Quit Smoking Now Forever

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For years, the only way to stop smoking was to quit cold turkey and hope that willpower alone was enough to make the habit a thing of the past. Americans still promote this theory of quitting with events like the “Great American Smoke Out” which encourages smokers to stop for one day every November. Promoters of the event say that once a person realizes that they can make it through an entire day without a cigarette the concept of quitting smoking becomes easier to accept. Having done it for a day, they believe they can do it and some do, organizers say. But the reality is that today there are many alternatives for people who are seriously attempting to quit smoking.

One of the new methods of treatment for those attempting to quit smoking is nicotine gum. This process of quitting involves substituting a nicotine gum for cigarettes whenever the craving hits. The theory is that this allows smokers to deal with the physical withdrawal from the addictive nicotine and the oral stimulation once associated with smoking. The idea is that they can begin to wean themselves off the gum slowly as the cravings become less prevalent.

A similar theory is the driving one behind the nicotine patch. Unlike the gum which requires the smoker to actively recognize their craving and treat it with a piece of gum, the nicotine patch as a method of quitting delivers a regular stream of nicotine into the smoker’s system to help alleviate the cravings. People who use this system to quit smoking gradually reduce the strength of the nicotine patch until the cravings are gone and the physical addiction has subsided. An added part of the patch treatment is that most people experience mild nausea if they attempt to smoke while wearing the patch, creating a form of aversion therapy.

A third treatment gaining in popularity is hypnosis to quit smoking. Smokers pay for a two or three hour session, often a group session, with a hypnotherapist who implants a suggest in their minds creating an aversion to smoking. This treatment option deals with the mental addiction to the habit, but does nothing to combat the physiological aspects of cigarette addiction.

Drug therapy is also being used successfully to help some people quit smoking. Some anti-depressants have shown great success in combating smoking as have drugs designed to interact with the chemicals in cigarettes and make them less pleasing to smokers. The drug therapy usually is used in conjunction with another quitting method, nicotine gum or the patch, in an effort to deal with the physiological addiction as well.

Finally, also gaining prominence recently in the effort to get people to quit smoking is acupuncture and accupressure. Research indicates that trained therapists can use pressure points to release the addiction from the system and help former smokers get over their cravings for cigarettes. Unlike hypnotherapy which deals with the psychological addiction and not the physiological, this treatment is effective with people who want to quit smoking but not those who are unwilling to commit to stopping. The acupuncture treatment treats the physiological addiction, but does not address the psychological addiction.

Eric Cho
http://www.articlesbase.com/quit-smoking-articles/top-5-ways-to-quit-smoking-121212.html

Smoking can and does kill many people every year. Why do people still smoke? Besides being the cause of lung cancer – a killer disease, smoking is also becoming more and more cost prohibitive! At $4.00 + per pack, a two pack a day habit amounts to 4 x 2 x 365 = $2,920.00 per year! Yet, the money is really secondary, the real cost is the ill effect on one’s health, and by the way, it’s not only the issue of longevity; it is also the state of your present health and well being. Smoking saps your energy and robs you of a much greater sense of well-being that could be yours if only you could quit smoking (and get some exercise).

The plan I have for kicking the smoking habit is the method that I used myself almost a decade ago – I’ve been smoke free ever since! It does not involve any drug, nicotine patch or pill and is cost free. Furthermore, I quit on the first attempt, never picked up a cigarette again, and did not gain substantial extra weight – other than two or three pounds max!

Let me state straightforwardly that I am not a doctor nor do I pretend to be one. Furthermore, the plan I will present to you is neither new nor revolutionary. Again this is simple but effective way to quit smoking forever. Other approaches, I am sure, work as well as this one. Some of them may work faster. But, the main selling point I have for my approach is this: QUIT SMOKING THE EASY WAY is the EASIEST method to quit smoking PERMANENTLY!

The basic idea behind this approach is to gradually withdraw from the smoking habit over time, thus substantially weakening the addiction to the point that it loses its stronghold over the smoker’s body and mind. It is damn hard to abruptly stop a habit of say two packs a day cold turkey. It is so difficult that many smokers who try such an approach will likely fail, and many thereupon give up, resigning themselves to the long-term dangers and ill effects of tobacco addition for the remainder of their lives.
It is a lot easier, on the other hand, to cut back gradually over time and thereby reduce habit down to 5 or 6 cigarettes a day and then to stop completely. It is the difference of quitting a two packs a day habit vs. quitting a 5 cigarette a day habit. The addiction substantially loses its stronghold over the smoker. It still remains but has become a lot weaker and therefore easier to gain control over.

THE PROGRAM

1. The first step is the easiest: simply take note of how much you are smoking and especially note the frequency of your cigarettes. Keep a record of the time of each lite up. The basics of this method are to reduce the frequency of cigarettes by gradually increasing the time intervals between lite ups.

