Smoking is a bad habit that can have damaging affects on your own health and the health of the people that live with you. Smoking causes many health problems including cancer, heart disease, and emphaysema. Furthermore, second-hand smoke is detrimental to the people around you. Quitting is so important for many reasons. Continue reading to discover several ways to ease the process.
Talk to a medical professional if you need assistance in your attempts to give up smoking. There are a growing number of medical aids, such as antidepressants, that can help you quit with much less discomfort. Also ask your doctor for a list of support groups, therapists and any other resources that may be helpful to you.
Take some time to honestly consider the top reasons why you would want to stop smoking. Jot down a few of your top reasons for quitting, and carry the paper in your wallet or pocket. Anytime you are tempted to light up a cigarette, take the paper out of your pocket and read your reasons for wanting to quit instead.
Before you even think of beginning the process to quit smoking, you must be willing to stay committed. Unless you adopt a positive, optimistic outlook and a willingness to persevere, you will have a difficult time ditching your habit. Keep your motivation for quitting in mind at all times.
As you begin your journey to a smoke free lifestyle, plan a series of rewards as you reach certain milestones. Make a list of the rewards you will offer yourself once you've stopped smoking for one day, a week, a month and so on. Keep the list on display so that you have to look at it every day. This will allow you to combat any urges or temptations that you have during the day.
Let your family and friends know that you are quitting smoking. Their support will help you stick with your resolution to quit. Tell them they need to remind you that you want to quit because you want to be healthier, and so you feel better, especially when the temptation to smoke is nagging at you.
A counselor may help you quit smoking. There may be underlying emotional reasons attached to your smoking habit. If you can successfully deal with those issues, you may lose the urge to light up or be better able to control it. If this is a strategy that you think would work for you, make an appointment to speak with your primary care physician for a referral to a counselor who can help.
Would nicotine replacement therapy work for you? Implementing this technique can pacify your withdrawal symptoms while helping you to quit at the same time. Once you've lost the urge to smoke, you can stop using nicotine replacement altogether.
When the temptation to smoke overwhelms you, using stalling tactics to make yourself wait. Force yourself to wait at least ten minutes before you give into the urge. Typically, you will become distracted with something else and will wait longer than the ten minutes. If the craving is still there, repeat the process as often as you need to.
You may have to quit smoking several times before you quit for good. Many individuals who have successfully quit did not succeed the first time they tried. When you quit, try to stick to abstinence for as long as possible. If you should slip up, and light up, immediately get back on track and set a new quit date. Make a habit of quitting, and try to make it longer every time you quit. Each time you attempt to quit smoking, you will develop new tactics which will eventually enable you to quit completely.
It can be a tough emotional challenge to quit smoking. Craving a cigarette is tough and it's easy to succumb to temptation. One way to help overcome cravings is to keep a journal. In this journal you should write down what was happening when the craving occurred, and how you effectively dealt with the craving.
Smoking is extremely harmful to your health. Those who smoke are more likely to suffer from heart attacks, cancer, or emphysema. You need to realize that second-hand smoke is just as dangerous, if not more dangerous to the people around you, and you are putting their health at risk as well. Hopefully, you will be better able to stop smoking by following the advice in this article.
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