How to Quit Smoking
Once a person decides that it’s high time he or she stopped smoking, it is better to start sooner rather than later. However, how do you quit smoking, when you have been smoking for a number of years? Smoking is a very difficult addiction to break as tobacco contains the substance called nicotine which is addictive to both the mind and body.
Several studies have proven that every time you smoke a cigarette, it costs you about 5 to 20 minutes of your life. Besides weakening the body, smoking leaves a person with halitosis, yellow teeth, dry skin, lower bone density, fertility problems that will inevitably affect the sexual health of both men and women and a bigger risk of being infected with deadly diseases such as lung cancer. Smoking is costly and can reduce the life span of a person by around ten years or even more.
Ways to stop smoking can be found in many places and there are also various types of medication that can be prescribed. Some smokers are given nicotine replacements such as nicotine gums, nicotine patches, lozenges, inhalers, etc. But the problem with all these is that it deals with mainly the physical aspect of what smoking does to the body. The truth is that more than the body, it is the mind that is addicted to smoking.
The hard part of quitting smoking comes when trying to deal with the mind. A smoker’s mind frequently becomes convinced that their happiness, enjoyment and leading a stress free life, all depend on smoking. Understanding the fact that this is not the case is one of the most pivotal issues in stopping smoking.
One of the most important things to bear in mind when trying to stop smoking, is the breaking of such relationships in the mind. Smokers think that they need a cigarette to help them cope with daily stresses. Once you are able to overcome this problem, in time your mind will learn to deal with daily problems without requiring a cigarette.
A good piece of advice for someone trying to stop smoking is to attend counselling sessions and get some encouragement from someone who is an ex-smoker, ie a person who has undergone similar experiences. Talking about your fears about quitting smoking and thereby relieving the fears you have by attending such sessions can be beneficial to anyone who is trying to quit smoking.
If you have made up your mind that you ought to stop smoking, don’t hesitate, grab the bull by the horns and start stopping now. You will soon start to notice the difference to your health. You will find that exercising will be easier, your fitness level will rise quickly, food will taste far better and your breath will be fresher.