It is a known fact that smoking is bad for the body, but most people fail to realize that it also affects the health of those around. Quitting smoking can really be difficult, which prompts the smokers to come up with excuses like ‘I am quitting soon’, ‘I am not addicted’, ‘smoking is cool’, ‘it helps me calm down’ and so on when asked to quit it.
Here are some facts about smoking, some of which might prompt you to quit it:
- Tobacco kills around 6 million people each year.
- Nearly 80% of the world’s 1 billion smokers live in low and middle income countries.
- Every eight seconds, someone in the world dies due to tobacco use.
- More than 600,000 people, including 165,000 children, die every year from passive smoking.
- One out of three smokers is estimated to eventually die from a tobacco-related disease.
Why is it hard to stop smoking?
The effects of ‘nicotine‘ present in the cigarette induce addiction as it stimulates pleasure centers in brain to create a sensation of joy and relaxation. When a smoker tries to stop smoking, his/her nervous system yearns for nicotine making it difficult to quit the habit. Withdrawal symptoms like lack of concentration, dizziness, anxiety, and loss of appetite lead to craving for cigarette.
How to Stop Smoking For Sure?
Smokers who try to stop smoking often end-up in a situation worse than their initial condition as they fail to cope up with the withdrawal symptoms. To prevent such scenarios, a smoker must undergo a completely integrated approach to gain relief from the perils of smoking. Psychological treatment and cigarette replacement methods tend to reduce the impact of withdrawal symptoms.
A year after quitting smoking, the risk for heart disease is lowered to half than that of a smoker. Watch the video below to know more about the positive effects on your body, once you quit smoking.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XH61vd2yFCg
Psychological Approach to Stop Smoking
When a person tries to stop smoking, his own psychological objections are one of the biggest obstacles. Smoker’s mind continually finds new reasons to persist smoking like reducing the number of butts or not completely inhaling the smoke. So preparing smokers to wage the psychological battle against cigarettes could become a significant part of the plan.
Medical Counseling: – Before attempting de-addiction, a smoker has to be well aware of the hardships and difficulties to be faced. Psychological counseling involves introducing the smoker through each stage of de-addiction procedures, helping him acquire better skills at battling through phases of withdrawal symptoms.
Help of Family Members: – A group of supporting and understanding family members help a smoker to handle stages of de-addiction. A loving interference of a family member can also avoid a relapsing smoker returning to his original smoking habits.
Substituting Cigarettes in a Smoker’s Life
A regular smoker sees cigarettes as a part of his daily life. To stop smoking without relapse, a person needs to take an integrated approach that reduces the difficulty to quit smoking.
As the first step, the role of Cigarettes should be replaced by more controllable and less addictive substances. The following substances act as substitute sources for diluted nicotine while avoiding tar and poisonous gases associated with cigarette smoking.
Nicotine Gum: – As the name indicates, here nicotine is directly delivered through the mouth. It’s easily available as an over-the-counter medication.
Trans-dermal patch: – This involves applying a patch of nicotine on the skin surface. The advantage of transdermal patch is that the levels of nicotine discharge can be controlled
Nasal Spray: – A nasal spray is used for more serious cases of addiction. It involves utilizing sensitive membranes around the nose for faster and quicker nicotine absorption.
Note: Smoking is a serious addiction that could have serious implications through direct and passive intake. For better results, a smoker should try to overcome addiction with the help of an expert physician.
References:
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