Stop Smoking Forever.... continued

KNOW THE ENEMY & CHOOSE THE METHOD

What makes smoking so habit forming ? Even if you only smoke a few cigarettes a day, why do you feel so bad when you try to quit?

Nicotine creates a biochemical reaction in your body that has an immediate effect on your mood, your ability to reason, and your metabolism. The more that you smoke, the higher level of chemical dependency will be reached. Light smokers can also become just as dependent on cigarettes because of nicotine’s psychological impact. In this way it can affect moods and feelings in certain situations.

THE EFFECTS OF NICOTINE

It is only a matter of seconds after that first puff that nicotine starts to have an effect on your central nervous system, and the rest of your body. Certain areas of the brain, when stimulated by nicotine, help you think more clearly. Other areas of the brain lie in a pleasure center which when stimulated, can make you feel more relaxed and less anxious.

Nicotine also affects the hormones produced by the body which creates a chemical dependency to nicotine and the accompanying craving. Heavy smokers have become dependent on heightened levels of hormones, stimulated by nicotine, which can have an addictive quality. They need a cigarette at certain intervals of time. After the stimulation of the hormones starts to fall, they need another cigarette to bring them back into the comfort zone. If they do not get that cigarette, the craving begins.

HOW YOU CAN BEGIN TO QUIT

Many people have found that including physical activity in their program to quit smoking has added a tremendous benefit to assist in quitting. There are many reasons for this:

When people are more active, they gain confidence and like themselves more. They feel more energy, and are more capable of dealing with tension in their lives. With increased activity, the smell of tobacco actually becomes offensive. Whenever you feel the need to smoke after you have decided to quit, get up and move around instead. A brief physical activity can provide you with the lift that you may have received from nicotine.

HOW TO QUIT IN SEVEN DAYS

You are now ready to consider the following question:
How and when do you want to quit smoking?

There are only two ways to effectively quit smoking, immediately (cold turkey), or gradually. When you quit gradually, you use various methods to taper off before you have that last cigarette. Neither way is better than the other for all people. Pick the one that you feel fits your temperament. Either way, a nicotine patch may prove to be a real benefit in giving up, especially if you are a heavy smoker.
Try this test to see which way is better for you.

CHOOSE THE METHOD TO QUIT THAT’S RIGHT FOR YOU

Answer the questions by using “yes”, “no”, or “not sure”.
1. Stopping smoking is one of the most important things in the world for me right now.
2. I can handle a tough problem without a smoke.

3. I have to quit smoking and my reasons are good enough to do it now.

4. If I quit this minute, I know I can find a way to resist the craving to smoke, even if it is strong.

If your answer to all of the above questions is yes, you may be a candidate to quit immediately. But before you do, read on to get the tools necessary to be successful. After reading the following, set a time to quit. If not right now, then tomorrow, but do it.

What about the doubts you may be feeling now?
Most smokers will get a sense of doubt when they read the questions above. You probably are not confident in your ability to follow through with resisting any future craving to smoke, or finding something to substitute for the feelings that smoking has given to you.

In order to have the confidence to quit, you :
(1) must find an alternative to handle the urge to smoke, when it hits, and
(2) create ways to deal with the reasons that you smoked in the first place.

Together we will accomplish both these tasks so that when the day comes that you had planned to quit, you will be confident to do it.

HOW TO HANDLE THE URGE

Your artillery. There are several weapons that you can use in your fight to quit.

EACH OF THESE WEAPONS WORK- THEY HAVE BEEN PROVEN
You may use one, all, or a combination of several to achieve your goal. The urge to smoke is immediate, and usually lasts for five minutes. If you can resist for that period of time, you reduce the urge:

1. Take a deep breath, hold it for a few seconds, and exhale as if you had just taken your first puff on a cigarette. Part of the feeling you get from smoking is a direct result of taking a deep breath. A deep breath allows you to take in a maximum amount of oxygen, and exhaling lets out large quantities of carbon dioxide. This results in a feeling of relaxation. Try it, you’ll see.

