Quit Smoking Methods | Quit Smoking Prescription

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If you have used the internet to research and find quit smoking products, you will probably have stumbled upon a few quit smoking support forums. These are forums that centre around helping people quit smoking by offering advice, encouragement and support to people coming off tobacco. But I want to play devil's advocate here an ask if they are any use.

When you are looking to quit smoking, you may well be overwhelmed by the range of information and products available to help you quit. You may also be surprised at the number of quit smoking support forums out there too and the advice offered by members in them. Remember, anecdotally, anyone who has quit smoking will promote the method that worked for them just as I recommend the hugely successful cognitive behavioural therapy approach.

I am a firm believer that all chemically aided (nicotine replacement therapy, chantix, zyban etc.) or alternative interventions (hypnosis, acupuncture, laser treatment, herbal remedies) for smoking cessation are unnecessary. Why is this? Because I believe every one is capable of logical thought and with a good teacher, you can learn anything. It was by understanding the enemy (nicotine by the way) and learning how to overcome its attacks, that I trounced smoking.

Quit smoking support forums may help you to learn how to overcome your enemy but by their very nature, they are disorganised and cluttered with a combination of useful advice and social commentary. The social stuff just gets in the way of your real focus - unless of course you just want somewhere to hang out online! If you want to learn about something, a concentrated information source is better than a rambling forum!

I believe that when you quit smoking you are best doing it once you have learned how to do it. To give you an analogy, I wouldn't try replacing the brake pipes on my car unless I had gotten a manual to show me how to do it. Some people would but guess who runs the higher risk of brake fluid all over their driveway and brake failure round the corner? Not me!

So what has learning how to quit smoking got to do with quit smoking support forums? Well, if you have already learned how to quit smoking there will be a few things evident to you and you wont need any support.

Firstly, you will not be in any doubt about your decision to quit smoking. You will be 100% comfortable that you made the right choice. If you don't know how to quit smoking, you may miss this vital step. It's a bit like choosing toothpaste. Choosing toothpaste is such an innocuous decision that you never give it a second though. You just decide which sort you want (probably smokers toothpaste!) grab the toothpaste and move on. You don't dwell on whether that was the right decision. Quitting smoking should be like this too.

Secondly, if you have learned how to quit smoking you will have already studied your enemy. It is a well studied enemy too and there is very little that is unknown about it. Your enemy is nicotine. Its attack principles are the same every time it attacks and it never changes its tactics. The same triggers are always there and your responses are what have made you smoke for so long. Because it is a thoughtless enemy, with only one type of attack for each individual occasion, it is easy to overcome - once you have learned how!

I am always amazed at the frequency of posts in quit smoking support forums where people cry out for help on the forum that they are suffering an unbeatable craving. If you know your enemy, you can unravel its attacks with ease and celebrate every victory.

Quit smoking support forums are useful to research how to quit smoking but they keep the would be quitter in a state of suspense about quitting smoking. Quit smoking forums are littered with postings celebrating how long it is since someone quit.

Who cares?

When you decide to quit, that's it, it is over and done with. Pointing out how long it is since you quit with every post (as many forum members do) just emphasises as misconception that you have abstained from smoking. You haven't abstained from smoking, you have just rejoined normal life like the other 79% of the US population who don't smoke and aren't addicted to nicotine.

As long as you make quitting smoking a big deal, it will come with big problems. Don't go twittering on about 'your quit' on quit smoking support forums - you are only dragging out your emotional relationship with the problem of nicotine addiction. You are going to quit smoking - big deal, do it and move on!

Finally, I have written this briefly to highlight some differences of opinion in quitting smoking. There are many out there in the smoking cessation community who will be mortified to see me question the support and motives of quit smoking support forums. But I am suggesting here that by their very nature of offering extended support, they are turning quitting smoking into a bigger deal than it really is. The motives are undoubtedly honourable, after all, these forums aren't sponsored by tobacco companies! But by blowing up the difficulty and struggle, they are self fulfilling.

Stop Smoking - Why Quit Smoking?

Smoking is pleasurable, up to a point. That, after all, is why so many do it. If there were no gain, the practice would quickly die out. But a lot of meaning is stuffed into that innocent phrase 'up to a point'. While the short term benefits of smoking cigarettes is real, the harm is equally real - and it's potentially much more serious and long lasting.

