The Quit Smoking Today program will work for you just as it has for many others who have now quit smoking for good. Are you sick of trying to quit Smoking by using Patches, Gum, Sprays or Pills…That Fail Every Time? I know from personal experience how hard it is to quit smoking. After trying to quit numerous times I tried this product. I was skeptical at first, but it really works.
While there are no easy ways to stop smoking, there are methods to help you beat your nicotine addiction. Many people like you think they should stop smoking cigarettes but find it too difficult. The reason for this is because there is a physiological basis of nicotine addiction as well as a psychological basis of nicotine addiction.
While some of the most popular methods only deal with the physical addiction to nicotine, the best stop smoking aids deal with both causes of addiction.
While a few lucky smokers can quit smoking cigarettes by going cold turkey, most people require a more complicated way to stop smoking. A solid stop smoking plan will include a quit date, the help of your family and friends, the understanding of the challenges that you will face on that date and beyond, getting rid of all tobacco related items from your home, car, and work place, and speaking to a doctor about treatment for nicotine addiction.
* Cigarette smoking has been identified as the most important source of preventable morbidity and premature mortality in the United States and the world. * Smoking-related diseases cause an estimated 440,000 American deaths each year. * Smoking costs the United States over $150 billion annually in health care costs. * A 2004 Study by the CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion found that cigarette smoke contains over 4,800 chemicals, 69 of which are known to cause cancer. * Women account for 39 percent of all smoking deaths.
Particularly alarming is the fact that more than 3 million young people under age 18 smoke half a billion cigarettes each year and that more than one-half of them consider themselves dependent upon cigarettes. The decision to use tobacco is nearly always made in the teen years, and about one-half of young people usually continue to use tobacco products as adults.
Studies determine that nonsmokers are adversely affected by environmental tobacco smoke. There are 4000 chemicals in tobacco with 100 identified poisons and 63 known drugs which cause cancer. The most talked about drug in tobacco is nicotine. Nicotine is vasoconstrictor and a nerve toxin, it has been classified as a class I insecticide. Other poisons include: Arsenic, Cyanide, Formaldehyde (used to embalm bodies), Ammonia Bromide (a toilet cleaner )- Ref. 1. Each year, because of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke, an estimated 3,000 nonsmoking Americans die of lung cancer, and 300,000 children suffer from lower respiratory tract infections.
The Quit Smoking Today program is no doubt the easiest way available to get those horrible cancer sticks out of your life for good. It eliminates the usual problems that are associated with quitting smoking such as cravings, short temper, hunger and weight gain. Quit Smoking Today is so successful because it overcomes your desire to light up. I know that you want to quit smoking, maybe you just need a little help. If you want to stop smoking just follow the link below.
Smoking is one of the hardest habits to quit. Many people find it a major challenge to quit smoking for good. Even though most smokers are well aware of the dangers of smoking, so many of them fail to stop smoking. So why is smoking so difficult to quit?
Smoking is both addicting physically and psychologically. Both the physical addiction to smoking and the psychological addiction to the act of smoking make it hard for smokers to quit.
Cigarettes are addicting because of nicotine. Nicotine causes people to have pleasurable feelings. But, it is also a highly addictive drug. In fact, nicotine is every bit as addicting as cocaine or heroin. Smokers become used to having particular amounts of nicotine in their bodies. When they stop smoking, they begin to experience nicotine withdraw. Nicotine withdraw is usually accompanied by many unpleasant feelings, like irritability and anxiety.
In addition to the physical addiction caused by nicotine, smoking is very psychologically addictive for many smokers. For many of them, smoking becomes part of their daily rituals. Many smokers are used to having a cigarette as soon as they wake up in the morning. Others may be accustomed to having a cigarette after every meal. To stop smoking, smokers must learn to change many of their daily habits.
In order to quit smoking, smokers must learn to manage both their physical and psychological addiction to cigarettes.
For managing their physical addiction to cigarettes, might want to consider a nicotine replacement therapy product. A nicotine replacement therapy product supplies nicotine to the body, which mitigates the nicotine cravings smokers endure when they quit. There are several nicotine replacement therapies on the market, like the patch or lozenges.
