Once a person decides that it’s high time he or she stopped smoking, it is better 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 substance called nicotine which is addictive to both the mind and body.
Several studies have proven that each time you smoke a cigarette, it costs you around 5 to 20 minutes of your life. Besides weakening the body, smoking leaves a person with bad breath, yellow teeth, wrinkles, lower bone density, fertility problems that will eventually affect the sexual health of both men and women and a higher risk of being infected with deadly diseases such as lung cancer. Smoking is costly and can reduce the life span of a person by around ten 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 they deal mostly with the physical aspect of what smoking does to the body. The fact is that more than the body, it is the mind that is addicted to smoking.
The hardest part of quitting smoking comes when trying to deal with the mind. A smoker’s mind often becomes convinced that their happiness, enjoyment and leading a stress free life, all depend on smoking. Understanding the fact that this is just not true is one of the pivotal issues in quitting smoking.
One of the most important things to bear in mind when trying to quit smoking, lies in breaking such relationships in the mind. Smokers think that they have to have a cigarette to relieve them from their daily stresses. Once you are able to overcome this problem, in time your mind will learn to deal with daily problems without needing a cigarette.
A good piece of advice for someone trying to quit smoking is to attend counselling sessions and get some encouragement from someone who is an ex-smoker, ie a person who has endured similar experiences. Talking about your problems about quitting smoking and thereby relieving the fears you have by attending such sessions can be helpful to anyone who is trying to quit smoking.
If you have decided that you have to 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. Exercise will be easier, your fitness level will rise dramatically, food will taste better and your mouth will be more pleasant.