Quit Smoking

After pregnancy, many mothers who wouldn’t have even considered a cigarette while they were with child will oftentimes find the thought of a cigarette very tempting. There’s the knowledge that one has been deprived of the opportunity to feed their addiction for so long that feeding it again would feel very, very good. This is one of the struggles that anyone who has developed an addiction will eventually face and one which they will likely face many times during their lives. To combat this, sometimes it’s necessary to substitute something good for the formerly bad behavior associated with the addiction.

One can begin by considering what it is about cigarettes they miss the most. While many individuals would reflexively say “nicotine” this is not necessarily the case. Addictions are more complicated animals than that. One may miss the smell of a freshly-lit cigarette, they may miss the sensation of inhaling the smoke—keep in mind that, if one stop smoking for a time, that the memory of this sensation may be much better than the present reality will prove—or the simple permission one is socially granted to relax when having a cigarette. There is more to this than a drug!

If one misses the sensation of smoking, oddly enough, intense exercise sometimes helps. Aerobic exercise gives people an awareness of their lungs and the sensation of breathing that is not that far removed from smoking excepting, of course, that it will help rather than kill an individual. Some individuals may do well by adopting something to do with their hands. Playing solitaire, doing puzzles or even reading are good substitutes for this. If one misses the social permission to get away for 10 minutes or so, remember that this is an inherent right, not one granted by tobacco.

One of the absolutely undeniable downsides to stop smoking is that, for at least a couple of weeks, the smoker’s family is forced to live with a cranky monster. Tempers flare fast, ex-smokers tend to snap at people for no reason at all and the atmosphere can be very tense. Those who have never started smoking need to understand that the individual quitting is being motivated to do something as strongly as one is motivated to eat or sleep and that they’re denying themselves. This effort oftentimes takes every bit of one’s conscious energy and can be incredibly stressful.

Parents have to be particularly attentive to their own psychology when one quit smoking. Mothers can go from sweet and loving to testy and unapproachable in a few hours when they give up smoking. Aside from replacement therapies with gum or patches—which may work very well—there are other ways to alleviate the stress that comes with making this improvement to one’s life. One can start by just admitting it. “I’m really cranky, my head hurts, I want a cigarette really bad and you need to go away,” is not out of line, especially considering that one is doing one of the hardest possible things: giving up an addiction.

Be sure to ask for both support and space. Recently-quit smokers are a bit like badgers, they may be cute and one may wish to be nice to them but one is likely to get teeth and nails in return. Just admitting that one’s moods are up and down and that one probably will be moody for a while also removes the expectation that one should be happy when they’re giving up this habit which is an unrealistic expectation. A bit of pride, however, is most certainly merited.

For smokers who are considering kicking the habit, many don’t realise just how profound an effect it can have. Smoking does have serious harmful effects as we all know, but the human body is remarkably resilient and can recover from years of abuse at the hands of tobacco. The key to this recovery is time, here is how your body will start to heal itself when you quit smoking, and when:

• After just 20 minutes from finishing your last cigarette your body will start to self heal. Your blood pressure and pulse rate will start to fall, while there will be an increase in the temperature of your feet and hands.

• After 8 hours both the nicotine and carbon monoxide levels will reduce significantly. Carbon monoxide levels returning back to normal mean the blood’s ability to carry oxygen also returns to normal, improving circulation.

• At the 24 hr stage, the body will now be completely free from traces of nicotine and carbon monoxide. Your risk of suffering from a heart attack has just started to fall.

• From the 48 hour mark you may notice your ability to smell and taste improves as nerve endings re-grow. Also, the excess risk of lung cancer stops as well as the decline in lung function.

• Between 2 weeks and 9 months after you quit, you will notice significant improvents in your health. Your skin will look more glowing, younger and less wrinkled. You should notice you have much less phlegm, and coughing & wheezing will be much less frequent. The function of your lungs will also improve by about 10%.

• One year after you quit is a major milestone in your body’s recovery process. Not only can you be proud of your achievement, but your risk of suffering coronary heart disease and having a heart attack are now half that of a smoker.

