Smoking is an unhealthy activity that can have severe negative consequences for both you and the people around you. Smoking can lead to various health issues, such as heart attacks, emphysema, and cancer. Non-smokers who spend time with smokers are at almost as much risk as active smokers. Therefore, quitting is essential. In this article you will find many tricks about how you can go about stopping smoking.
When it comes to smoking cessation, do not make things even harder than they already are. It is not usually wise to try and quit cold turkey. If you try quitting cold turkey, you may end up relapsing. Nicotine is highly addictive, so try using medication, therapy, or a patch. Any of these methods can make your experience with withdrawal easier, helping to ensure that you can quit for good.
Try to distract yourself when you are planning on smoking a cigarette. For example, require yourself to take a long stroll before you give in and have a smoke. If nothing else, pour yourself a big iced tea and promise yourself to finish drinking it first. This break between the craving and its fulfillment may enable to not smoke that cigarette after all. Delaying can help to reduce the amount that you smoke, which can make a significant difference during the year.
If you are creating a quit plan, be sure to write a list of all the ways you can give up the habit. Sit down and make a list of things that will work for your personality. Everyone has their own ways of getting things done. It is so important you find ideas that are going to work the best for you, personally. Coming up with your personal list will accomplish this.
Remember that quitting smoking is a day-by-day effort. Rather than focusing on never having a cigarette ever again, just concentrate on not lighting up today. You will often find it easier from a psychological standpoint to accomplish things on a shorter timeline. Long term goals will come when you’ve quit for a while and are better able to handle the daily grind.
Tell your relatives that you are quitting, so that they can provide support. It’s key that you leverage their support, but tell them not to judge you. Let them know that you will probably be crabby at the beginning. It is difficult to stop smoking, so you need the support of loved ones.
Set a series of intermediate goals as part of your program to stop smoking. As you achieve each goal, reward yourself. You can go to a movie or buy something that you wanted, after not smoking for a period of time. After a month, eat out at a nice restaurant that you don’t regularly dine at. Continue to give yourself a reward in increasing amount to acknowledge your progress until you don’t think about the urge to smoke.
Overall, smoking is an extremely unhealthy thing to do, and it can also be dangerous for those around you, that you expose the smoke to. Some major health risks that smoking cause are lung cancer, emphysema and heart attack. Second hand smoke from cigarettes is also dangerous, and is a threat to the health of those around you. Put the advice you have found here into practice, and you may be able to kick that bad habit forever.