In addition to dealing with physical addiction to nicotine, smokers need to change their daily behaviors. They need to get used to not smoking at particular times or after certain events. One technique that smokers can use is to reduce the number of cigarettes they smoke per day before they quit smoking entirely. By reducing the number of cigarettes they smoke, smokers can eliminate smoking from some of their daily rituals for which they were used to smoking. Of course, a reduction in smoking may cause nicotine cravings. Fortunately, there are some good nicotine replacement products on the market, like , to help manage nicotine cravings caused by a reduction in smoking.
In sum, it is hard to stop smoking because cigarettes are both physically and psychologically addicting. Smokers need to learn to manage both types of addiction in order to successfully quit.
Ron J. Myers is an avid writer. His favorite topics are fitness and health.
Quitting smoking is both one of the most important things you can do for yourself, and one of the most difficult things that you can do. There are a few ways that you can make quitting smoking quickly even easier.
First, develop a list of things that make you want to smoke. Include such things as leaving work, finishing a meal (you can list the three meals individually), and getting a phone call. Sort the list by how much these things make you want to smoke.
Each week, pick an item from your list. Avoid smoking as a result of that trigger. At first, it’ll seem difficult, but you’ll notice that as the week goes on it’s easier to ignore the urge to smoke.
Over time, you’ll eliminate more and more triggers that cause you to want to smoke, until you’re ready to make the final jump and quit smoking for good!
Depending on the number of things you’ve listed, this may take quite a bit of time, but it will help you quit smoking for good. After removing a few items from your list, you can try removing more than one item at a time to speed the process up.
Remember that you’re helping yourself by quitting smoking, and that you should never quit for anyone other than yourself. Experience teaches that if you’re quitting smoking because someone else wants you to quit, you tend to just smoke behind their back instead of actually quitting, and that doesn’t help anything at all.
Want to quit smoking quicker? Take a look at these and this to learn more!
In trying to solve a problem it seems logical to begin by trying to answer three basic questions. What exactly is the problem? How big is it? And how serious?
The problem is smoking. How big? The World population is between five and six billion. It is estimated that 25% of adults smoke. That is 1,300,000,000 smokers. Makes you wonder how sunlight ever breaks through! It is also estimated that half of the World’s children are exposed to second hand smoke. How serious is the problem? DEADLY! If I were to list all the terrible health results of smoking and the horrific ways in which smoking kills, this would be a very long article indeed. Suffice it to say that these deadly consequences are well beyond proven.
There is also a very interesting aspect to this problem, however. It is estimated that about 70% of these smokers actually WANT to quit, presumably permanently. Most will have tried to quit, meaning that they have succeeded in stopping, only to resume later. So here we are with 910,000,000,000 (almost a billion) smokers looking for a solution.
There is a plethora of so-called solutions, from pills to patches to prescriptions, special foods, drinks, diets, chewing gum or candy, acupuncture and hypnosis, creams, lotions, excercises, brainwashing at clinics and seminars, magic and meditation, prayer, low-poison or no-poison fake cigarettes, huge doses of willpower, prolonged tapering-off or a desperate buddy system. The truth about all of these is that for the vast majority of would-be quitters they represent undue effort, unecessary expense, false hope and finally major disappointment, leading to further reduction in self-confidence and self-esteem. Why? Because for the most part these quit-smoking solutions DO NOT WORK!
Let us then construct a model with all the characteristics that an ideal stop-smoking method should include.
First, having disposed of all those invasive and intrusive solutions that generally fail, our ideal method must logically be Non-invasive and Non-intrusive. No big mind-stretch to agree to that.
Second, it has to be Cost-effective. There is no reason to spend more than is absolutely necessary, especially in these currently challenging economic times.
In third place, I would suggest that it must be Repeatable. With all the gimmicks and gadgets we eliminated above, once they fail it is unlikely they will be tried again. Our ideal method should be such that a failed first attempt may be attributed to indecision (the most likely reason for failure) so that the practitioner may tighten up his/her resolve and go for a second try.
