Posts Tagged ‘smoking cessation’
The First 72 Hours After You Stop Smoking
June 7th, 2009
Feelings of fatigue, irritability and an extremely persistent headache are all side effects of nicotine withdrawal and are all perfectly normal. Why? Simply because it is in the first 72 hours which nicotine purges itself from your system – regardless of the stop smoking method you have chosen to use.
Preparation is the key. By knowing what you are in for, you can make plans to deal with the feelings and symptoms and not have to hide away where you won’t bother anyone. However it is also a good idea to inform your family and friends (but only if they are supportive) of your goals. This also gives them the opportunity to stay clear if they think you might be a little bit cranky!
Also keep in mind that you will be going through these trying times and have plans to work through them, should they arise. It can really nip withdrawal symptoms in the bud. It is helpful to have made a list of what you feel you may experience for symptoms of withdrawal. Some of the things that you may want to include on your list are:
Feeling angry or agitated: I will take deep breaths and take a walk outside. I will leave the room or go take a shower.
Feeling overly emotional or sensitive: Seek out somewhere you can be alone until the feelings subside.
Feeling tired: I will allow myself to be able to rest and heal from my addiction.
Feeling nauseated: I will go outside and get some fresh air.
After eating, I will: Read to keep my mind occupied so I don’t crave the ‘after-dinner’ smoke.
By drinking lots of fluids, and most especially water, your body’s stores of nicotine will be rapidly metabolized and flushed from your system. The downside is that you will have to go to the bathroom more often, but the upside is that the nicotine will clear itself from your system that much quicker and alleviate the physical withdrawal symptoms.
A few things can make the withdrawal symptoms stronger rather than weaker. Caffeine may be one of those. But not for all people. Every situation is unique. Best to judge for yourself. If you are finding that caffeinated drinks are causing you cravings, you should cut down drastically or quit altogether.
Sometimes giving up too many things at once can also open up another can of worms, so maybe just try cutting back on the caffeine. Water, fruit juices, and even ice cream shakes, can help clear out your system and get those withdrawal symptoms done with faster.
Sleep, or the lack of it, is another common side effect of stopping smoking. It doesn’t seem to matter how tired you are during the day, a good sound sleep can be elusive as your mind doesn’t seem to want to shut down, nor can you find a comfortable position in which to rest.
To help alleviate this, I recommend a hot shower before heading off to bed to help you relax. Usually the sleep deprivation only lasts for a night or two. However if it persists, I would suggest a visit to the pharmacy to pick up a sleeping aid until the restlessness passes. It won’t last forever.
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Stop Smoking Without Using Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT)
June 3rd, 2009
Making use of dangerous drugs such as Prozac or Zyban are not really the way to go about stopping your addiction to nicotine. In a way it is just like replacing one dangerous drug with another. So to is using NRT, so there has to be another way to stop smoking without using nicotine replacement, and there is. In fact there is a wealth of information available in the form of self help, but it is hard to stop smoking and even harder when you are on your own in this quest.
And we do not all have the willpower of General De Gaulle who was a heavy smoker. He just realized one day that the cigarettes were controlling him, and not the other way around, so he just stopped! But we are not all made of the same stuff. Physical, psychological and emotional addictions are very difficult to control and changing the way we do things is also not easy, particularly if we still want to be around others who smoke. You can’t all of a sudden stop being friends with smokers because they smoke and you don’t want to.
What seems to be working very well is the free telephone counseling some states in the US have started. Counseling is a far better alternative to nicotine replacement therapy and has actually proven to be working. Findings have shown that with this kind of support, smokers are twice as likely to stop.
As nicotine is such a difficult drug to give up, in order to be successful it is not only about the smoker. It is about the kind of support and encouragement they receive from others. This includes counselors, friends, family and the people they work with, all of these people play a role in the support team of someone trying to quit smoking. We often hear ex-smokers say that they would never have been able to quit if it was not for the support they were given.
