Quit smoking aids

When it comes to quitting to smoke - I am assuming we agree that this is the healthy thing to do here - there are many different ways you can go about it in order to succeed. The reason for there being so many methods out there is that taking up smoking is a personal choice, as is quitting to smoke. Reading stories about how others have managed to lay off the tobacco can thus be a great source of inspiration for your own quitting campaign. Interestingly enough, starting to tell "your story" can also be beneficial even before you have actually managed to quit.

The motivations for starting down the road of nicotine addiction could be countless and varied. Among those who start smoking at an early age, "being cool" and doing it due to the social pressure of ones peers is a ordinary reason. Others may possibly have started because of some insecurity or emotional problem, which commonly have people at large reaching for drugs, tobacco or alcohol.

What with today's stricter no smoking policies, it's becoming increasingly clear that smoking is not cool. For a fact, in light of all the scientific evidence of how hazardous it's to your health, it could on the contrary be portrayed as a fairly superfluous activity. Together with the considerable price (as in dollars) of buying cigarettes or tobacco most people would now agree that, regardless of the reasons you started smoking from the very beginning, quitting would now be the thing to do.

Unfortunately this is one of the things in life that are "more than meets the eye".

Fulfill your own prophecy

Have you ever caught yourself day dreaming about various subjects? Although this behavior might have been frowned upon when you went to school, it is actually a very powerful ability that you can use to your advantage when it comes to smoking cessation. Reading how people have overcome great difficulties in their lives can be an awe-inspiring experience, and for many people these stories include the battle they have fought against their habit of smoking. Simply by using your imagination - the same thing conjuring up those day dream - you can start writing on the manuscript that details how you put a stop to your nicotine addiction. In fact, I would like to challenge you to start right now.

Learning how others have lived with their smoking habit and at last managed to quit, can give us countless new insights into the reasons people smoke, the excuses we use to continue doing so and - more than anything - the triggers and methods we can use to lay of this counterproductive addiction. When you have managed to stop smoking yourself, you can add to this worthwhile pool of knowledge in order to maybe help others succeed as well. Thanks to the Internet the possibilities for a "collective stop smoking campaigns" of this type are limitless.

Athletes have known for many years that mental exercises actually are as important as their physical conditioning. Inspired by the success of others, you should thus start to envision life as a healthy non-smoker right now. If the story about how you quit smoking is a comedy, satire or horror movie is up to your imagination.

Just give it a try, and start writing the next chapter of your life in your mind. The tobacco industry may have lost one of it's customers sooner than you think.

Stop Smoking Aids Alone Not As Effective As Complete Plan For Quitting

One of the first stop smoking aids was nicotine gum, which worked for some, but not for others. Most professionals now feel that you need a complete stop smoking treatment plan, beginning with a "plan" to quit.

Quitting is hard, something that anyone who has ever smoked on a regular basis knows. At one time, it was simply considered a habit, one that people should be able to "kick". Now we know that the nicotine in cigarette smoke is addictive.

According to the American Heart Association, nicotine is one of the most addictive substances known. The addiction is comparable to cocaine or heroin addiction. So, if you smoke a pack a day or more, you are probably addicted.

Stop smoking aids such as the older nicotine gum and the newer nicotine patches are designed to "replace" the nicotine that your body craves and gradually reduce the amount that you need to prevent withdrawal symptoms. You could achieve the same effect by gradually reducing the number of cigarettes that you smoke per day. The most important part of any stop smoking treatment is the "desire" to quit.

If you are still thinking that you "should" quit, then you may not be "ready" to quit. As an ex-smoker, I know the physical pleasure that you associate with smoking a cigarette. There is a scientific reason for those feelings of pleasure.

Recently scientists have learned that when a person "lights up", the nicotine reaches the brain in about 7 seconds. There, it increases the level of dopamine, a chemical that generates feelings of "pleasure". In a sense, you are not addicted to nicotine; you are addicted to higher than normal levels of dopamine, just as you would be if you used cocaine, heroin or amphetamines.

However, dopamine, given as a drug, does not cross the blood-brain barrier, so there will never be stop smoking aids containing dopamine. They wouldn't work.

Substituting one addiction for another is not an appropriate stop smoking treatment, but you do need to find some other things that you really enjoy doing. It is particularly helpful if the things that you do cannot be done while smoking.

For example, physical activities, such as biking, hiking, running, swimming, tennis or anything else that you can think of, can be effective stop smoking aids. Not only because you cannot smoke while doing them, but also because your brain releases "feel good" chemicals similar to dopamine during strenuous physical activity.

For indoor activities, find things that require the use of both hands, such as knitting or even reading a paper back novel. Try to go places where smoking is prohibited, like the theatre or the library. These kinds of activities will not reduce the physical cravings, but they can help you break the "smoking routine".

If you have physical withdrawal symptoms, such as trouble concentrating or sleeping, you may need some type of nicotine replacement for a complete stop smoking treatment plan, but remember that the patches and the gums can have negative side effects. The gum made me nauseas. The patch made my heart pound. It took me several months to final quit for good, but some of the newer stop smoking aids promise faster results. To learn more about them, please visit http://www.stop-smoking-blog.com.