In fourth place I suggest the method should be followed in Private. The concept of applying the “buddy-system” to such a difficult process as quitting smoking is absurd. What can a buddy do for you when you are fighting internal demons? Hold your hand?
Fifth, and here’s a tough one, the method must be Painless. There just has to be a way to avoid the hellish cravings and other nasty symptoms that smokers trying to quit lay claim to.
Number six is demanding, but not impossible. It must be Easy. Easy in the sense that what is asked of the smoker must be true, straightforward, believable and achievable. Goes back to being painless, too. And finally, number seven in our “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” is that it must be rewarding. . . you might almost say Euphoric! Having succeeded, the would-be smoke-free user of this method will be elated, not least because she/he has done it alone, with help from nobody and no “things.” As a result, the feeling of increased self-confidence and self-esteem will be paramount.
John English, ex-smoker and quitter for 50 years, is author of the book KILL THE ADDICTION, Stop Smoking: Without Quitting, which left him smoke-free for the past 8 years. His revolutionary method meets all seven criteria discussed in this article and he invites your comments at his blog,
John English was born in Grenoble, France in 1930 to an English teacher and his french wife. Raised in England he left for Canada at the age of 21, made it his home and eventually became Canadian CEO for three consecutive multinational companies in the Beauty products business, over a 25 year span. Now retired, he and his wife divide their time equally between Florida and Canada.
Will President Obama Respond To My Offer to Cure Him of Smoking?
Why would he not respond to an offer that will save his life?
1. Because he is too busy?
Who is too busy to save their own lives? Maybe President Obama should ask his daughters if they would mind him asking for three or four hours off his time with them to stop smoking. Do you think they would say ‘no’”?
2. Because he doesn’t want to quit smoking?
What smoker doesn’t want to quit smoking? When I find them I ask whether you want your kid’s to smoke? If the answer is no – which I know it is – don’t you think this is a big contradiction?
3. Because he enjoys it?
Again do you want your daughters to smoke so they can enjoy it as well? If it is so enjoyable why wouldn’t you want your daughters to experience this wonderful feeling?
4. Because he cannot stop smoking?
Who the hell told him that? Smoking is simply a drug addiction. He and the millions of smokers are simply drug addicts. Curing drug addicts is simple. Stop using the drug.
5. Because he will go crazy with the withdrawal ‘pain’?
What pain there is no or very very little physical pain caused by withdrawal from nicotine?
6. Because he’ll go crazy during withdrawal?
You are getting closer to the biggest problem in dealing with stopping smoking.
7. Because he does not like the symptoms caused by the withdrawal from nicotine?
Ok again getting almost hot. When we experience withdrawal from any major drug we experience certain symptoms. These symptoms for smokers last only three days because nicotine leaves your body quickly. It is the fastest addictive drug in the world but it also leaves our bodies quickly allowing us the opportunity to stop quickly and easily. It will totally disappear and in the first three days you eliminate most if not all of these symptoms.
8. Because he has too much stress?
He certainly doesn’t seem to be under any particular stress right now despite two failed wars began by his predecessor, a health care plan that is being attacked and that he still smokes. And just a few other things on his mind. Once again is it not better to live than to die before his time?
9. Because he thinks it is too late?
Wrong again it is never too late. Our bodies have miraculous recuperative powers and once nicotine is stopped the body immediately begins to recuperate.
10. Because he cannot stand the withdrawal from nicotine?
Ok that’s enough. The reason for this particular problem and it is a problem is because of the misconception in your unconscious mind. I won’t fully explain it here. But how do you cure this? Through a systematic auto suggestion method and through minor self hypnosis but you need to know where to go to find it. Keep looking it is somewhere.
Discover The Only Way to Stop Smoking Easily. This is about Jim Creech- He is a bilateral BK amputee and suffers from congestive heart failure both caused by smoking. Neither of these problems made him stop smoking. Until he discovered the Secret to Quitting he just could not stop.
