Nicotine is a drug that is a natural component of tobacco. Nicotine is highly addictive and is considered by many to be as addictive as heroin or cocaine. The longer one smokes the more the body becomes physically and psychologically dependent on nicotine.
Researchers find that smokers must break their psychological and physical dependence in order to become smoke free long term.
Once smoke is inhaled the nicotine is carried deep into the lungs. Once in the lungs it is absorbed quickly directly into the bloodstream and travels through the body.
Nicotine exerts a dramatic affect on many parts of the body such as the heart and blood vessels, hormonal system, metabolism, and the brain.
Unfortunately nicotine is found in breast milk and even in cervix mucous secretions of smokers. During pregnancy, nicotine freely crosses the placenta and has been found in amniotic fluid and the umbilical cord blood of newborn infants.
Now here's the way the psychological addition takes hold so deeply. Once inhaled the nicotine triggers pleasurable feelings that induce the smoker to crave smoke more. This drug also acts like a depressant by interfering with the way information travels between nerve cells.
Once the nervous system becomes adjusted to the presence of nicotine, smokers find their habit increasing by several additional packs per week. Additionally, their blood nicotine levels increase proportionally.
Once level of tolerance to the drug is developed by the smoker the smoking habits continues to increase.
What Happens When Smokers Quit
According to the American Cancer Society, the following benefits are experienced once smokers break the habit.
?20 minutes after smoking stops the heart rate and blood pressure drops.
?12 hours after stopping, carbon monoxide levels in the blood drop to normal.
?2 to 3 weeks after stopping circulation improves and lung function increases.
?1 to 9 months later coughing and shortness of breath decreases. Additionally the cilia fain lungs regain normal ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs and reduce risk of infection.
?5 years after quitting the risk of stroke is reduced to that of a nonsmoker of 5 to 15 years.
?10 years after quitting the cancer death rate is ? that of continuing smokers. "
So How Do I Quit?
Use these 5 Top Tips To Begin Your Life As A Nonsmoker
1.Eliminate guilt. Changing a habit takes several weeks so a few missteps are part of the normal pattern of change. Don't beat yourself up should you finding yourself smoking again after you've started your program.
Guilt triggered emotions and reactions cause more failed non-smoking results than any single other factor. Be kind to yourself and forget about guilt. You will be successful if you follow this program.
2.Decide on a date when you will become a non-smoker (set it close enough to be realistic but not so close as to be stressful)
3.Write the date on a 3 X 5 business card and look at it at least twice a day for the next 30 to 45 days (in the morning before getting out of bed, at noon/optional, at night as the last thing you do before retiring)
4.Spend some time during the day visualizing yourself as a non-smoker. It may take a while to get comfortable with this exercise but it is well worth the effort. Find a quiet spot where you won't be interrupted for at least 15 minutes.
Turn off the ringer on your phone and let everyone know you need some quiet time. See yourself involved in activities as a non-smoker. Enjoy the feelings, sights and sounds that would naturally be part of the surroundings that you are visualizing. Allow yourself to spend as much time as you want, enjoying activities as a non-smoker.
5.Most often there are events, activities, which have created habit patterns that are directly connected to smoking. For some it is the first cup of coffee in the morning. Others find when they are out socializing with friends they smoke more than at other times.
Review your own smoke related habits for situations that tend to contribute to heavier smoking than other activities. Eliminate or modify the frequency of times when you engage in those activities for the next 30 to 45 days.
What Percentage Of Cigarette Smokers Quit And Are Successful
But not all.
Some smokers quit in other ways, sometimes completely on their own. I'm interested in them because they have done what many claim is impossible. So I seek them out, talk to them, grill them?and learn their valuable secrets.
This article is about five elements (characteristics or tactics) often present in smokers who quit successfully, no matter what method they used.
My research is unscientific. I offer the information because I believe it will help others, maybe you or your friends.
If you are a smoker, and find yourself disagreeing intensely with these smoking cessation approaches, or methods, consider them only as possibilities. Experiments, if you will. To play with, adapt, and make your own. Or to rebel against as you discover a way that's better for you.
Please tell me about those new ways; I may include your suggestions in a subsequent article. In the meantime, here are the smoking-cessation secrets I've uncovered:
-Secret 1: Your reason for quitting
It's not just that you quit'it?s also the why, or, more precisely, the impetus.