2. Take a sip of water several times during this five minute period. It can help to diminish the need to smoke, and gives you something to do with your hands. The extra water will also help to flush the nicotine out of your body.

3. Put something in your mouth that has no calories, such as a stirrer, toothpick, or another substitute for a cigarette.

4. Get busy with something, anything, to keep you busy for the next five minutes.

5. As long as it does not lead to a craving, chew a piece of gum or a piece of hard candy. Life Savers work well

6. Get up and move around for five minutes. It will help the urge to smoke to pass.

7. Use a nicotine patch as replacement therapy.

HANDLING THE REASONS FOR SMOKING

Become a high energy person without cigarettes.
Relax and enjoy the pleasure of relaxation without cigarettes.
Deal with your tensions without a cigarette.
Deal with psychological dependence.
Deal with chemical dependency on nicotine.
Keep your hands busy fighting boredom.

LET’S START TO QUIT RIGHT NOW

The first thing to do is set a date when you are going to quit smoking. Let’s start one week from today. That will give you plenty of time to practice with the weapons in your arsenal. Eight days from today, it will be the beginning of the end of your smoking habit.

Days 1 and 2
Examine your smoking behavior for the first two days. Every time you light up, ask yourself:
1. Why am I smoking this cigarette?
2. Would this be an easy one or a difficult one to do without?
3. If I did not smoke this cigarette, what would I do instead?

Day 3
Let’s get out and test your weapons today.
At least once today, use your weapons to shoot down the urge to smoke.
During the five minutes that it will take for the urge to pass, try out some of your arsenal. Try one, or all, or find a combination that works for you.

Day 4
Today is the big testing day. If you haven’t already tried it, skip those one or two cigarettes that you feel may be the toughest to give up in your daily routine. Pick the ones that you rated “difficult” during your monitoring period.
Remember, this is a practice period, and you must not get upset if you are unable to give up a difficult cigarette.

You must practice and experiment with your different weapons to realize how you can be more effective. If you found skipping that cigarette very difficult or even failed in the end, review any factor that got in the way of your success. The most common causes of difficulty or failure that a potential quitter faces are:
Chemical properties of addiction.When you do not have that cigarette, you feel lousy. If you are a heavy smoker, a nicotine patch may help to relieve your bad feelings.

Social pressures
You may find yourself in a situation (card game, party, coffee break) during which you would normally smoke. It may help to let others know of your desire to quit, and also your reasons for quitting. Enlisting the aid of a non smoker to confide in may also help. Make sure that he or she is aware of your goals so that they do not say or do anything to instill a negative impact on your desire to quit. If you feel that you may not resist the social pressures of smoking, consider the option of giving up these social encounters for two or three weeks until the urge passes and you can be comfortable again.

Tension and negative emotion
A crisis occurs during your work or personal day, and one of the main reasons for you to smoke has been tension reduction. Try to deal with your negative emotions and use the tension reducing methods that we talked about earlier. Get away from the area that the tension is associated with. Take a walk, or go to another room. You may also find that nicotine gum will give you enough tension relief to get through.
Days 5, 6, and 7.

You are now heading down the home stretch. In the next three days, your goal is to come out of this week smoking half the cigarettes that you would normally smoke. If you started as a one pack a day smoker, cut back to ten cigarettes per day, or less. The fewer the better. During days 5 and 6, set your goals toward achieving positive results on day 7. Maintain your smoking record during these three days, and continue to decrease your dependency on nicotine.

What do you do if you still have doubts? This is probably due to your chemical dependency on nicotine. It is a highly powerful drug, and many factors have been working together to make you dependent. Discuss with your doctor about the feasibility of a patch or nicotine gum. Nicotine is the hook that has gotten you to smoke which carries the harmful effects to your body. With the help from the patch or the gum, you will have all he tools you need to successfully quit. The patch or gum will give you a steady influx of nicotine into your system, which will be reduced slowly over a period of several weeks. DO NOT SMOKE WHILE ON THE PATCH. You could experience a dangerous overdose of nicotine.

NOTE; Pregnant women should not use the gum or patch. Smokers with any form of heart disease should consult with a physician before using.