to believe that he is powerless over cigarettes and smoking was compromising his life. By the grace of God, he no longer has the desire to light up a cigarette and is here to tell you why. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andre_West | |
Quitting Smoking Cold Turkey
Ninety nine percent of smokers know that, at some point in their life they will stop smoking. Their reasons for stopping will vary and the time they choose to stop will also vary. But we know that health scares to themselves and or close family members, as a result of smoking, along with government health warnings, anti-smoking campaigns and the Surgeon's General warnings on cigarette packets, don't usually convince you or the many others out there to pack it in.
Your reasons for stopping smoking will be yours and yours alone. You may have many reasons or just a couple but, when you arrive at the decision to stop smoking you will go through five general phases.
Phases of Stopping Smoking
Pre-contemplation: This is the first phase, you are not thinking seriously about stopping smoking in the near future, although you know that you will at some point.
Contemplation: In this phase you are actively thinking about stopping but you are not usually quite ready enough to make a serious attempt yet. You may say things to yourself such as - "Yes, I'm ready to stop smoking but, I'm under a lot of stress and I don't want to gain weight" or "I'm not sure if I can do it."
Preparation: During this phase you are serious about stopping within the next month and, you may even have tried to stop in the past 12 months. You will usually have some sort of plan on how to stop - be it with patches, a hypnotherapist, gum, acupuncture, will power etc.
Action - Stopping Smoking with Help (Stage 1): This is the first 6 months when you are actively finding ways to kick the habit. Once you've found your way, you set a date and promise yourself that - "This is it." Many people fail to even reach this phase because of the pitfalls that we outlined in the sections before.
Staying Stopped (Stage 2): This is the period of 1 week to 5 years after stopping when you are aware of the danger of relapse and, sometimes actively take steps to avoid it.
Unfortunately most smokers only get as far as phase 4 - stopping smoking, but they completely neglect or are unaware that to successfully quit smoking they must prevent relapse and stay stopped.
So once the decision to quit smoking has been made, it is very important to follow through with the Two main Stages to quitting smoking. Both stages involve a lot of detail and some well thought through planning and preparation - when it comes to smoking the old phrase - 'failing to plan is planning to fail', is extremely appropriate.
In Stage One - Stopping smoking, you need to look at the things that make you smoke - not just addiction. You need to find out what are your main reasons for smoking, many of them are individual to you. For example, do you smoke mainly due to stress, do you smoke mostly out of habit, do you light up when you are bored, do smoke mostly as a social activity, is smoking your main / biggest / only pleasure, do you frequently use it as an excuse to leave a boring, uncomfortable situation.
These factors play a huge role in your smoking behaviour. When you do stop - these situations and times will arise again, and if you don't plan on how to deal with them your mind will automatically remind you to smoke. So it is important that you find out what each of these situations are.
The best way to do it is to write down every single cigarette you smoke and why you smoke it, for a few days. Then analyse the results and plan on how you are going to break those links and ensure that they can no longer be a valid reason for you to smoke. For example, if you smoke due to stress, find two main ways to reduce stress in your life.
Firstly, find something that you can do quickly at the time of stress, for example, you may like to use a variety of breathing techniques, a stress ball, you may want to take a short break and go for a walk, or you may want to lie down or just scream out at the top of your lungs if it is convenient to do so.
Secondly you need to set time aside every day specifically for relaxation and stress relief. Find out the one thing, other than smoking, which completely relaxes you. Maybe it's a trip top the gym, half an hour in the sauna, reading a book, a jigsaw puzzle, a walk on the beach with your dog etc.
Make sure the activity takes up at least half an hour to an hour each day - you probably spend at least an hour a day smoking, so you need to experience the same pleasure / result for the same amount of time each day.
You should also plan to have a weekend break often or plan on spending a few hours every weekend dedicated to relaxing. They key here and the objective is to firstly show yourself that you can relax without smoking, and you can actually relax much more without smoking.
When you have done this you have effectively removed relaxation and stress relief as one of your main reasons for smoking, then you move onto the next reason. They key is to remove and completely break your reasons for smoking - if you don't have a reason to smoke, why smoke?