Find the Free Report about The Secret Here:
Paul was aware of all the conventional reasons to stop smoking.
I mean, how could you not be, even in the late 1970s, when he and I first met in a midsized city in southern Oregon. By that time, science had already established the dangers of smoking, and information on how to quit cigarettes was everywhere.
I was a working journalist back then, and Paul (not his real name) drove cab. We quickly became good friends. Over the years, Paul and his partner, Sarah, and my then-partner, now-wife, Mary, and I spent a lot of good times together.
The explanation for this writer/cabbie pairing can be found in the folds of community theater. If you have ever been a member of an amateur theater group in a small town, you know what I mean. Cultural lines are blurred there, if not eliminated altogether. Lifelong friendships are formed.
And sometimes love affairs bloom while the seeds of divorce are sown, and marriages are made or broken.
Paul, in fact, had been married and divorced four times when I met him. In a way that I can’t fully explain, it was part of his charm. He would joke in his low-key way about each of his three grown daughters, and in time we in the group came to use the nicknames he had for each of them, names that had a certain fondness attached to them, even though they can’t be repeated here (they had to do with how the girls were conceived).
It’s not that Paul kept the names a secret from his daughters – that would have required a duplicity he was not capable of. The daughters knew full well what those nicknames were, and they were able to laugh with him. How could you ever become angry with Paul? It was almost impossible.
But if Paul was a loser in the game of love, he was brilliant onstage. This son of a Protestant minister had a lean figure, a deep voice, an aquiline nose and a profile to die for. He could not be called handsome in the Hollywood sense, but when he walked onstage, the effect was striking.
Onstage he was able to draw on the power of whatever demons and angels were residing in his soul. He acted from the inside out.
Paul and I were in several shows together. He was always the star, whether he had a leading role (Henry Drummond in “Inherit the Wind”) or a minor one (Leo Herman, aka Chuckles the Chipmunk, in “A Thousand Clowns”).
Had circumstances been different, had not one of his devils controlled and ultimately destroyed him, he might have been a professional.
As it was, he simply succeeded in being the most gentle person I have ever known.
I think, if Paul had stated his philosophy of life, it would have gone something like this:
“I will judge no one or no one thing. I will accept the flow of life as it comes and not try to change any of it. I will let it take me where it will, neither accepting nor rejecting it. Nothing is good or bad, it simply is. I am merely a passenger, and I will enjoy the ride.”
Cigarettes entered Paul’s life because he allowed them in, probably with no questions asked. How many decades did he end his day with a cigarette, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly? How many times did he light up first thing in the morning almost before his feet touched the floor? I don’t know.
Yes, he knew all the reasons to stop smoking. He knew all about the information on how to quit cigarettes. He had seen the statistics; he had known people who died of lung cancer, or emphysema. He had seen the x-rays of blackened, rotting lungs oozing slime.
He had even tried a time or two to quit. He tried will power, he tried the gum, he tried the patch, but nothing ever came of any of it.
In the final analysis, he embraced this particular devil. The fact was, he enjoyed smoking, he loved to smoke. Cigarettes took him to a place he could not get to any other way. A place where he felt safe, free from all the gathered turmoil of the world. It was a place he could not, and would not, trade for anything, even for his life.
Paul’s unspoken message to his friends, his family, to the world, and to himself was, “This is where life has taken me. I accept it. One way or another I am going to die. We all are. So, given the choice, why shouldn’t I die on my terms? No reason. So that is what I’m going to do.”
And that is what he did.
Not long before Paul died, when everyone in the theatre group, including Paul, knew his days were numbered, we staged a roast in his honor.
When Paul, emaciated and stooped, walked into the theatre the evening of the roast wearing a bright blue cowboy outfit, the house came down. It was one of his grandest entrances, and it was a perfect Act 1, Scene 1, for what was to follow. Despite the sobering subtext, it was an evening of rollicking good humor.
But at the very end of the evening, I, as emcee, injected the only serious note:
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have known Paul for 20 years, and in that time he has become my brother. He is family.
