The majority of people who smoke try to give up their smoking habit at one time or another. Everyone these days is very well aware that smoking is a serious long-term risk to a smoker’s health. And if living a longer life is not enough incentive for a smoker to make the effort to stop smoking completely, then there are always the financial and social incentives.
Most western countries impose high taxation on cigarettes and tobacco products with two main aims. Firstly, to raise as much money as possible from what is essentially a drug addiction; and secondly to make smokers give up their habit because it costs so much. A heavy smoker easily spends around $3000 each year in a high taxation country such as the UK. The current economic downturn in the USA, UK and Europe means that many smokers are forced to quit smoking (or at the very least cut down) to be able to afford the large recent increases in food, petrol, heating plus rent or mortgage costs.
Socially, cigarette smoking is no longer considered an acceptable practice. Legislation has been passed in most developed countries that severely restricts where smokers can indulge their habit. Just about all restaurants, bars, public transport, hire cars, public buildings and workplaces are completely smoke-free.
All of these factors now mean that more smokers than ever are seeking help to quit smoking. There are numerous stop smoking products available (such as nicotine patches and gum) as well as various stop smoking programs.
These programs are usually run by health authorities, doctor’s surgeries and hospitals, and have a very high success rate in helping even the most addicted smoker give up their habit.
Cigarette smoking kills 307,000 people in the United States each year. Lung cancer and emphysema are the best known and most miserable outcomes. However, accelerated development of atherosclerosis is numerically the most important problem resulting from smoking. This results in heart attacks and strokes, angina pectoris (heart pains), intermittent claudication (leg pains), and many other problems. Pipe and cigar smoking does not have the pulmonary (lung) consequences that cigarette smoking does, but can lead to cancer of the lips, tongue and esophagus. Nicotine in any form has the same bad effects on the small blood vessels and thus on development of atherosclerosis.
It is never too late to quit. Only two years after stopping cigarette smoking, your risk of heart attack return to average. It has actually decreased substantially the very next week! Most people have plenty of time to get major health benefits. After 10 years, your risk to for lung cancer is back to nearly normal. After nearly two years, there is a decrease in lung cancer risk by perhaps one-third. The development of emphysema is arrested for many people when they stop smoking, although this condition does not reverse.Â
Moreover, you will notice at once that your environment has become more friendly when you are not a smoker. A lot of the daily hassles that impair the quality of your life go away when you stop offending others by this habit.
Here are some tips for quitting: decide firmly that you really want to do it. You need to believe that you can do it. Set a date on which you will stop smoking. Announce this date to your friends. When the day comes, stop. You can expect that the physical addiction to nicotine may make you nervous and irritable for a period of about 48 hours. After that, there is no further physical addiction. There is, of course psychological craving that sometimes lasts a very long period of time. Often, however it is quite short. Reward yourself every week or so and buy something nice with what would have been cigarette money. Combine your stop-smoking program with an increase in your exercise program. The two changes fit together naturally. Exercise will take your mind off the smoking change, and it will decrease the tendency to gain weight in he early weeks after stopping smoking; this is the only negative consequence of stopping. The immediate rewards include better-tasting food, truer friends, less cough, better stamina, more money, fewer holes in your clothes, and membership in a larger world.
Many health educators are skeptical about cutting down slowly and stress that you need to stop completely. I don’t think this is always true. For some people, rationing is a good way to get their smoking down to a much lower level and then at that point it may be easier to stop entirely. For example, the simple decision not to smoke in public can help your health and decrease your hassles. To cut down, only keep in cigarette pack those cigarettes that you are going to allow yourself that day. Smoke the cigarettes half way down before extinguishing them.
There are many good stop-smoking courses being offered through the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, or your local hospital. Most people actually don’t need these, but if you do, they can help you be successful. Try by yourself first. Then, if you still need help, there is a lot of it around.
Nicotine chewing gum can help some people quit, and your doctor can give you a prescription and advice. Don’t plan on this as a long term solution because nicotine is the gum is just as bad for your arteries as the nicotine in cigarette.
An example of your ability to make your own choices is afforded by the challenge to stop smoking. If you are trapped by your addictions, even the lesser ones, you can’t make your own choices. Victory over smoking improves your mental health, in part because this is a difficult victory. It can open the door to success in other areas.
Anti-smoking program important in helping state workers quitThe TennesseanI also recall that there are many, many state workers who are using the program to stop smoking, and I know I call the program if I'm ever going to be able to and more »
Budget issues caution anti-smoking boardWTHRThe board's mission is to get Hoosiers to stop smoking and get Hoosiers not to start. But with state in tight, the budget office and some lawmakers have and more »
Smokers Anonymous (Nicotine Anonymous)Panacea & Alcohol NewsAnother choice is real life assist, with something like Smokers Anonymous, the program is for people who would like to depart from smoking or stop using all forms and more »
Stop smoking Directory
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