There are three parts to the cigarette smoking habit: it's a
behaviour, accompanied by thoughts and feelings, which involves a
chemical. If you want to stop smoking, you need to consider all three
and how you are going to address them.
1. Changing behaviour
Cigarette
smoking is a habit and a set of behaviours. If you think about what you
do when you smoke, you probably have a routine or ritual about how you
take out your smoking materials, prepare them, light them, and smoke
them.
You also probably have particular circumstances when you habitually smoke. It may be:
• when you are in a particular place (like your home or car),
• when you're in a particular situation (such as out socially with friends),
• when you consume some other food or drink (often alcohol or caffeine),
• at a particular time of day.
Knowing
the typical circumstances when you smoke helps you to make a plan when
you're thinking about stopping your cigarette smoking. You'll need to
have alternatives in mind so that you don't just go back to smoking in
those circumstances.
For example, you're used to having something
in your hand and something in your mouth. Think about what could replace
cigarettes in your hand and your mouth.
2. Changing thoughts and feelings
The
other thing that probably triggers you to smoke is particular feelings
and thoughts. Smoking can be a distraction, a way of feeling more in
control by deliberately changing how you feel (but the problem is,
you're not in control of this way of feeling more in control).
Some
people use cigarette smoking to increase their concentration, because
it stresses your body and so makes your mind more alert.
There are
also thoughts that go along with smoking. Some people see smoking as a
companion or a friend, because it reliably produces a good feeling in
them.
If you want to stop smoking, you need to figure out ways to
manage your emotions that don't involve smoking, and ways to change your
thoughts about what smoking does to you and for you.
3. Changing the chemical environment
A
very common way of trying to stop smoking is to use some kind of
chemical help to reduce the withdrawal symptoms. Nicotine replacement
therapy, for example, gives you nicotine (the addictive drug in
cigarettes) in smaller doses and in a cleaner way than cigarettes,
through patches, gum, lozenges or sprays. This can help you to wean off
the nicotine more gradually.
There are also other drugs which
change the chemical response of your brain to cigarette smoking. Like
any drug which affects your brain chemistry, they can have side effects
for some people.
If you want to know more about cigarette smoking and how to stop it, visit http://stopsmokingresources.net and download the free ebook How to Stop Smoking.
Article Source:
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