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Quitting Smoking, Understanding the Difficulty, and Ways to Cope
With it
As a former two and a half packs a day smoker,
I am well aware of the great difficulties we face when we try to
quit.
Starting to smoke as a teenager, the cigarette was my crutch, my
friend and my aid in my formative years, which increased my reliance
and dependance on my nicotine habit, defining my identity as a smoker.
Quitting smoking wasn't an option, fearing failure, fearing loss
of identity I convinced myself that mortality rates that were directly
linked to cigarette smoking, didn't apply to me.
They did.
Having a massive heart attack at age 37 surely convinced me that
I am no different then anyone else.
If we smoke, we get heart disease, when we get heart disease; we
get heart attacks, when we get heart attacks we die.
I quit smoking.
How can you do the same before you get heart disease, before you
get a heart attack?
Starting the process
Although it may be a difficult process it can be done. It all begins
in the mind when we follow these two steps.
- We must train our minds to associate smoking with pain, sickness,
disease, and suffering, through educating ourselves as to the
disastrous consequences smoking causes.
- We must train our minds to associate quitting smoking, living
smoke free, with health, joy satisfaction and pleasure.
No one really wants to hurt himself. It is just that we trained
our minds and bodies over the years to believe that cigarettes bring
us joy and pleasure, and not smoking brings us pain and anxiety.
We can begin by reading material from the Center
of Disease Control, from the American Heart Association from
the American Cancer Society and from the American lung association.The
truly devastating consequences of smoking and heart disease are
described there.
We must change our belief and attitude towards smoking
When we are able to change our beliefs,we are able to change our
attitude, when we change our attitude, our behavior begins to change,
we begin the process of really desiring to quit.
When we really desire something we tend to pursue it, we tend to
stay the course, we don't give up.
Quitting smoking follows the same pattern, we must truly desire
to stop, if we have that burning desire, we will succeed, and we
will enjoy a healthy active life.
Deciding that we really want to live a healthy active lifestyle
and quit
When we truly begin to desire something, we start thinking about
ways of getting it. We don't think I don't want not to have something;
we start thinking I want something.
Generally when we think about the thing that we want, we day dream
about it, we fantasize about it, and we visualize our selves as
having it.
It becomes real to us. When it does, the potential of it occurring
increases, our attitude towards it does, and our behavior toward
it does.
When we begin thinking, I want to be healthy. I want to be active.
I want to look good. I want to exercise. I want to live a long life.
We create those images in our minds. The more we think about them
the more these images grow in our minds.
The clearer those images become, the more we want the things they
represent. When we truly desire them, we begin to take action, we
decide that we will quit.
It can work like this:
| I want to:
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I don't want to:
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| Be healthy, be strong, be fit
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Be sick, be weak, be unhealthy
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| Smell good, smell fresh, smell clean
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Stink, reek, smell bad
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| Have clean fingers
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Have yellow fingers
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| Have control over my life
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Be dependent on my addictions
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| be active
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be sedentary
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| Be accepted socially by all not
only by 28% - the smokers |
Be socially unaccepted by 72% of
the population |
| Enjoy a meal in a restaurant without
having to run out for a cigarette |
Have to avoid going to social settings
because I fear I won't be able to smoke |
| Be able to swim, run, hike, play
and enjoy our vacations and leisure time
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Be forced to sit in one place not
being able to participate in any activities
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| Spend my cigarette money on better
things
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Waste my money on cigarettes which
has become such an expensive habit
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| Use your imagination and enter anything
else you really want to do but you are inhibited because of
smoking
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Use your imagination and enter anything
else you really don't want to do but you are inhibited because
of your smoking habit
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Once we make a clear decision and resolution that we will quit
We must select a method that we are comfortable with, let us not
kid ourselves nicotine is a drug and an addictive one.
At times we may need aids to overcome the cravings caused by quitting
smoking. The aids alone won't cause us to stop, they are called
aids, because that is what they are helpers. Really quitting smoking
must come with a burning desire as written earlier.
Once we have the desire, it is easier for us to overcome the withdrawal
symptoms which are our difficulty at the beginning of the process.
Especially when we know that they are only temporary and are replaced
by a satisfying active lifestyle.
The withdrawal symptoms of quitting smoking are:
- Cravings
- Irritability
- Anxiety
- Headache
- Depression
- Restlessness
- Difficulty concentrating
These can and have been overcome by all of us that have stopped
smoking using these two methods
- Cold Turkey, deciding to quit, and then actively replacing
the cigarette with other enjoyable activities
- Nicotine replacement therapy, which release low dosages of
nicotine into the blood stream that include
- Nicotine gum
- Nicotine patches
- Nicotine inhalers
- Nicotine nasal sprays
We must then make a clear decision and resolution that we will
exercise and enjoy life
Once we begin the process we must start doing all those things
we really wanted to.
We must start becoming active. We must start walking, exercising,
hiking, playing sports or any other enjoyable activities that we
weren't able to do when we were smokers.
I have given this advice to several of my friends after my heart
attack. I am happy to say, that the ones who followed this advice
have stopped smoking, they are now my exercise buddies. It works
try quitting smoking using these techniques and you will succeed
Quitting smoking is a must!
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Heart
