You Can Find Great Success If You Stop Smoking Now
The deadly effects of smoking are being discussed now more than ever. Statistics report that almost 25 million men and 21 million women currently smoke in the United States. Almost 3000 teenagers a day decide that smoking is "cool." In fact, the vast majority of smokers started inhaling while under the age of eighteen. Tragically, we know that this decision, if not reversed will cost them as much as thirteen years of what would have been a normal life expectancy.
Of the nearly 500,000 Americans who will die this year from smoking related illnesses, lung cancer, heart disease, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) will destroy the majority of lives. All of these are debilitating and painful ways to spend your final years, often crowded into middle age. That's 500,000 reasons to consider that you will stop smoking now.
The really good news is that you can be successful, and there are a variety of programs and plans designed to help you out of this deep hole. While trying to quit secretly is probably the poorest and most self-defeating approach, other options are prescribed drug regimens, acupressure, acupuncture, laser therapy, hypnosis, electro-stimulation, and going "cold turkey" with lots of help.
If you have come to the place where you want to stop smoking now, it will be worth it to take some time to study the different treatment plans and their success records to see which approach will work best for you.
All of the programs recognize the three major components to breaking free of your smoking addiction. You will need to prepare yourself for this temporary battle, physically, mentally, and emotionally. This is not just a "bad habit" that you picked up somewhere when you were younger. If you want to stop smoking now, you must recognize that you are dealing with a full blown addiction as powerful as heroin or alcohol.
Your brain has been rewired with millions of receptors to crave a steady supply of the chemical, nicotine. You and your smoking friends are not smoking simply because you like the habit. Without consciously realizing it, you are responding to the urgent need for a nicotine/adrenaline "rush" and the following "feel-good" sedative effect. Successful treatment will involve restoring your brain's natural sensitivities by refusing to feed all those established binding receptors for nicotine.
Another important component in your effort to stop smoking now is the recognizing and breaking of unconscious triggers or links that you associate with smoking a cigarette. It can be a favorite place or time of day when you always light up. It might an event at which you always smoke.
Even the companionship of certain other smokers can be a trap. Some people always react to a particular emotional feeling by having a cigarette. As you identify your own triggers, start experiencing them without having your usual cigarette. This action will weaken the power of these factors over your desire to smoke.
Finally, it is essential for experiencing long-lasting success after you have decided to stop smoking now, that you take ownership of your problem. You need to stop rationalizing why it would be alright to start smoking again. Ask yourself if you truly want to go back to the smoking lifestyle and the health issues that it guaranteed you.
Don't use others as an excuse. No one can "make "you start smoking again. As you assume responsibility for your life, you will be able to enjoy the new-found freedom that comes from safely walking away from the dangerous effects of your past smoking addiction.