The most successful quitters quit for themselves. Not for a spouse or lover, relative, friend, or even a cause. They quit because they want to quit. Some say simply ?It was time.? Did they do it to improve health, or help fight off illness?
Maybe. But rarely did anyone give that as the primary, gut-level reason. The real reason they named was secondary to simply making the choice to quit.
-Secret 2: Quit all at once
Many successful quitters quit smoking in one fell swoop. Few used the tapering-off approach, smoking fewer cigarettes each day. Many said about this tapering-off approach, ?It may sound easier, but I just knew it wouldn't work for me.?
Those who quit all at once didn't have the difficulty of weaning themselves off nicotine (and the tactile habit) while constantly reintroducing it to themselves as taperers do.
-Secret 3: Get support or tell no one'it?s an individual preference
An equal number got support from friends and family as told no one about it. Interesting, yes? Again: my sample was small, so nothing statistically-valid can be said about the effectiveness of asking for support vs. doing it on your own, privately.
Still, it's interesting that in this small selection of smoke-quitters, both ways worked equally well.
It seemed to depend on the personality of the person quitting smoking: some were fiercely independent and resented advice, urging, and even friendly checking-in. When these people told no one, they did better.
But others enjoyed getting help, moral support, and tips from someone already successful at smoking cessation. People who liked back-up support in other areas of their lives often made good use of it in stopping smoking, too.
Conversely, people who read friends? checking-in as interference or judgment were better off not consulting with others. Yet even these quitters got benefit from professionals if they specifically sought out and paid for the assistance, utilizing coaches, hypnotists, smoking-cessation workshops or groups, CD's or tapes.
I suspect it is a matter of your own life circumstance and personality. And, frankly, how your friends, acquaintances and relatives behave around this specific issue.
Some people said they knew they had better tell those around them so they would not be offered hard-to-refuse smokes while in the process of quitting.
Others took the opposite point-of-view, especially with friends who were still dedicated smokers. They didn't tell because they didn't want to be challenged, tempted or taunted. If offered a smoke, they responded that they had just had one, or begged off due to a cold.
Some didn't even tell their nonsmoker friends: ?Just in case I went back to smoking again, I didn't want to make a big declaration about it.?
When asked why, they said something like ?Because I don't like to be hassled?even if the intentions are good.?
-Secret 4: Acknowledge the specific benefits of not smoking
Once the decision to quit was made, at least tentatively, successful quitters intentionally noticed and remarked to themselves (and sometimes others) about the advantages of not smoking.
One client told her friends how she was no longer getting winded while climbing the stairs. Another mentioned she could taste her food better, and so was satisfied with less.
There were proud comments about clothes and homes smelling cleaner and fresher, without that ?old cigarette smell.? And about ?making up my mind and just doing what I said!?
The more pride about these achievements, the greater impetus to become a nonsmoker and remain one.
A few said they intentionally remarked on these benefits every day, always making an attempt to discover new ones.
-Secret 5: Become an example and a teacher
First let me say that making oneself an exemplar is not for everyone.
Some prefer greater privacy, others think it pompous or showy, and still others are generally private people, or worry about embarrassment if they return to smoking at some time in the future.
But for those willing to tell, there is more motivation to stay quit if the world knows you claim to be a nonsmoker now. ?It keeps me honest,? a hypnosis client told me after staying quit for six months, ?I tell everyone.?
Five years later, her plan is still working.
But if you do tell, consider telling in a spirit of sharing, confiding, and friendliness.
Not to embarrass others. Not to be arrogant. Not to make smokers feel weak, unintelligent, or inferior if they haven't quit yet.
Do it instead to let them know, subtly and gently, that it may be possible for them too.
That you could be counted on for help if needed. That it is do-able, even by someone who took X number of years to do it.
Stay humble, and you will be of real help, sometimes when you least expect it. ?2008 by Wendy Lapidus-Saltz. All rights reserved.
Both Alex Rich & Wendy N. Lapidus-saltz are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Alex Rich has sinced written about articles on various topics from Adwords, Computers and The Internet and Fitness. Alex Rich PhD, is a hypnotist specializing in personal development. He is also a business consultant. Nearly 85% of those who try to stop smoking fail.