“And in all that time I have never known him to be anything other than who he is.
“There is a beauty in that. There is an innocence in that. But most of all, there is a purity in that.
“And so I’m glad that you’re all here tonight. Because it gives me the chance to say publicly what I’ve always said in my heart:
“Paul, I love you madly.”
A few months later we scattered Paul’s ashes on a nearby mountaintop.
That was almost 20 years ago. Now, from the vantage point afforded by time, I look back and I think I can understand why Paul thought the way he did about the reasons to stop smoking. And despite everything, I can even admire it somehow, however grudgingly. I mean, he had the courage to live the way he wanted to. How many of us can say the same?
At the same time, I am filled with anger.
I said earlier that it was almost impossible to become angry with Paul. But I am angry with him now, and I have been angry for 20 years.
I am angry at his outrageous selfishness. I am angry because he felt that his personal pleasure was more important than anything else. I am angry that he left us because he thought his obligation to a weed was greater than his obligation to the people who loved him.
What kind of person would do that?
If Paul could send a message today, I hope he would have the wisdom say to all the smokers of the world:
“Here is one of the main reasons to stop smoking; here is how to quit cigarettes:
“Remember that you are not in this alone. This is not just about you. Nothing you do is just about you. This is also about the people who count on you, who need you for a million reasons that neither you nor they may even understand. This is about the people who love you.
“If for no other reason, do it for them.”
I’m still angry with Paul.
And I miss him. Every day.
Dave Tishendorf is an ex-smoker. He invites you to find out more about how to quit cigarettes by clicking .
One of the most obvious stop smoking facts is, it doesn’t happen overnight. Quitting the use of tobacco is truly a process that takes time. To effectively kick this nasty habit it takes time and willpower and a proven and effective product, so you should try to relax and put a little time between you and the last cigarette you have smoked. By quitting smoking you will gain a great many health benefits. As a matter of fact within just minutes from stopping there are many benefits that you will gain instantly. Here are some to consider. Within 20 minutes of stopping, your blood pressure and pulse goes back to normal. Here is a stop smoking fact that should interest you. Within 8 hours of stopping nicotine intake, carbon monoxide levels in your blood are reduce by half. Also, oxygen levels go back to normal. In a day, carbon monoxide will be totally eliminated or removed from the body, and the lungs start to clear out mucous and other kind of smoking debris. Here is another stop smoking fact. In 2 days, nicotine will be totally eliminated in the body. The ability to taste and smell is greatly improved as it used to be. In 3 days, your breathing becomes easier, because the bronchial tubes begin to relax and energy levels increase. In 2 to 12 weeks the circulation will be improved. After 3 to 9 months coughs, wheezing and breathing problems are improved as lung functions are increased up to 10%. In 5 years of not smoking the risk of heart attack falls to about half that of a regular smoker. In about 10 years, the risk of lung cancer will fall to about half that of a steady smoker, and the risk of heart attack falls to that of a non-smoker. Here are some stop smoking facts on a self help level. It gives you confidence. Quitting the smoking habit is a very hard challenge. Once you have quit, you will know that you can also succeed at other difficult tasks, and you will know that you can take control of your life. Quitting the smoking habit helps you to believe more in yourself. You will become more fit because smoking makes it harder for us to exercise and it reduces the health benefits to our body. Chain smokers or those light smokers have more chance of having coughs and colds than and take longer to get well again. Another stop smoking fact is, you need a proven and effective product to help you quit.
For more information on stop smoking facts and benefits visit:
Wendell and Charmayne Vannatter
Website:
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Photographs are the best toolwe haveto relive our cherishedmemoriesand rememberloved ones who are no longerwithus. Unfortunately photographs;don'tage well and over time their quality diminishes. Because photos;are printed on paper they are often affectedby things suchas handling, light,moisture,dust, and scratches. Regrettably,these things can ruinour photos;and prevent themfromlastingthrough the generations.