2. Now take the record you’ve created and average the time between lite ups. Of course, use common sense in doing this! You are not going to add the six + hours of sleep into the average. We want an average time interval between smokes during your waking hours when you are free to lite up. This last point is important because the average will be skewed if you average in hours when you are not allowed to lite up, as for example during work. Again, the average should be during the day and evening when there are no constraints upon your smoking.

3. Next, simply watch the clock! Keep yourself to the time interval that you have established. Do this for three days to accustom yourself to the program. Easy so far! In fact you have made a great start and have yet to reduce your smoking by a single cigarette! As easy as this is, please don’t cheat the system! If you have set the interval at 30 minutes and had to wait 2 hours to your work break to lite up, you are not allowed to smoke 4 in a row! If your interval is 30 minutes that means that from the time you put out your first cigarette to the time you lite up the next, AT LEAST 30 minutes MUST elapse!

4. Now the hard part: withdrawing! Whatever your time interval is; increase by 20%. This may sound like a lot, but it’s really nothing! If your interval was at 30 minutes; a 20% increase puts your interval at 36 minutes. So all you have to do is hold on for another 6 minutes! Come on! How hard is that! For an interval at 1 hour the 20% increase puts you at 1 hour 12 minutes! You see the reason why many people fail in their attempts to quit smoking is that they give up. This is not rocket science, since the only time you can possible fail in this is by giving in and lighting up again. I think most people who try to quit cold turkey feel overwhelmed by it. Psychologically they think to themselves that they can NEVER have another in their lives, and that thought seems overwhelming. They gradually develop defeatist attitudes thinking that it is just to hard for them or that they are not equal to the task. My system is so much easier. You don’t have to feel overwhelmed! All you have to do at this early stage is to wait an extra 6 or 12 minutes. It’s not a lifetime! Hence, you don’t feel overwhelmed! The downside of this program is that it does take longer than quitting cold turkey, but the great advantage is that it is for easier! Once you have increased your interval stay for 10 days.

5. By now you get the idea! Increase the interval again, by another 20%. You may find this a bit harder than the first interval increase, but essentially it s the same deal. If you interval started at 30 minutes it went to 36 minutes at the first increase. This increase brings it to 43.2 minutes. Round up to 44 minutes. Consider this: after this step you would have decreased you habit by 40%! Going from 36 minutes to lite up to 44 minutes is simply waiting an additional 8 minutes. If you are craving a cigarette by then just convince yourself to hold on just a few more minutes. Develop strategies for taking your mind off of it for that brief time. Eat a snack. As you cut back to lower levels of smoking though the method of increasing time intervals you may find it getting a bit tougher. If you do, just increase the number of days before the next interval increase. The basic method is really the important lesson; the specific timing between stages can vary. Most importantly: NEVER GIVE UP! The remainder of the program is fairly predictable: increase intervals by 20% steps – or less if you begin to find it tough going – until you are down to 5 or 6 cigarettes a day. Once you have hit that point; stay there for at least ten to 15 days. You should then be able to stop smoking completely and forever!!!

The following is an illustration of how it may work for a 2 pack a day smoker. While the key is focusing on increasing the interval between cigarettes, each % of increase in time interval should = a corresponding decrease in the amount of cigarettes smoked daily.

40 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 32

32 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 25.6 (round down) 25

25 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 20

20 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 16

16 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 12

12 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 9

9 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 7

7 cigarettes reduced by 20% = 5

Final step is to quit all together! The final step is the hardest because it is at this point that you finally commit to not smoking not just for the next interval but for the rest of your life! Yet, it ought to be a lot easier at this point than it would have been at the outset if you were to quit cold turkey. Still this is definitely the toughest point. Personally, they way I handled this is though physical exercise. This helped me a great deal to take away the last bit of craving in that crucial period. Another substitute is food or munchies. If you just eat then naturally you will gain a few pounds. Personally, I think a few extra pounds aren’t a bad trade off for what could be a killer addiction. Actually, if you eat a little more and you exercise the calories may balance out more or less.

If you spend 10 days for each step, you would be able to quit in 90 days. If you find this tough along the way you may stretch the time-line. If you stayed on each step 20 days that is still only about 180 days or so; 6 months. That still isn’t bad for the goal of staying smoke free for the rest of your life!!!! Again, this is not meant to be the fastest way to quit smoking. However, this is probably the easiest way to stop and stay stopped. I would recommend this method to anybody, but this is especially helpful for those who have already tried and failed at other methods.

Roger Leblanc
http://www.articlesbase.com/quit-smoking-articles/quit-smoking-the-easy-way-31379.html

Smoking is indeed a problem, because it can lead to all sort of complications and diseases such as lung cancer. That is why if you do smoke, you should quit smoking now.

