Now
when we come to the actual quitting process, I would like
to remind you once again that it is not going to be easy.
Please do not consider yourself to be superhuman so be
ready to get external help if you need it. As I told you
earlier, there might be physical, mental and emotional
changes when you stop smoking. But you do not have to worry.
There is plenty of help available nowadays.
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Medical
Help
Do
not feel bad about getting support. On the contrary, your
chances of succeeding will increase many fold if you get
professional help. Remember, nicotine is a very powerful
substance and getting over it is no easy task. The more
help you get, the better.
If
you can get professional medical help, then it’s even better.
Getting professional medical help does not mean that you
have to under go prolonged medical treatment. Your doctor
or even your dentist will be able to guide you and provide
you with all the solutions to your queries. They will able
to suggest methods of handling the withdrawal symptoms
and even prescribe medicines that can help you.
One
of the most common problems that quitters face is frequent
mood changes in the initial stages. You might even end
up feeling sort of depressed and it is here that a medical
practitioner can help you with anti depressants or mood
boosters. It is well and good if you can quit by yourself
and over come the powerful urges to relapse, but if you
feel that you might need help there’s nothing to feel bad
about.
If
you need the help of medicines do not consider your self
to be weak or look upon your self as a patient. All you
have to do is understand how badly the nicotine had affected
you and you can start counting your lucky stars that you
decided to quit before something really bad happened.
Medicines
Most
of us feel queasy about taking medicines, and I don’t blame
you if you feel the same. But try and look at it like this.
Right now you do not have any serious affliction apart
from the fact that you are smoking. In order to quit smoking
you might have to take medicines for may be a month or
two. This is a lot like getting a vaccination as a preventive
measure to ward off a disease. But on the other hand if
you continue smoking, you might end up with major illnesses
which will require that you not only continue taking medicines
for life but also that your time on earth will be considerably
reduced. It’s a matter of being proactive than reactive.
The
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved five
medications to help you quit smoking:
Taking
these medicines will not just double your chances of succeeding
but will actually increase your chances by a whooping 80%.
But of course it is highly recommended that you start using
these medicines after consulting a medical practitioner.
Counseling
Counseling
is one way in, which you can strengthen your effort to
quit. It is not really required that you consult a professional
counselor. If you have a doctor or a dentist who you trust,
that person is more than enough. In the initial stages,
ask the person to detail you on all the harmful effects
of smoking. Then the person can monitor your efforts and
your progress and can give you helpful hints as well.
You
might also consider possibilities like group counseling
or telephone counseling. Group counseling has a wonderful
effect, because there is nothing that feels as good as
having others who face the same problems that you are encountering.
When you hear the fears of others, and how difficult t
is for them to pull no, you will feel surprisingly encouraged.
Group counseling will provide you a wonderful arena to
compare notes with other fellow quitters and you can watch
and monitor your progress.
Try
reassuring others, it has a wonderful effect on you. When
you talk convincingly to others without knowing it you
are really convincing yourself as well. This will go a
long way towards building up your own confidence that you
will succeed.
Telephone
counseling is also a possibility that many people tend
to ignore. The best thing about telephone counseling is
that it can be done at any time without too much of a strain.
Just consider the possibility, it is not always easy to
dash off to your counselor when you feel the urge to smoke,
know you are not supposed to and end up feeling depressed
about it. On the other hand if, at such a moment you can
just pick up your telephone and dial your counselor’s number,
you can get what you want and with the minimum loss of
time and effort.
A
Financial Reward
Sure
cigarettes are expensive, but because people buy them in
small quantities, the expense doesn’t seem much. So what
you can do is start saving the money that you do not spend
buying packets and packets of cigarettes. Save the money
for something special and if you can, try to make it special
for your family as well.
Promise
the kids something like a trip to Disneyland or a vacation
at the sea side. The advantage of making such public declarations
is that you have all the more reason to refrain from buying
cigarettes. Your kids too will be very enthusiastic about
reminding you not to splurge on cigarettes and there is
something to look forward to for all the family.
What
if you do not have a family to save for? Well, go ahead
and save for yourself. There’s always something that you
would want but ay have refrained from buying because it
might have been slightly over you budget. So now you can
add the money that you are not spending on cigarettes to
get yours elf that little something.
The
point that I am trying to drive home is that you should
be rewarded for your efforts. You attempt to start smoking
should not become a sort of punishment towards yourself
but must promise better things for you later.
