Those who quit smoking can expect to experience nicotine withdrawals, fatigue and cravings, all of which can be treated through various methods. Find out how to address quit symptoms with advice from a smoking cessation specialist in this free video on ways to quit smoking. Expert: Michela Christensen Contact: www.breathecalifornia.org/ Bio: Michela Christensen is a tobacco cessation counselor working for Breathe California. Her class has helped hundreds of smokers stop smoking. Filmmaker: Bing Hugh
Filed under Quit Smoking by on Apr 22nd, 2011. 6 Comments. 
For any smoker, heavy or light the complete and sudden withdrawal from smoking or stop smoking cold turkey would probably be the hardest thing to achieve. Usually the individual draws back to the habit as the withdrawal symptoms appear to be too hard to overcome. However, within all the quit smoking tips it is stated that stop smoking cold turkey is the method used by 80% to 90% of individuals who manage to quit the habit successfully.
Nicotine, a highly addictive chemical is contained in cigarettes and when a smoker quits the habit, the nicotine cravings that are very difficult to overcome act up. In addition to the nicotine craving, withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, insomnia, fatigue and headaches may occur and may persist heavily during the first few days when one decides to stop smoking cold turkey. Different methods such as Nicotine Replacement Therapy which administers a dose of nicotine to the body through products in the form of gums,patches and sprays could be used by an individual to relieve the symptoms and craving.
Although this is an effective way to deal with the withdrawal symptoms, it promotes nicotine addiction in the body. An individual who was previously addicted to a cigarette may now be addicted to nicotine gum or patches. Although the body is given a lower dose of nicotine to reduce merely the stop smoking cold turkey symptoms, the body demands the old level of nicotine.
Thus, this creates a new level of required nicotine in the body. Therefore, it should be noted that using these products will only place an individual in a chronic state of drug withdrawal.
Only two methods exist to relieve this state, one is to stop the administering of nicotine completely and the other is to get back to smoking.It should be remembered that the
withdrawal symptoms would heavily persist only during the first two weeks and it would normally decline subsequently.Thus, perhaps the best and most effective way to quit the habit is stop smoking cold turkey.
Finding support and guidance would help an individual immensely to stop smoking cold turkey; friends and family members would be ideal for this task and would help one to overcome the habit successfully. In addition, joining a support group or undergoing therapy and counseling sessions would also be helpful to an individual who wants to stop smoking cold turkey.
It should be remembered that of all the ways to quit smoking, particularly to stop smoking cold turkey is indeed not a relatively easy feat to achieve. It will push the determination and the will power of the individual perhaps to the absolute limit.
Filed under Quit Smoking by on Aug 10th, 2010. Comment.
There are endless good reasons to quit smoking, including reducing your risk of cancer, heart disease and early death. Despite these well-known risk factors, however, many smokers find themselves needing a more personal reason to want to kick the habit; possibly because the threat of “maybe” contracting a deadly disease just doesn’t seem likely (the old, “it will never happen to me” syndrome).
This article is going to share some easy steps to help you come up with your own powerful, compelling reason(s) to quit smoking once and for all.
1) First, take a few moments to jot down on a sheet of paper the negative aspects of how smoking makes you feel. You can include actual physical problems like shortness of breath and fatigue; as well as feelings like embarrassment that your clothing and hair may stink; feeling like an outcast stepping outside to smoke while everyone else stays inside socializing and having a good time; or even your fears, like dying young and leaving your children before your time.
Write down as many reasons as you can, and try to make them reasons that really matter to YOU – not just what other people have said to you or you’ve heard others say before.
2) When you’re done with your list, look it over carefully. Read each item on the list, and really think about how it feels to experience that situation in your daily life. Now choose the top three reasons that are most repulsive to you and circle them.
Take another sheet of paper and write a longer description of each of those three items. For example, if one of your top reasons was “to not die young and abandon my children”, write a paragraph or two about why that is important to you. How would it affect your children if you died before your time? How will your smoking impact them, now and in the future? Will your smoking addiction encourage them to smoke later in life? Continue writing until you feel you have identified your core reason for wanting to quit smoking. This may seem like a morbid exercise, but it can be incredibly powerful. Being a smoker for a long time desensitizes you to the true long-term effects of smoking. This exercise jars you out of the haze of denial.
Now go through this same process for the other two important reasons on your list.
3) When you’ve got your three descriptions written, read them over again. Now take a final sheet of paper and write a description of the opposite outcome. When you do quit smoking, what will happen instead of those other experiences? For example, you might write that you will be around to love your children and grandchildren for many years to come, your kids will be really proud of you for quitting, they’ll be blessed with a healthy, strong parent that has the energy and stamina to play with them, and so on.
Do this for all three reasons you described earlier.
Carry these lists with you and read them slowly each day, really paying attention to how they make you feel. With enough repetition, you will actually begin training your brain to view smoking as an unpleasant, dangerous activity – which will make quitting easier when you decide it’s time.
While this may not remove the discomfort that comes along with nicotine withdrawal, it will certainly help you to stop seeing smoking as a harmless activity and instead see it for what it is: a true threat to your health, happiness and longevity.
If that isn’t enough reason to quit, what is?
Filed under Quit Smoking by on Feb 15th, 2010. Comment.
Hi, my name is Karen and I am a non-smoker. Having kicked my addiction to nicotine and cigarettes I am living a healthier no smoking lifestyle. If you would like to be a non-smoker, too, join me on your quest to find the best solution to help you stop smoking.