Too many people are faced withthe question of whatto do withphotos;thathaven;’t withstood;the test of time. Do you wait until they are no longervisible or do you simply toss them? If you are facing questions suchas these you don'thaveto do either. Using PhotoshopElementsyou can restore yourold photos;to their originalconditionas explainedin this Photoshopelementstutorial.
The first stepto restoring yourcherishedphotos;is to create a digital imageof themso you can theneditthemusing yourcomputer.Convertingthemto a digital imageis as easyas scanningthemintoyourcomputer.Once you havescannedyourphotoyou can thenbeginthe photoediting;process.
After you haveopened PhotoshopElementsyou can go to fileand open to retrieve the newly digitized photograph;. I actually recommend you create a copy, by clicking on fileand saveas thenrenamingthe photograph;, so thatyou havea backup imageon the off chancethatyou make a mistake. Now you can beginto editthemusing a few of the tools;availablein Elements.
Photo restoration doesn'trequire any specialized trainingor specific skills.All the tools;are easyto use and you willquickly become adept at them. The mostcommon tools;used in this processare the smudge, blurand sharpentool.
I am goingto give you a breakdown of each of the tools;and how you can use themto restore yourphotographs;. The smudgetoolis helpf;ul;whenyou want to eliminate any scratches thatare on the originalphoto. You can also use the smudgetoolto removeany object in the backgroundyou wish to eliminate as well as correct photos;thatwerenot properly focused.
The next toolyou can use is the blurtool. The blurtoolallows you to add tone to photos;thathavebeenlightened by the sun; in essence you are making themdarker. Using the blurtoolyou are addingcolor to retrieve the brightness of the originalphoto.
The sharpentoolis the last,mostcommonly used toolin photorestoration. If any partsof the photoare blurred;, whether it is in the originalphotoor fromscanningit in, this toolwillfix thosebits.
I hope you enjoyed this Photoshopelementstutorialwhich willhelpto keepyourcherishedmemoriesaliveand well, by restoring themusing PhotoshopElementssoftware.
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In part 1 of this article, we discussed real chemical addiction and how stopping cold-turkey can be life threatening. We also pointed out that although a smoker claims, “I’m dying for a cigarette,” no one has actually died because they didn’t get a smoke.
The reason it is important to understand that cigarette smoking is a psychological addiction rather than a physical one, is to facilitate effective protocols to remove cigarettes from a smoker’s life. In this article, we are going to discuss examples that demonstrate that nicotine is not physically addictive but that cigarette smoking is psychologically addictive.
What is Nicotine
Talk about a substance that has gotten a bad reputation. Nicotine is presented as the ultimate evil and the culprit that makes quitting cigarettes difficult or for some, impossible. However, just what is nicotine?
According to medical researcher Dr. David G. Williams, nicotine is a chemical substance found in cigarette smoke that stimulates the production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is needed to facilitate the transmission of nerve impulses.
There’s one thing though, there is another chemical called nicotinic acid that is a close cousin of nicotine that also stimulates the production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. What is this almost identical substance? It is called Vitamin B3!
Could smokers be getting Vitamin B3 from their cigarettes? If so, it’s not a healthy way to do it but look at the symptoms of Vitamin B3 deficiency:
These are many of the reasons that people give for smoking! It improves their memory, lifts their spirits, calms them down, etc. Since many people don’t have good nutrition, perhaps one of the things that fuels the Psychological Smoking Mechanism is a B3 deficiency. After all, these are water soluble vitamins or chemicals, if you will. They are not stored in the body and must be replaced constantly.
The bottom line here is that people don’t get addicted to vitamins! This is just another indicator that the thing that keeps people smoking is not an addiction to nicotine. Let’s look at some of the other things associated with smoking that do not follow the physical addiction mechanism.
If Cigarettes were Addictive
In the previous article in this series, we discussed a case of accidental addiction to pain medicine. As you recall, when the patient discovered they weren’t getting the same results from the standard dose of medicine, they increased the dose which did, for a time give them relief. It wasn’t long before they had to increase the dose again, and again.
This is what happens with chemical addiction, the body views the chemical as throwing it out of balance (homeostasis) and it creates a counter force. It matches each increase with an increase in counter force.
