It’s said that addiction to nicotine is a very sticky business. You know this all ready don’t you? Of course you do, and now you are standing here again possibly trying to enter the same trip!

Your latest attempt to stop smoking!

This isn’t your first try. Oh no – you probably have a history of several earlier trials. You are aware of there is a very big chance to fail also this time – so why try at all?

Well, I certainly know the feeling; I’ve been there myself!

I was a heavy smoker for more years than I care to remember. To be quite honest I was a smoker for more than forty years! Stupidity, yes of course!

Didn’t I try to stop? Of course I did – several times. At least once a year! You se I didn’t have any problem what so ever to stop. Every new attempt to stop was easier than the previous one. No - my problem was not to start again! Every new start was also equally easier to overcome!

If you care to remember how it all once started one could only wish that every new start would have been as troublesome as the very first try to smoke all too many years ago! 

You were standing there trying to inhale the smoke into your mouth and lungs and puff it out again. Just to taste the flavor of the damn thing. 
 
It wasn’t nice, it wasn’t good, it tasted very bad, but you wouldn’t let go because your friends stood there beside you looking or what ever reason. My qualified guess is also that you coughed and felt rather sick afterwards. Do you remember?

If you think about it, that specific time at the very beginning, you as well as I at my start were much eager to really struggle and win the battle against every reaction Mother Nature raised against us in the form of coughing, tears and eventually very sick feelings.     

Stupidity won and the nature lost!

So, here you are again in a new attempt to stop the nasty habit of smoking. Are you motivated enough this time not to start again or are you going to let also this try fade out in a lost battle?

I give you just one advice this time. What ever stopping methods you prefer in your attempt just give it 100 percent!

How I stopped? Ok, it took me more than forty years of constant smoking and then – I just stopped never to start again!

The trick is not to start again! Ever!

Wish method I used? Well, that will have to wait to next time!

It has to be said that smoking is one of the dumbest things to start in a human life. The more we learn about the medical consequences the more important it becomes to stop smoking as early as possible.

´To be or not to be´ would have been a very relevant question at the time you were going to start smoking wouldn’t it? That question was unfortunately forgotten or neglected. If we had asked our selves that question, we wouldn’t have been in this group of smokers now. Smokers that really want to stop this trip downhill in health.

Several years down the line there are usually lots of reasons to bring that question up again! Why did we start?

I certainly know the problem because I have been there myself. I was a heavy smoker for many years, and later on I often tried hard to squeeze an answer to that question.

It’s remarkable because the start of the smoking career wasn’t easy. The very first puff on a cigarette was awful to say the least. It didn’t taste good, it didn’t smell good, and one didn’t feel very good afterwards! There was a lot of coughing and watery eyes as well.

There must have been a very strong determination to begin that trip. The introductions are usually done in younger years and the prospective smokers have very often been pushed by influence from friends.

Bad habits spread easily! In a relatively short time the habit is established and the start-up problems will be forgotten. We have become full blown smokers.

I suspect that most smokers are very good to rationalize and find excuses why to continue and not stop. We can as an example persuade ourselves that stress is an important factor not to stop this nasty habit; at least not just now. Maybe tomorrow or next week! “I will stop when the stress is gone.”

We all know that stress is connected to smoking and that in some situations smoking is more or less ritualistically involved. I know by own experience that to answer the phone without having to light a cigarette was nearly impossible and that was the case regardless I was making a call or just answering. The cigarette and the lighter where forever related to this action and in such case you have problems to this rather normal activity without the cigarette.

Accidental shortage of cigarettes is in itself a significant stressing factor that can produce some very remarkable reactions. I can honestly say that sometimes I in pure desperation forced myself to use some old butts from the ashtray!

Nicotine is affecting parts of the nervous system and by doing so trigging some centre to release and cause rewarding and comforting sensations. This is also making the stopping process harder.

No wonder there at times is a need for personal assistance and aid to be able to stop smoking!

Are there any really good general tips on how to stop smoking? Well, I don’t know about you but during my smoking days I didn’t find any good tips in the sense tips that get me over to the non-smoking side.

I’m beginning to think that in order for a tip or suggestion to be meaningful it has to be related to the very person it aimed at. It has to be adapted to the person and to the situation that person are living under.

It might even be that smoking itself is the only visible sign of one real problem hidden in the background. There are as we all know situations in a human life when everything seems to fall apart and the only way out is to deny and hide. We are sometimes very good in putting up a coulisse or front to the surroundings. To lose the facade is to admit the trouble! 

Those situations are of course producing stress and for some people smoking is just one way to react to stress. “Just take a cigarette and relax”!

To be able to stop smoking in situations where everything in your life are upside down is probably not very effective. It might be better to await another day.

However, don’t wait too long!

What do you think?

Give us your opinion!

Well, that’s the question and a very good one also!  The most important and intelligent goal for a smoker is of course just to stop and to begin a new life without the burden of smoking.

It’s though a generally accepted opinion that the stopping is a very difficult task. That problem is also reflected in the very rich flora of different methods just to be able to get rid of the nasty habit.

Very few human activities are examined so deeply and methodically as smoking. There is also full consensus about the negative effects of the habit. The physiological consequences are very well recognized and mapped regarding both short and long term effects on the individual level.

Nearly every part of the internal system of the human body is more or less affected by the toxic effect of not only nicotine itself but also by a large number of chemical substances contained in the tobacco as such.   

As if this wasn’t enough the burning process produces new substances and by-products to be counted for.

Does anyone believe that any medical drug with the kind of side effects that substances produced and inhaled in connection with smoking would be officially approved by the medical authorities regardless of any hypothetically beneficial effect whatsoever? No way! 

So, let’s return to the question: How to quit smoking?

Anyone who has given this question the slightest thought knows there are a very rich not to say excessively rich flora to choose from. The reason for this is of course that there is some money to make. A lot of money actually!

The methods go from more traditional substitute treatment where the inhaled nicotine is compensated for by oral delivery all the way through hypnosis and more exotic treatments like laser and acupuncture.

Every method has its advocators and also of course economical participants. This is in itself not by any mean absolutely negative, but it needs to be understood that as a method for choosing the best way to go it has its limitations. It’s not necessary the most medically relevant quality that determines the frequency or popularity among the methods used. As in many other fields of human activity marketing and propaganda has a profound influence.

However, since we as individuals are different in many respects there is a need for several ways to attack the abuse of tobacco!

One method that very few talks about as a method for smoke stop are to drastically just stop by brute willpower or as it’s some time refereed to as “quit smoking cold turkey”.            
There are as you know several ways to go in the situation where you like to quit smoking.

There is no single method optimal for everybody, but you have to choose the most effective and comfortable based on your personal conditions.