Once a person decides that it’s high time he or she stopped smoking, it is best to start immediately. However, how do you quit smoking, when you have been smoking for a number of years? Smoking is a very difficult addiction to break because tobacco contains the compound called nicotine which is addictive to both the mind and body.
Recent studies have shown that every time you smoke a cigarette, it costs you about five to twenty minutes of your life. Apart from weakening the body, smoking leaves a person with bad breath, yellow teeth, wrinkles, lower bone density, fertility problems that will inevitably affect the sexual health of both men and women and a higher risk of becoming infected with deadly diseases such as lung cancer. Smoking is costly and can reduce one’s life by around 10 years or even more.
Methods to stop smoking can be seen in many places and there are also many kinds of medication that can be prescribed. Some smokers are prescribed nicotine replacements such as nicotine gums, nicotine patches, lozenges, inhalers, etc. But the problem with all these is that it deals with mainly the physical aspect of what smoking does to the body. The fact is that more than the body, it is the mind that becomes addicted to smoking.
The most difficult part of stopping smoking comes when trying to deal with the mind. A smoker’s mind generally becomes convinced that their happiness, enjoyment and leading a stress free life, all depend on smoking. Understanding that this is just not true is one of the most important issues in stopping smoking.
One of the most important things to bear in mind when trying to stop smoking, is the breaking of such relationships in the mind. Smokers believe that they have to have a cigarette to help them cope with daily stresses. Once you are able to overcome this dependency, in time your mind will learn to deal with daily problems without requiring a cigarette.
A good tip for someone trying to stop smoking is to go to counselling classes and get some advice from someone who is an ex-smoker, ie a person who has undergone similar experiences. Talking about your fears about quitting smoking and thereby relieving the fears you have by going to such sessions can be beneficial to anyone who is attempting to quit smoking.
If you have made up your mind that you should to give up smoking, don’t hesitate, grab the bull by the horns and start stopping now. You will soon start to notice the difference to your health. You will find that exercising will be easier, your fitness level will rise dramatically, food will taste far better and your mouth will be fresher.