If nicotine was a truly addictive chemical, the smoker would have to keep increasing intake to achieve the same effects that are claimed for cigarettes just as in our drug example. The consumption of cigarettes would increase over time. However, this doesn’t happen.
Let me give you a real life example. My grandfather was a cigarette smoker. He smoked his entire life starting in his early childhood years. He smoked less than a pack of cigarettes per day. The amount smoked never varied. He had a set amount that he unconsciously metered and for over 70 years maintained this level. The fact that he smoked less than a pack per day was to his benefit and delayed the health issues associated with cigarette smoke. But you can’t avoid it forever and he did eventually develop health problems that years of cigarette smoking produced.
A clear indicator that cigarettes are psychologically addictive and not physically addictive is that the smoker settles into a pattern and stays there for years. You have your half a pack a day person, your pack a day person, your 1.5 pack a day person, your 2 pack a day person and in extreme cases, the three pack a day person. This volume is established pretty early and stays that way. There may be daily fluctuations but they all average out. There is a mental meter that regulates the amount of cigarettes smoked! That’s the Psychological Smoking Mechanism.
If cigarettes were physically addictive, the smoker would be adding more and more cigarettes to achieve whatever claimed benefit they provided. This doesn’t happen. This is a clear indicator that that cigarette consumption is regulated by the Psychological Smoking Mechanism and not the chemicals in the cigarette.
If Nicotine was a Chemical Addiction
There is a whole category of smoking cessation treatment protocols that operate under the idea that providing nicotine will take the place of smoking. The thinking behind this category is that supplying nicotine through vehicles such as patches or gum will eliminate the desire to smoke because the hypothetical nicotine demand is being met. Then by reducing the nicotine over time, just like drug rehab, the compulsion to smoke will be eliminated. Sounds great doesn’t it? If nicotine were the culprit, nicotine patches, gum and lozenges would be 100% successful. After all, they are giving the body the chemical that it theoretically craves which is the supposed mechanism behind the compulsion to smoke.
Nicotine patches are powerful products that give the body a steady supply of nicotine. Let’s look at their effectiveness. Since the smoker is getting generous amounts of nicotine which they are supposedly craving, the patches should be incredibly effective. However, some research shows, (Davidson, M., Epstein, M., Burt, R., Schaefer, C., Whitworth, G. & McDonald, A. (1998)), that only 19% of people on patches had stopped smoking at six weeks and that it was reduced to 9.2% at six months. Looking at it another way, at 6 weeks, 81% of the people using nicotine patches were still smoking and at 6 months, about 91% were still smoking. Yes, 10% of those that had stopped were back at it again.
The results for the gum is about the same. Even though the gum was providing the smoker with plenty of nicotine, at 6 weeks, 84% of the people were still smoking and at 6 months, 92% were smoking.
These smokers were getting all the nicotine they supposedly needed. In reality, they were probably getting a great deal more nicotine than the cigarettes they smoked provided. Yet, most of them continued to smoke along WITH the patches or gum. If nicotine doesn’t compel the smoker to smoke, what does? It’s the Psychological Smoking Mechanism.
Another Indicator that It Isn’t Nicotine
With a chemical addiction, more is better for the addict. With nicotine patches, the smoker is getting a great deal of nicotine. They should be satisfied right? Well as mentioned in the last section, only 9% actually stop smoking with the patch. However, putting all that nicotine in a smokers system with patches does have an effect on the smoker. According to the American Lung Association, side effects with the nicotine patch are:
Headache Dizziness Upset stomach Weakness Blurred vision Vivid dreams Mild itching and burning on the skin Diarrhea
Yes, nicotine does have an effect on the smokers body. However, with all the things that smoking does to the smoker, it doesn’t produce these effects. This is another clue that nicotine is not the motivator to smoke.
