Smoking - how to give up
[UPDATED FEBRUARY 2024]
Why give up smoking / why never start smoking
If you need convincing of this, then please read:
This reviews lists the harms of smoking under general categories:
- Effect of smoking on the respiratory system
- Effect of smoking on the cardiovascular system (CVS)
- Effect of smoking on the reproductive system
- Other effects of smoking, including
- Oral Immunity
- Alzheimer's disease
- Delayed union of fractures
- Lung cancers, and other cancers
And it references 68 further studies.
Get Motivated
I can motivate at an intellectual level by giving the arguments as to why you should stop smoking - see above.
The trouble is that this usually does not work. Smokers do not want to give up!
Most people, to give up smoking, have to have the pants frightened off them. For some people they have to wait until they have a heart attack - suddenly mortality looms - and they stop. It is a risky strategy! For some, seeing a relative or friend die from lung cancer or airways disease is enough, i.e. the motivation has to come from an emotional level in order to make the change.
Most smokers are what I call natural addicts. They tend to get hooked on things. The common addictions are sugar, caffeine, chocolate, nicotine and alcohol (I love 'em all except nicotine - I dare not try it!). So initially swap from nicotine addiction to caffeine, chocolate and/or sugar. Or even take up a healthy addiction like running (probably too much to ask).
Once you have swapped nicotine addiction for another, you then have to tone that down. All addictions cause long term problems.
You can try the nicotine patches or gum. Nicotine Replacement Therapies [NRTs] do work. See Nicotine Replacement Therapy: An Overview, 2016 which concludes that:
Current evidence suggests that, all of the commercially available forms of NRT (gum, transdermal patch, nasal spray, inhaler and sublingual tablets/lozenges) increase their chances of successfully stopping smoking. NRTs increase the rate of quitting by 50 to 70%.
Hypnosis works for some.
But at the end of the day it's all about will power.
References
- A Comprehensive Review on the Impacts of Smoking on the Health of an Individual, 2023
- Nicotine Replacement Therapy: An Overview, 2016
Sarah Myhill Limited :: Registered in England and Wales :: Registration No. 4545198
Registered Office: Upper Weston, Llangunllo, Knighton, Powys, Wales LD7 1SL, UK.
Tel 01547 550331 | Fax 01547 550339
