Give It Up For Good With These Time-Tested Tips
Give It Up For Good With These Time-Tested Tips
Quitting smoking is a challenge. Nicotine is a drug that has been compared to heroin in terms of the difficulty of quitting. Setting yourself free of cigarettes requires developing a plan of attack.
This article will help you learn some of the tips and tricks to help you quit smoking successfully.
If you are looking for a chemical aid to quit smoking, then be very careful about this approach. Drugs such as Chantix have a relatively weak success rate and can have the potential to cause severe damage to your body. It works by altering your brain chemistry, and can lead to severe depression and suicidal tendencies.
Sometimes when you're trying to quit smoking, scare tactics can help. Scan a few pictures of cancer patients, individuals who have aged significantly due to cigarettes, or damaged lungs. Keep these in view at all times and they just might scare you into staying away from those dangerous cigarettes.
If you feel that you need to smoke a cigarette, first try to delay that action. Force yourself to do something, whether it is go for a walk around the block or simply drinking an entire glass of water, before you are allowed to have a cigarette. Sometimes, delaying smoking actually is enough to prevent you from taking that puff. If you desire to smoke a cigarette, the delay could cause you to smoke one less cigarette that day.
Write down the reasons why you want to quit smoking. Post the list someplace where you'll see it every day, to help keep you motivated. Include not only the reasons that directly benefit you, but also the reasons that quitting will benefit your friends and family. Being able to read your list every day will remind you of why you stopped smoking in the first place.
You must know why you want to stop smoking. Having shallow reasons, like it is bad for you are not good enough. To really get yourself motivated, you need a personal and powerful reason to quit. Maybe you are scared of lung cancer. Or maybe you would like to keep your family from second hand smoke. It might be because you want to both feel and look younger. Choose a strong reason that outweighs your urge to light up.
When a cigarette craving strikes, try to implement delays. Tell yourself you are going to wait 10 minutes to see how you will feel, then try distracting yourself because you will generally find 10 minutes is a good time frame for the craving to pass. If the 10 minutes wasn't enough, then keep delaying yourself until it urge has passed.
Starting an exercise regimen is a great way to support yourself when you're trying to quit smoking. Under the advice of a doctor, ease yourself into the regimen, especially if you've been a heavy smoking for many years. The exercise will help you not only repair some of the damage smoking has done to your body, but is also a great stress reliever as well.
In order to quit this damaging addiction, you need a combination of determination, focus, and a strong plan. Use what you have learned in this article to help you overcome your cravings. While you go through the process, stay motivated by thinking of all of the benefits that will be yours once you have kicked the habit!