Information for the smoker who wants to stop is available from many resources. Health insurance companies, your local gym, hospitals, support groups and even your employer. However these just make some of the resources available, and the most efficient assistance does come from a trained counselor.
You can receive both group and individual counseling or as we said before, simply over the telephone. A counselor will assist the smoker to recognize the emotional and psychological issues that arise when they first stop smoking and withdraw from nicotine. It is not an easy task as the addiction to nicotine is one of the strongest there is.
The thing to remember is that once you stop smoking, the nicotine remains in the body for as long as three to four days and it is when this period is over that the withdrawal symptoms begin to manifest. These are liable to last just a couple of days or in some instances even weeks. It is this time when the support is needed most so that the smoker has someone to turn to rather than back to the cigarettes.
The beauty of using counseling to get over the urge to smoke is that you don’t have to use NRT, and you also don’t have to use any dangerous drugs. Clinical studies have shown that when a smoker received the correct counseling or attends a specialist clinic, they are four times likelier to succeed in their attempts to stop smoking. Trying to do this completely alone has been found to be the least successful strategy of all.
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Using Hypnosis To Stop Smoking
June 1st, 2009
Many people decide to quit smoking due to the cost and all of the lost time spent smoking as well as health factors. The medical risks of smoking are far greater, including lung and throat cancer. With so many reasons to stop smoking, why doesn’t everyone quit? Because it isn’t as easy as it sounds despite all the stop smoking products out on the market. However, hypnosis to stop smoking offers a viable treatment alternative to various nicotine-based therapies.
Because of the addiction a smoker has to the nicotine, it can be difficult to stop smoking if they decide to quit. Some methods When a smoker decides to quit smoking, they’ll find they are physically and mentally addicted to the nicotine. The cravings for nicotine lead to withdrawal symptoms. Those quitting smoking may decide to use the nicotine patch or pill. However, these methods of nicotine delivery means do not always work and can reinforce the need for nicotine. Hypnosis to stop smoking, on the other hand, seeks to redress the underlying reasons that a person smokes.
Hypnosis used to help people stop smoking can induce a state of stress free relaxation. During this process the person being hypnotized can be directed to focus on solving a problem or fixing a situation. In this relaxed mental state, the person can examine their subconscious and get to the root of the problem, ultimately improving it. They can effectively reprogram their subconscious mind, which will then modify their behavior once they’re no longer hypnotized. No other method allows an individual to reach his or her subconscious mind. That is why hypnosis is so amazing in helping people who desire to stop smoking.
Contrary to popular belief, hypnosis is not the hocus-pocus we’ve come to associate with it. In reality, hypnosis is different from the mysterious trance you see in motion pictures. If you get in touch with your subconscious mind, you are hypnotizing yourself. For instance, if you are very busy and have many things to do when you leave your job, you consider all the tasks you having waiting for you when you go home. Usually your mind is racing with thoughts and you don’t worry about how to go home. You manage to get home without instructions or stopping to think about how you go there or even riding in your car, it’s become an automatic process. This is similar to being hypnotized and this resource can be utilized when you want to quit smoking.
Self-hypnosis can help you quit smoking. After all, the nicotine patch and gum can only go so far. This helps with the surface effects of smoking. In short, stop smoking aids like these only help you get over the physical symptoms of withdrawal, making the withdrawal period more bearable. On the other hand, self-hypnosis can help you quit smoking once and for all. By relaxing yourself and entering your unconscious mind, you can reprogram your thoughts and feelings on smoking.
Hypnosis allows you to undo all the positive feelings your body understands as a result of smoking, and instead replace these thoughts with a rational, anti-smoking attitude. If your subconscious mind accepts the fact that smoking is bad for you, then your conscious self will act on this and you will stop smoking.
Hypnosis can be a highly effective aid in the battle to quit smoking. One of the ways that hypnosis can help is by reducing the stress that is normally associated with nicotine withdrawal. The stress reduction achieved though hypnosis can help with your physical symptoms just as well as other smoking aids. Therefore, hypnosis to stop smoking is a viable option to those looking to kick the habit.
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