There are several common factors that tend to lead someone to smoke. Stress, peer pressure and other psychological factors are present for virtually everyone. Substituting a toxic chemical for a healthier means of dealing with them is often viewed as simpler. But the long range consequences can be dire.

Official estimates are that 87% of lung cancer cases can be attributed to long-term, heavy smoking. The odds of stroke are 2-4 times higher for smokers than non-smokers. The risks of coronary heart disease are similar. For COPDs (chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases), such as emphysema and chronic bronchitis or asthma, the statistics are equally frightening. About 80-90% of COPD cases are among those who smoke.

The specific scientific facts took a few generations to establish. But there are now thousands of studies that correlate smoking with ill health effects. While the exact causes and links between smoking and stroke or cancer are still not fully known, the correlation is overwhelming.

The relationship, for example, between the increased build up of fatty deposits on the arteries as a result of smoking is well established. The effects on the lungs as tar builds up in the alveoli are plain to see. The hacking, reduced energy and other effects require no scientific study to know.

Several dozen carcinogenic compounds have been identified in cigarette smoke. They range from such familiar terms as tar and benzene to nitrosamines. Carbon monoxide is present in cigarette smoke, where it binds with hemoglobin to deprive the blood stream of needed oxygen.

Quitting isn't easy. On average, only 6% succeed in stop smoking permanently the first time they try. But it's possible to be in that group, and to increase that number by joining it.

As with any long term health decision, it requires willpower. But that mental commitment can be aided by counseling as well as a wide range of products available today. Nicotine gum, patches and inhalers can help. Several non-nicotine alternatives are on the market, too. Anti-depressants like Zyban are an option. A newer prescription drug called Chantix has shown promise.

Dealing with the consequences of stop smoking are trying. Weight gain is possible. Cravings are almost inevitable, for a while. But the long term benefits of quitting are real, immediate and enormous.

After a few years, the risks of stroke and heart disease return to what they are for non-smokers. The skin regenerates to a normal state. The overall energy level rises and the body and mind are better able to deal with the normal challenges of life.

Quit now and gain those advantages. The alternative is grim.

How to Help Someone Quit Smoking

Have you ever wondered how to help someone quit smoking? If you’ve never had to experience this yourself, it can be difficult to understand why someone wouldn’t just stop doing something that they know is unhealthy for them.
Even if you have been through it yourself, it’s important to know that each person handles the situation differently. Smoking for them may mean something different than it did for them or they may need a different approach to be able to stop.
To know how to help someone quit smoking will require some research on your own. It’s important to be compassionate and understanding but also to realize that you can never fully understand 100% what the other person is going through. Don’t try to tell them that you know what they’re going through. This will only make the person irritated. 

Here are some tips to help someone quit smoking:
  • Don’t expect them to be able to quit all at once
  • Provide encouragement even when they cut back
  • Boost confidence and show you have faith in them
  • Sit in non-smoking sections if you go out
  • Help them form an exercise regime- exercise together
  • Offer small rewards to show you recognize their efforts to stop
  • Avoid telling them you know how it feels
  • Be there if they need to talk
  • Offer distractions to fill empty time when they made be encouraged to smoke
  • Ask them for ways you can help support them
When a person is trying to quit smoking, it can be discouraging and frustrating. Your motivation and support can be the one thing they need to help them get through this very difficult and trying time.
If you want to help someone you know or care about quit smoking, this is a very important thing to do. We all know about the serious health risks of smoking and how difficult it can be to stop on your own.
You may be the one thing this person needed to help them get through this experience and become smoke-free once and for all.

Cold turkey, or an abrupt cessation of nicotine, is one pf the quit smoking methods. Cold turkey can provide cost savings because paraphernalia and smoking cessation aids are not required; however, not everyone can stop this way as tremendous willpower is needed.
Laser therapy is an entirely safe and pain-free form of acupuncture that has been in use since the 1980s. Using a painless soft laser beam instead of needles the laser beam is applied to specific energy points on the body, stimulating production of endorphins. These natural body chemicals produce a calming, relaxing effect. It is the sudden drop in endorphin levels that leads to withdrawal symptoms and physical cravings when a person stops smoking. Laser treatment not only helps relieve these cravings, but helps with stress reduction and lung detoxification. Some studies indicate that laser therapy is the most effective of the quit smoking methods with an extraordinarily high success rate.