In brief:” Have you quit smoking, or are you trying to quit smoking? Have you ever felt the pangs of addiction when you have not smoked for a while? This article provides help for those who want to know more about stopping smoking and the benefits for the same.”
Smoking is an addiction – as dangerous and lethal as drugs and alcohol. The only reason that smoking is not categorized with such serious addictions in our social mindset is the easy availability of the cigarette and the easier intake of the addiction. Drugs are expensive and illegal and one has to go through several layers before they can lay their hands on drugs.
Alcohol is expensive and the intake of alcohol meddles with our social, professional and private lives in the guise of hangovers and such, and therefore is labeled as a dangerous addiction.
Smoking, however, has no hangover has a minimal time consumption when it comes to inhalation of the addiction, and is quite cheap when compared to alcohol and drugs.
Such a serious addiction should not be taken lightly.
But of course, there is a practice that a person should go through to ensure that they stop smoking in the proper manner and that they have the lowest amount of nicotine withdrawal symptoms.
Accordingly, there are various smoking cessation methods and guidelines that the person trying to stop smoking should undergo.
Quitting Stages – Help with stopping smoking
Here are some of the give up smoking guidelines and stages that a quitter should adhere to –
Get more information about the smoking dangers
The smoker should begin to get more information about the dangers of smoking. Once the smoker gets the proper information about what his harmful habit is doing to his body and therefore to his family and future, he will surely make a better and stronger decision to quit smoking.
Stopping smoking is a long process
Quitting smoking is not a surprising or a onetime process. Quitting smoking is a long process and one cannot just get up in the morning one day and say that they do not want to smoke any longer. Smoking is a physical as well as a psychological addiction and it requires a lot of patience, trials and dedication for a person to successfully quit smoking. Therefore, a person should try to quit smoking gradually. If a person smokes ten cigarettes a day, they should try to decrease their smoking by a certain percentage per day.
Set a quit date as a trail date
With all this, all that is needed is to set a quit date. Once the quit date is in place, the smoker will automatically begin to look forward to the date and action whatever decisions they have in mind. As you near your date with fate, first stop smoking for a day. Refraining from smoking for a day will give you a better picture of your life after you have quit smoking. You will also get a mock chance to fight the withdrawal symptoms and the temporary problems one faces after stopping smoking.
Increase the time
Once you have not smoked successfully for a full day, you should try to increase the time by a week and then to a month. Quitting smoking is a gradual thing and the more addicted the person is to smoking, the more time he or she will require to actually quit smoking.
Relieving activities
One should begin to look for other stress relieving activities, like swimming, meditation, yoga, exercise or even a good talk with a loved one – anything but smoking. This will begin to give a new vista to the person’s decision to quitting smoking.
After you have crossed the limit of a month of not smoking, you are ready for greater achievements, namely three months. After the successful completion of a month of non smoking, you can begin the first trimester.
Write down
One of the first things that the smoker should do is to begin a small diary and jot down whatever changes and happenings he or she has gone through while they were trying to quit smoking.
While this does not have cause any actual difference to the health of the smoker, doing this is considered to be one of the transient stages of quitting smoking. One should look for brands that have lower tar and nicotine content.
The benefits of stopping smoking
Smoking has been repeatedly proved to be quite detrimental to the human body as a whole and to various human body organs on a certain level. In fact, smoking has lethal effects on almost all of the major human body organs, like the heart, the lungs and even the brain. It goes without saying that a smoker has to try his or her level best to try to stop smoking as the stopping smoking benefits are enormous.
Here are some of the facts about quitting smoking benefits –
1. Nicotine level is reduced to minimum and then vanishes.
2. Normal oxygen level in blood.
3. Lungs start to clear out the tar
4. The risk of lung diseases is reduced.
4. Smell and taste improvement.
5. Lower risk of heart attack.