Bringing
Down the Number
This
again is another pitfall. There is often a misconception
about quitting. Many people believe that instead of stopping
at just one go; they should try to bring down the number
of cigarettes that they smoke. Wrong! That is not the way
that it should be done. If you try and bring down the number
of cigarettes that you smoke, you will still be smoking
and that just doesn’t help.
It
is a very tricky thing indeed to fix on the number that
is safe for you. If you are still carrying cigarettes with
you then you are in fact tempting yourself. You might have
brought down the number but since you still have a packet
with you, you are in fact waiting for the slightest provocation
and that number will shoot up again.
What
is it that makes you smoke? Tension, excitement, anxiety,
problems, the need to unwind, stress? Can we ever free
ourselves form any of these? So the next time you hit one
of these then that becomes your green signal for you will
just whip out that packet, light one of them and start
puffing away to glory. The excuse that will be reverberating
in your mind is that “it’s just this once, just to get
over this small problem.”
And
then before you know it, you will be back to smoking the
same number of cigarettes.
So
let me emphasize that point again, you have to quit once
and for all if you are really serious about quitting. It
just does not work if you try to bring down the number.
The number just never becomes zero. I have met many people
who say, “I used to smoke 6 packets a day but now I’m down
to just 2 packets a day.” I look at them out of the corner
of my eye and I do not say anything to them though the
message on my face is, “but you are still puffing away
like a steam engine aren’t you?”
Water
Flows Down
It’s
strange isn’t it how every thing in this world always keeps
coming down. Sir Isaac Newton explained this phenomenon
using the laws of gravity. But I must admit that I am still
amazed how everything in this world tries to reach the
lowest possible point.
If
you have ever watched water flow you will understand what
I am talking about. A water fall, never thunders upwards,
a stream always flows down wards (remember the nursery
rhyme, “Row, row, row your boat gently down the stream”)
even a tiny pool of water spilt on the table tries to find
the easiest way downwards.
So
what about it?
You
must be wondering what the connection is between quitting
smoking and flowing water. There is a very deep connection
as you will see for yourself. There is an unwritten rule
in this world that everything must try and find the easiest
route downwards. When you take something to a higher state,
it becomes unstable and tries to find the easiest route
downwards.
Over
here we are trying to precisely the same thing. We are
trying to take you from a lower state (the state of being
a smoker) to a higher state, (the state of being a non-smoker).
So you must bear in mind that it is the easiest thing in
the world for you to relapse and again pick up that packet
of cigarettes. It is going to take a lot of effort and
will power on your part to refrain from smoking. That’s
why I keep saying that you will need all the support and
encouragement while you are still working at it.
But
then you might wonder if you have to keep up that will
power and constantly have to keep battling against the
urge to smoke for the rest of your life. The answer is
no. Once you have given up the habit once and for all,
once you have over come all these withdrawal symptoms,
then you have arrived. You will automatically pick up a
new life style and there will be no room for cigarettes
in that new life.
You
will start to realize how much better your life has become
with out cigarettes. You will feel the power in your hands,
you will be in absolute control of your life and at that
stage there is absolutely n coming back. Once you have
tasted the sweetness of success, there is no coming back.
Than you are safe and there is no fear of relapsing after
that.
The
whole thing is like a threshold. When you are controlling
yourself for the first time, you are at the very middle
of the threshold. You can fall upwards or downwards and
it is much easier to fall downwards. This is where you
need the support, help and encouragement of others. But
gradually as you over come the urge, you advance further
and further upward and once you are beyond a certain point,
then you have reached the point of no return and then there
is no coming back.
Low
Tar and Low Nicotine Cigarettes
Many
people switch to low tar and low nicotine cigarettes thinking
that there will be lesser harm done. This is again a myth.
The point that such people are missing out is that they
continue to smoke because the body or the brain has started
demanding its daily doze of nicotine. Nicotine is what
the body wants and nicotine is what harms the body most.
So
no matter what you smoke you will try to give you body
the nicotine that it has become used to. You cannot reason
with the body. You accustomed it to a particular dosage
of nicotine and when it doesn’t get that, its starts to
complain. At such a tie even if you switch to a low nicotine
cigarette it is not going to be of much use.
The
end result will be that you will start taking stronger
pulls on these cigarettes, may increase the number of cigarettes
that you smoke, or you might take more puffs per cigarette.
Nicotine is a venomously addictive substance and once you
get used to it, there is no bringing it down, there is
only stopping it once and for all.
The
message here is loud and clear. Smoking any kind of cigarette
is bad so don’t even consider other possibilities.