Although you may think you know why you should quit, you need to know that there are hundreds of other reasons you’ve never thought about them. Besides the cancer and heart diseases that smoking causes, you’ll have to consider what effects will this have both on the long run and on the short run on your body.

Many people say that they don’t need to quit smoking now, and they all give all sort of explanations. Some of them say that they are too young and so they could easily give up smoking when they would be older. Others, on the contrary, they say that they are too old and so they don’t need to quit smoking now or that they can’t quit smoking now.

In fact, it really doesn’t matter if you’re young or old, or if you started smoking a few days ago or twenty years ago. The truth is smoking has a disastrous effect on everybody, regardless of his age or physical conditions.

Why Is It So Hard to Quit Smoking Now?

Before starting the actual process of quitting, you’ll first have to want to quit. You’ll have to say “I want to quit smoking now”. Once you’ve decided that this is what you really wish, you’ll have to get ready for the process, because as you probably already know, this isn’t easy.

Quitting is hard mainly due to two major reasons: the physical addiction and the psychological addiction, the one we call it “habit”. In order to completely escape from the need to smoke you’ll have to break both of these addictions. Unfortunately there isn’t any other way.

Reasons Why You Should Quit Smoking Now

You can’t really quit smoking if you don’t have a couple of reasons. You can’t just say “I want to quit smoking now” and the next day when you’ll wake up the urge will be gone. It just doesn’t work this way. You have to fight for it. You have to prove yourself that you really want to quit smoking now, that this is indeed the thing you want to do.

That is why when deciding to quit you should make a list of reasons. They will be the reasons for which you want to quit smoking now. These reasons are easy to find. They can be personal reasons, health reasons or obligations.

For example, one reason could be the aging process. Ask yourself if you really want to see yourself aging quickly. Because this is what smoking does to your body. So, one reason for which you should say that you want to quit smoking now can be this one.

Another one can be the way you smell. Tobacco in general has a bad smell, why should you have to put up with this? All you have to do is quit smoking now.

One more reason why you should quit smoking now and definitely the most important one, can be your health. The sooner you’ll quit this nasty habit the more your health will benefit from it.

It’s not easy, but it isn’t impossible either. All you have to do is find some good reasons and really wish to live a longer and happier life. This should be enough to make you say you want to quit smoking now.

Jonathan Fraser
http://www.articlesbase.com/advice-articles/why-you-should-quit-smoking-now-114580.html

Smoking is addictive. Once you’ve started to practice it you will probably continue to do it for a while. Because smoking is addictive it makes it hard for people to quit. In order to quit this nasty habit you first have to really wish for this to happen.

The nicotine addiction is a serious problem. Every time a person tries to quit and fails, it becomes more difficult the next time. Physically and psychologically your body and mind will begin to see themselves as failures, which will increase the difficulty of the process. Even if some people can stop smoking without any outside help, they are not the majority. Most people need assistance while in the quitting stage.

Today there are all kinds of medicines or treatments that can help the smoker to quit. One treatment that it is said to be completely natural and therefor harmless for the human body is the quit smoking herbs treatment. The quit smoking herbs are starting to be used more and more by people who want to get ride of their addiction without using drugs or lasers.

How do the Quit Smoking Herbs Work?

The quit smoking herbs have an important role. They first prepare the body physically for the nicotine withdrawal. Because they are only herbs this makes them 100% natural, and their ingredients are designed to ensure maximum support with the minimum harm. Also, unlike other products that help you quit smoking, the quit smoking herbs contain no nicotine products. This treatment is also pretty cheap, it’s price being only a fraction of what other methods cost.

Just like any other thing you do, preparation is the key that will ensure success. Quit smoking herbs do exactly this, they prepare your body for the quitting process.

When deciding to give up smoking you first should determine a quitting date. Once you’ve done this you should start to use the quit smoking herbs one month before the quitting date. The quit smoking herbs will prevent depression and anxiety, and some of them may also stabilize the blood sugar level.

When quitting date arrives you have to throw away, trash or burn anything that you have related to cigarettes, nicotine and smoking in general. This is to be done so that you won’t be attracted to use them again. Continue with the quit smoking herbs for another month while combining this process with a new hobby you should discover in order to keep your thoughts away from smoking. Usually after using quit smoking herbs for two months you should become a non-smoker.

Quit Smoking Herbs, part of the maintenance

Once you’ve become a non-smoker maintenance is everything. You don’t want to start smoking again, not after you’ve spent so much time and effort in quitting, right?

