Quitting Smoking Made Easy

Smoking cigarettes for a long time can be addictive.  This dependence is thanks to nicotine.  Nicotine is a habit forming substance found in the leaves of tobacco plants and makes up about four percent of the weight of the plant itself.  After processing, the leaves get to retain about seven to twenty milligram of nicotine per stick.  And the average smoker takes in one milligram of nicotine per stick.  It is this inhaled nicotine that creates the dependency.  And the best question to ask is: “How can I start quitting smoking?”

It's true that it is difficult to stop smoking.  It takes a lot of determination to stop yourself from lighting that next cigarette.  It's difficult enough to have to come up an enormous amount of will power to keep yourself from puffing away, you will inevitably go through withdrawal symptoms like anxiety attacks, nicotine cravings, irritation, and an inability to concentrate to name a few.  But thanks to modern science, there are now a lot of different ways to quit smoking.

Here are a few simple and effective ways to quit smoking:
l Medications.  There are different medications that doctors prescribe to help smokers in their battle to quit the habit of smoking. These can be either relaxants or sedatives that help calm and control your nerves.  These medications aid in alleviating the discomfort brought about by withdrawal symptoms.

l Hypnotherapy.  This is considered a moderately effective way to let go of the smoking habit. The willing smokers agrees to be subjected to a hypnosis session.  During session the therapist will use the method of auto-suggestion to give the smoker will power to quit smoking.

l Will power.  It takes no less than iron will to push through plans of quitting smoking.  Will power is nothing but a state of mind, a very state of mind that is very difficult to achieve.  People who have very weak will power will encounter a lot of difficulties trying to stop smoking.  Just keep in mind that if  you put everything into quitting smoking, you will be able to do it.  It also helps have yourself surrounded by supportive family and friends to encourage you in your fight to quit.

l Seek counseling.  Even the strongest of will power falters at some point in time.  It is during these times that you should seek professional help to back you up on your cause.  Counseling is very important for behavioral support.  It helps boost up your morale and bring you back on track to quitting smoking.

l Stop using smoking aids.  This doesn't necessarily mean that you can't depend on smoking aids to get you through quitting smoking.  It's just that smoking aids do nothing more than release little amounts of nicotine into your bloodstream.  Smoking aids are only good for satisfying your body's nicotine craving without the dangerous tar and poisonous gases found in cigarettes.  However since it still has nicotine, there is a tendency for the smoker to drop smoking but get hooked on the smoking aid instead.

l Alternative therapies.  Various alternative treatments have been discovered to help smokers with their nicotine cravings.  Among these therapies are: aromatherapy, acupuncture, acupressure, yoga, and meditation.

Smoking may make people look sophisticated and classy, but people should take into consideration more important things than the fact that it makes people look cool.  It is important to know that cigarette smoking may become addictive before you even start on your first stick.  After all, starting is easy, quitting the habit is the hardest part.

Best Known Ways to Quit Smoking

When you have finally come to see that your smoking habit has caused damage to your health, and wallet, and general well being, and you have decided that you would like to quit it is good to know that there are a lot of ways to quit smoking.

Quitting smoking depends on many things. It can be fast, or slow, but one thing for sure is that quitting rely on your determination, as well as the help of others. Whatever method you try, you should be mentally prepared for the difficult period that follows your last cigarette. This difficult period is caused when the nicotine your body is addicted to is withdrawn from your body. Withdrawals occur when your body reacts to the lack of nicotine that it has become reliant on.

The sudden impulse to give up smoking is known under the name of "cold turkey" and it is the result of a personal choice. Among the gradual ways to quit smoking may be enumerated the nicotine replacement therapy, the individual or group therapy, some modern and non-medical methods such as acupuncture, kabala practices and others but also physical exercises.

It is incorrect to say that you are addicted to smoking because in fact you are addicted to nicotine and to the idea of a routine. The moment you try to provide the required quantity of nicotine to which your body was used while you were a smoker all you have to do in rest is to keep your hands busy and to work on your psyche. This way you'll certainly quit this vice.

Acupuncture, hypnosis, laser therapy are some modern methods that come in the help of those who want to quit smoking. Due to the fact that they are rather modern tools their efficiency for a one hundred percent success has not been completely demonstrated.

The first step towards a successful decision to give up smoking is to find a strong motivation. This must be sought in your own person, inside you. Nobody can convince you that you should quit your vice if you are not really determined that you actually want to do this. And also it depends on you which of the ways to quit smoking best suits you, if you think that you are able to do it on your own or to ask for assistance. If you want to choose the latter variant you have several alternatives.

For best results font give up. If one way doesn't work for you, try another. Everyone is different, and so are the methods of smoking. What works well with one person wont necessarily work well with another.

Charleston Bans Smoking

Legend has it that there was once a sign on all of the bridges leading into Charleston, SC, the stated “Welcome to Charleston. Unencumbered by Progress for the Past 100 Years.” Putting together “cutting edge” and Charleston in the same sentence is an oxymoron. Recently the Charleston City Council heard a rumor about something called second smoke. After a bit of research they were shocked to discover that cities such as LA and New York had banned smoking from public places.

Now, being one of America’s favorite vacation destinations, they couldn’t let those other popular spots do something they weren’t doing. Especially them damn Yankees from New York City. The last time the City got this riled they launched a few cannonballs out into the bay at Ft. Sumter which started the American Civil War.

With much hand wringing and gnashing of teeth by local bar and restaurant owners, Charleston City Council passed a ban on all smoking in public places. The non-smokers in the Low Country are breathing a sigh of relief; the bar and restaurant folks are threatening a law suit. Apparently they haven’t noticed that it is easier to find a place to park a dumpster then it is to find a place to smoke these days. Courts from one end of the country to the other have upheld these bans.

Generally we come down on the side of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment’s Freedom of Assembly clause. If people want to gather and smoke a legal and highly taxed product, what business is it of local government? If no one is being held against their will in these places, where is the problem? We would find these laws easier to swallow if they gave restaurant the option of being smoking or non-smoking with signs clearly marked on the door. But the promoters of the nanny state are never willing to go along with this.

As non-smokers we’ve figured out what places to avoid because they are smoked filled. Smoke billowing out to street whenever the front door is opened is usually the first clue. In the West Ashley suburb of Charleston, you learn pretty quickly that you can lose sight of your server in the haze of the smoke at Manny’s and the food at the Map Room starts tasting like a nicotine patch after 9 pm. If one of these places wants to become a private club for smokers then let them go at it. Make it illegal for anyone under 18 to enter. If the bar owners think they can make more money than honoring the ban, so be it.

The larger concern is what will they target next? McDonald’s french fries haven’t been the same since the quit cooking them in lard. Then “trans fats” were bad. Remember “saccharin?” After winning the anti-smoking battle does anyone seriously think the “health Nazis” will disband and start leading a normal, productive life? Don’t count on it.

They can pry my key lime pie from my cold dead fingers.