Stage one also involves looking at your reasons for stopping smoking - are they your reasons or are they general or other people's reasons? That is, are you stopping because you know that it is going to 'kill you' or because your family / friends are pushing you into it? It is important to have your own specific goals - you should want to quit smoking for yourself and for the things that YOU will get when you quit.
For example, you personally may want to improve your sports performance - so quitting will help you get fitter and therefore improve. Or you may be concerned about the smell of smoke on and around you. So by quitting, you will personally smell better, you will no longer be concerned that other people are noticing how your hair and clothes smell and you will be able to smell and taste food better.
These reasons are positive and they provide real motivation for you - these are the things that will help you. By combining the two points you are effectively tipping your smoking scales in your favour. You are making your reasons for smoking much weaker and lesser in number, while increasing and strengthening your reasons for stopping smoking.
In Stage Two of stopping smoking you need to actively take steps to prevent relapse. In a majority of cases relapse is due to one of three main reasons - weight gain, withdrawal symptoms or the pitfalls that come from constantly thinking about cigarettes.
Weight gain and withdrawal symptoms can pretty much be beaten by taking the same steps. Weight gain is due to excess eating. So why do smokers eat lot when they quit? There are several reasons - snacking easily replaces the habit of fidgeting with a cigarettes every half an hour or so, your appetite increases - as there is no longer nicotine in your system to suppress your appetite, and eating feels good. When we feel depressed, sorry for ourselves, split up from a partner, get bad news or lose our jobs, most of us turn to food - it's a natural comforter.
To beat the weight gain you need to stop eating as much - easier said than done perhaps. However, the reason smokers eat a lot is because their body is crying out for the vitamins and minerals that it has been missing out on through a lack of food. And as today's frozen, processed, pre-prepared and fast foods don't contain as much of the daily vitamins and minerals as they should, a smoker's body wants more food - so a smoker will eat more to get the foods he needs.
The simple solution is to eat a lot of fruit and veg, eat more cooked meals drink lots of fresh fruit juice (which also helps in the extraction of nicotine) and to take several vitamin and mineral supplements. These four strategies will have smokers eating less and will reduce the body's cravings for food - which can often be confused as withdrawal symptoms.
Drinking lost of fresh fruit juice is especially important as it will top up your blood sugar levels - something your body artificially did - by smoking every half hour or hour. When you smoke your body takes in more nicotine which suppresses your appetite, and you do this every half hour to hour of the day - by drinking fresh juice you do this naturally and beat off withdrawal symptoms.
A focus on cigarettes is extremely harmful for smokers when they quit. Don't fall into the following common trap of seeing someone else smoking and thinking to yourself - 'That cigarette looks soooooo good, I wish I could have one' or thinking to yourself ' I can't believe I've gone twenty hours without a cigarette, and now I'm going to have to go for the rest of my life without them, this is so hard'
These thoughts simply rub cigarettes and smoking in your face and show you what you are 'missing out on' or having to 'give up'. It's the same reason diets don't work - because a diet concentrates and focuses on the very things people want! You can't have chocolate or greasy chicken or burgers. When you think about smoking in a similar manner you are telling yourself that you 'can't have a cigarette'. And what is the one thing that you want? A cigarette!
It is not a good idea to find yourself in this situation. Think about it, when do you most want a cigarette? Is it when you are watching TV, in town, driving or is it when you are half way through a three hour film at the cinema, when you are on a long haul flight, when you are at a family gathering with the children around and when you are in an important meeting?
You want cigarettes when you can't have them. So focusing on them will only lead to relapse - don't try to force yourself to watch other people smoke - 'because you have will power and are stronger than cigarettes'. You've not been stronger than them in the past so what makes you think that you are stronger now?
Forget about cigarettes and focus on a new hobby - something you can get your teeth into and something that gives you real motivation to stop smoking.
When you have completed Steps One and Two of quitting smoking you can be sure that you are on your way. But remember, you smoked for probably over a hundred different reasons
- be aware that there will be other things that will make you think about smoking
- plan on how you are going to death with them and your quit will be ten times easier with preparation.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Daniel_Fargher
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