The physical addiction usually disappears after a couple of weeks, but the psychological addiction is the real threat. That is why you should keep using quit smoking herbs a few months even after you’ve become a non-smoker. Also, feel free to use them any time you feel the need to light a cigar, even if it’s been ages since you last smoke. One cigar can be enough to turn you into a smoker again.

Jonathan Fraser
http://www.articlesbase.com/advice-articles/quit-smoking-herbs-they-can-help-111364.html

If you are thinking of quitting smoking cigarettes then you must know how bad they are for you and those around you and I applaud your decision. You have also probably heard many nightmare tales of how hard it is to quit which may be scary and demotivating. To help you kick your addiction to cigarettes and the addictive component nicotine here are 10 tips and ways to quit smoking cigarettes that can show you it can be done and it is not as hard as people can make it out to be if you have a plan!

1. Write a list of reason you LIKE smoking
It may seem counter to your needs to quit smoking but ignoring why you like smoking and why you continue to smoke is important so that psychologically you can overcome these things or leave them behind or replace them with something. Ignoring them simply means when cravings hit those reasons subconsciously attack your reasoning and resolve.

2. Make a list of reasons it will be hard to quit
Wow, I sound so negative so far which I am sorry for but bear with me! Honesty is massive part of overcoming an addiction to nicotine and cigarettes because many people try to quit without being honest with themselves first and those people usually fail on that attempt. So write down a list of reasons you think might make it hard to quit or the reasons you know from experience have made it harder.

3. Write a list of reasons you want to quit
Ok now we are getting more positive! Again HONESTY is the big word here for the same reason stated before. You need as many solid positive reasons for quitting cigarettes so that these ways to quit smoking cigarettes work! HINT: List them in a positive way so instead of writing “Scared of lung cancer” write “I want to be healthy and live a long life!” … negative reasons are not as strong as positive ones.

4. Write down a list of ways to tackle cravings
When the cravings hit all reasoning and resolve can suddenly go out the window as you may already have experienced and is not something to be ashamed of. You just need a way to overcome these things, having something to distract you from the cravings is a very important things to do whether it is to get your joggers on and hit the pavement or if you are at work to maybe chew some gum, get a coffee or clean up your office space.

5. Compare lists
Now you have a few sheets of paper (or for some people nearly a book!) you can compare your negative and positive reasons. This is important because often if you have more reasons you like smoking compared to reasons you want to quit smoking cigarettes then you may not be ready to quit and might need to find some more reasons and support to quit. Also if your list of things to do to overcome cravings do not have an answer to all your reasons why quitting might be hard then you may need to revisit the former list and add to it. Once you have done this not only have you been introspective enough to see things clearly and plan ahead you have created the base work for a contract with yourself to quit which is a cornerstone of quitting cigarettes for good.

6. Set a quit date
Having firm goals is important when dealing with addictions and when looking for ways to quit smoking cigarettes this is a vital step. Having a set date you set for yourself and can plan for means you will not make snap decision when you are not ready and you will also force yourself to commit to a date than a vague “I will quit next week” then that week never seems to come …

7. Throw out all smoking paraphernalia
Get rid of them when that quit date hits! Get rid of your smokes, if you hold on to any cigarettes it is a temptation and a subconscious easy way out .. if you are serious break the fags and toss them out, if you can’t do that you are not ready to quit. Also get rid of lighters and anything else that has to do with smoking in your space.

8. Busy your hands and mouth
One part of the addiction to cigarettes that people ignore in favor of concentrating on the dependency effects of nicotine is the habit that has formed over many years of the actual ACTION of smoking. IF you carry some toothpicks you can suck on or some nuts you can crack open and eat you will busy your hands looking for a familiar action, no need for anything terribly elaborate just keep them busy or they may stray to a cigarette.

9. State your intention to quit smoking cigarettes
Tell your friends, tell your family and tell your co-workers that you plan to quit smoking cigarettes for a two reasons. One, you need a support network to help you so it is good to get as many well wishers and helpers as you can. Two if you are not announcing it does not become REAL to you and is less substantial because it is like you are a keeping a secret often as many do not want the stigma of people knowing they failed if it comes to that which is just another excuse!

10. Stay Positive, Quit positive
Research has shown that those that quit when in a good and positive mood stand a much greater chance of achieving their goal. IF you plan to quit and map out your ways to quit smoking cigarettes while under stress of when depressed it does not bode well as a negative reason as has been mentioned is no where near as strong as positive ones!

This list may only scratch the surface of all the challenges and ways to quit that you may need to kick your habit for you particular situation. If you want to be armed with all the tools & information that can give you every chance to be smoke free forever click below to find out more.

http://www.kick-addiction.com/nicotine-addiction/treatment/

Michael Porteous
http://www.articlesbase.com/quit-smoking-articles/10-ways-to-quit-smoking-cigarettes-be-smoke-free-forever-752177.html