• After 10 years of staying smoke free there will be no turning back as you will have spent most of the last decade looking and feeling younger than when you smoked. And you can look forward to many more years now your risk of lung cancer is reduced to half of that of a smoker. There is also a similar decrease in the risk of cancer of the throat, mouth, kidney, bladder and pancreas.

• 15 years down the line and your body is still working to repair all the damage done by tobacco. It’s good news for you though, now your risk of heart attack and coronary heart disease are the same as someone who never smoked!

Looking at what your body has to do to heal itself should surely bring home just how damaging smoking can be. While much of that damage is at least partially reversible, you can see that it is going to take quite some time. If you continue to smoke, just think about how much time you actually have.

There are numerous products on the market today to help you stop smoking. Firstly, there are a several different types of NRT’s (Nicotine Replacement Therapies) that contain nicotine. These are designed to slowly wean you off your dependence on cigarettes, and eventually nicotine itself. Here though, I am going to focus on treatments that do not contain nicotine. The 2 most common drugs available at the moment are called Zyban and Chantix (Champix outside the USA).

Zyban (bupropion)

Zyban began life as an anti-depressant under the brand name Wellbutrin. After users of Wellbutrin who smoked noticed a reduced desire for cigarettes, further testing was done and Zyban was born as a smoking cessation drug.

Unlike NRT’s, Zyban does not put any nicotine into the body. It comes in pill form and works by reducing the withdrawal symptoms suffered when you stop smoking. You begin taking Zyban about 1 week before you stop smoking completely, and then for up to 12 weeks after you have stopped.

In studies, taking Zyban increased the chances of quit smoking by 100% at the 3 month stage. At the 1 year stage, after which some patients had relapsed, the increase had dropped to 50%. Some side effects have been reported, including insomnia, dry mouth and in very rare cases seizures were reported.

Chantix (varenicline)

Chantix, which is known outside the USA as Champix, is the latest medication developed to help people quit smoking. Like Zyban, it comes in pill form, does not contain nicotine and treatment begins 1 week before your quit date. After you stop smoking, you continue to take Chantix for either a further 12 or 24 weeks. In tests, those that continued for the full 24 weeks had a higher success rate and were more likely to remain smoke free for good.

Chantix works by preventing nicotine from releasing the pleasure inducing dopamine into the brain in large quantities. When the nicotine cannot release dopamine, the smoker does not get the usual pleasure sensation in the brain from smoking, and so the desire for nicotine dies. Chantix itself also causes the release of dopamine, but only small quantities at a constant rate throughout the day. This replaces the highs and lows you get with nicotine, and thus reduces the craving for it.

A year after using Chantix, you are 3 times more likely to be successful at quit smoking. Compared to Zyban, it increased the chances of success by 60% at the 1 year stage. The side effects reported when using Chantix where insomnia, nausea, headaches, flatulence and constipation.

“With years of scientific expertise in their corner, the professionals at QuitSmoking4Dummies.com group have been successful in their efforts to create the simplest, safest and fastest way to quit smoking forever.”

The Quit Smoking 4 Dummies! System has consistently shown to bring about natural feelings of well-being, while at the same time providing nutritional support to help your body cleansing itself of all nicotine.

“There are no other quit smoking solutions like this online anywhere!”

With this ground-breaking system you will finally learn some very controversial truths about:

* The big, cynical myths and lies about smoking addiction that we’ve all been fed our entire lives (no wonder we haven’t been able to quit before)!
* The “evil con job” that big business and governments use to keep you smoking, even when you want so desperately to quit!
* Why it’s almost “child’s play” to quit when you understand this single fact about smoking (We’ve all been misinformed for decades!)
* Why it’s not your fault you started and why fear had doomed all of your previous efforts to failure and how to get control of that fear and succeed with smoking cessation at long last!
* How to control the incredible power you already possess to zap that fear right out of your mind (sounds impossible, but this system makes it EASY to achieve)!
* The Incredible techniques that will remove all desire for smoking forever, with no chance of coming back in the future. None!
* Why it’s impossible to quit by cutting down, and exactly how to eliminate your habit right now, this instant! (Without the usual suffering and anxious feelings like you have in the past!)