Smokers Resume Smoking after Extended Periods
Another clue that nicotine is not the motivator to smoke is the tendency for ex-smokers to resume smoking after a long period of time. Obviously, after an extended period of time, all the nicotine would be out of their system. As has been stated, nicotine is the cousin of Vitamin B3, a water soluble vitamin. These substances are either rapidly used or excess flushed from the body daily. No matter how heavy a smoker, it won’t take very long for all nicotine to be out of their system.
Also, from a strictly habit perspective, a few weeks or months without smoking should have put an end to the habit; the habit of reaching for a cigarette is broken. However, an ex-smoker can pick up a cigarette and resume smoking like they never stopped whether it is weeks, months or even years.
This is because the Psychological Smoking Mechanism is still operating. There is no nicotine in the system, the habit has been abandoned for weeks, months or some time years, yet, cigarette smoking can resume.
Conclusion
The effects of nicotine do not follow the chemical addiction mechanism. Nicotine is similar to Vitamin B3, a water soluble vitamin. It must be replenished daily. It is possible that the smoker has a deficiency of Vitamin B3. Each cigarette provides a small amount of nicotine which is similar to Vitamin B3.
A smoker falls into a pattern of cigarette consumption which doesn’t vary over decades. Whether it is the half pack a day, one pack a day, one and a half pack per day or the extreme of three packs per day, this amount doesn’t vary. Although there may be daily fluctuations, it averages out over time to whatever pattern the smoker follows.
Cigarette consumption is regulated by the Psychological Smoking Mechanism. The only way to remove cigarettes from your life is to remove this mechanism. If the Psychological Smoking Mechanism is not removed, the person quitting cigarettes will continue to be a smoker who doesn’t happen to be smoking right now. When the Psychological Smoking Mechanism is gone, so is smoking because the person has become a NONsmoker!
(c) Copyright 2009, R. Michael Stone
R. Michael Stone, M.S. – Counselor
Creator of The Unlearn Smoking Success System tm
The easy 28 day program that helps you become, not an ex-smoker, but a Non-smoker
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Is there nicotine addiction in you? You hate it when you are branded an “addict”. But are you not? You are because you became a great SMOKER. Have you realized that smoking shortens your life, threatens your life with diseases? Then, you waste thousands of dollars per annum on endless sticks of cigarettes. You even stink with bad breath. It is high time to quit your addiction and search for stop smoking remedies.
Many of the smokers find it difficult to quit smoking. It really is difficult, if you are not really determined to do so. All it takes is to keep your mind focused on the goal. In the first place, are your reasons for smoking valid? You may have started smoking for social acceptance, for curiosity or for cure of depression. And stopping smoking is more reasonable. It is a health risk threatening your life. It makes you less attractive because of bad breath, yellowish teeth and finger nails, stinking hair and clothes. Stop smoking remedies are your partner to return to healthy living.
The following are the common stop smoking remedies.
1. Nicotine replacement therapy. Since your addiction is on nicotine, this active component of cigarettes must be eliminated from your body system. Several products had been discovered for this purpose and they come in different forms. They can be candies, gums, nasal sprays, injections, patches, inhalers and prescribed drugs. 2. Stop smoking therapies. The most practical in this group is water therapy where you have to drink much water to eliminate the waste in your body, including nicotine. Another is psychotherapy where your psychological and emotional disorders relative to withdrawal problems and cravings are attended to. 3. Stop smoking programs conducted by various government or civic organizations are remedies that can be used in conjunction with the other remedies. This will strengthen your determination to quit smoking. 4. Herbal therapy is a remedy that used herbs to curtail the cravings for cigarettes. 5. Acupuncture can also be resorted to. The needle will relax the brain to end the desire for nicotine. 6. Hypnosis is another of the many stop smoking remedies. When hypnotized, you momentarily forget your cravings. 7. Nicotine vaccination will control the spread of nicotine cravings.
With the many choices, there is no justification for failure to attain the objective of stop smoking remedies; the process does not end there. Once you have started on the quitting, you have to keep yourself from temptation. And how can you fail when you have the bad effects of smoking pasted in your mind? Always remember a better and longer life ahead after you stopped. Life is wonderful; make the most out of it by ending your smoking episodes.