With the ever-increasing price of cigarettes, and volumes of warnings that aim to increase the public's awareness of the dangers of cigarette smoking, you'd think it would be a no-brainer for smokers to just up and quit the habit cold turkey. However, being a former smoker myself, I know that this statement is neither realistic, nor fair.



Smoking is genuinely an addictive habit, not just mentally, although it certainly is psychologically addictive, but also physiologically, since nicotine is a substance that the body grows used to and craves, and when it is suddenly taken away, the withdrawal symptoms are anything but pleasant.

These withdrawal symptoms are the reason that many smokers never make it past a few weeks quitting the habit. It's also the reason that quitting smoking is so hard to do, especially the longer you've been doing it.

I've heard it all when it comes to the creative ways that men and women both will try to kick the habit. Some try the cold turkey thing, although this rarely works unless you have an iron will and are able to naturally cope with the symptoms of withdrawal on your own. Some people try cigarette alternatives, like herbal cigarettes, which are designed to help get rid of the nicotine addiction since they do not contain nicotine.

However, what some people don't realize is that herbal cigarettes are just as dangerous as smoking real cigarettes, and sometimes even more so, because they still emit carbon monoxide into the lungs and the body, and they also have carcinogenic chemicals that activate once the herbs are burned. One of the alternative cigarettes that is popular is reportedly an especially dangerous option, a tobacco and clove combination.

The cloves become extremely toxic when burned and inhaled into the lung tissue, with the potential to cause pneumonia and even pulmonary edema. They also happen to contain a lot more tobacco content than regular cigarettes, another reason to avoid them.

I'd say avoid herbal varieties of cigarettes all together if you can, even as a quitting mechanism, and instead opt for maybe a supplement or a patch to help you get through the rough patches, or try another alternative such as hypnotism. Hypnotism is one of my favorites. Self hypnosis has worked for scores of people to help them kick the habit once and for all.

It works by way of subconscious suggestion, on a subliminal level, and creates a strong desire to quit that is powerful because it comes from within your mind and is rooted in personal desire. This is one of the best ways to quit since it is truly all natural, and creates a desire beyond just a short time period of quitting that stays rooted in the subconscious for long after you've quit.

Of course if you ever feel yourself slipping and craving cigarettes again, you can always do "touch up" sessions of self hypnosis in your own home whenever you feel you need that positive reinforcement again.

Another popular alternative way to quit smoking currently are herbal supplements that are orally taken or adhered to the skin, in a patch form, that work sort of like a nicotine patch does, to transdermally (delivered through the skin) help you through your potential withdrawal symptoms.

The herbs are basically adhered to the skin via a patch which delivers beneficial ingredients through the skin to the blood stream, at time released intervals so you get the symptom control throughout your day, every day, to help ensure that your goals are reached.

Many people who are thinking of quitting smoking worry about the withdrawal symptoms, which include weight gain, irritability, restlessness, increased anxiety (although smoking actually increases anxiety, which many people don't know), inability to concentrate and many other unpleasantries.

In the end, no matter which alternative method you use to help yourself permanently give up the habit of smoking, it's going to boil down to a real concern for your health and well being, and a sustained desire to stay away from the potentially life shortening vice.

Only over time will you begin to see and feel the benefits of having clean, clear lungs such as, but not limited to, increased energy, better looking skin and teeth, and increased lung capacity, and that's what keeps you on the wagon!