Smoking, or nicotine addiction, has some serious social and health consequences. It obviously puts off people who don’t smoke and it is an unhygienic habit and results to discoloration of nail and gums which is unsightly. A more profound impact is on health. Smoking is proven to result to lung cancer and emphysema, two very deadly diseases. And it is not pretty to die from these diseases.
Smokers, though, are thinking about quitting smoking at some time in their ash-laden career, which is a tread uphill. There are pharmacological reasons why people with the habit find it hard to stop smoking. Smoking usually starts out as something new to try. But it will eventually come to a point that the smoking and intake of nicotine is more than just a habit born of peer pressure, and that point can come pretty quickly. The body starts to crave for nicotine. It shows this in symptoms such as anxiety and restlessness. These symptoms are usually so hard to ignore that eventually a smoker needs to fill this crave by smoking. The body, being used to ingestion of nicotine, makes it hard for the smoker to quit smoking.
Outlined here are some steps that will help a smoker lessen the habit and ultimately stop smoking.
1. First, believe in the reason why you need to stop smoking. It may be to fulfill a promise made to a significant other or for the betterment of your health. Think of something that will inspire you and fuel your determination to quit smoking. More importantly, face this challenge for yourself. In the end, quitting smoking benefits you the most. It should always be about what will be good for your body.
2. Take quitting smoking as a day to day struggle. Don’t be tempted to think of the whole quitting mission as one battle. Instead, think of it as a war in which you battle craving every single moment of it.
3. Don’t stop smoking abruptly. The last thing you want to get from being strong-willed are withdrawal symptoms and these can be very severe. They often drive the smoker to consume more nicotine.
4. You can, instead, reduce consumption each day up to the point where you can do away with smoking for a day. A good way to do this is to keep track of how much cigarettes you consume. Reduce your consumption by only smoking until you can hold it no longer. However, remember that you should not consume more than you did the previous day. If you find that you can reduce how much you smoke after some time, then do so. Keep this number and never go up in consumption again. Do these until you can quit smoking altogether.
5. Stay away from things that will lead you to smoking. Do other things instead that require you to keep your mind on to something, away from thinking about smoking. You can chew gum to keep your mouth busy.
6. Have a reward to look forward to. This will further strengthen your resolve to stop smoking. Just be sure you won’t give yourself a pack of cigarette as a reward.
Following these steps will help you quit smoking. Don’t be surprised if you won’t be successful the first time. Just be determined to your cause and you will see yourself nicotine free with sheer hard work.
