Rarely is there a single method to successfully quit smoking. The best ways to quit smoking will combine multiple methods and strategies. Smoking is an addiction that is multi-faceted. The longer a person has smoked, the more your behavioral habits will need to be addressed. The physical addiction of nicotine and the psychological addiction of smoking must be dealt with in unison to successfully end your smoking habit.
The first step when planning to stop smoking is to find the best tools to ease your physical withdrawal symptoms from nicotine. There are various medications and resources that will help with the physical transition through the withdrawal period. The nicotine patch and nicotine gum are good over-the-counter tools to slowly adapt your body to the elimination of nicotine.
Another effective nicotine replacement therapy is the use of E-cigarettes. These are new to the market in the past few years and have proven to be very effective for many long-term cigarette smokers. The electronic cigarette consists of a glycerin filled cartridge that contains a percentage of nicotine. The cartridge is attached to a cigarette shaped device that you “smoke” just like a cigarette. The beauty with the electronic cigarette is that the vapor mist created with the glycerin gives the smoker a feeling of inhaling smoke but does not actually create smoke. There are different levels of nicotine in the glycerin cartridges to help ease your body off of the nicotine addiction while still allowing you to feel as if you are smoking.
The psychological benefits of the electronic cigarette help smokers to adapt to lower amounts of nicotine in their system while still utilizing the emotional crutch of inhaling and holding a cigarette. The act of smoking becomes a calming ritual for most smokers over the years and this habit is one of the hardest things to overcome when trying to quit smoking. The E-cigarette enables a smoker to continue the calming ritual part of smoking, temporarily, while they reduce their nicotine dependence by continually lowering the nicotine levels in the electronic cigarette.
While weaning the body off of nicotine dependency behavior modification must be implemented. Your mind is emotionally trained to reach for a cigarette when nervous, anxious or upset. Learning to find new ways to relax and manage your emotions will be the key to succeeding with any quit smoking efforts. As you use nicotine replacement to manage the withdrawal symptoms you must take the opportunity to begin changing your habit of reaching for a cigarette. Learn a new hobby to calm your mind, begin using physical activity to flood your body with the natural endorphins and chemicals that elevate your mental frame of mind.
The best ways to quit smoking should address the body’s physical dependence on nicotine and the mind’s behavioral dependence on the habit of smoking. Both the physical and psychological habits must be addressed in unison. The problem with the use of nicotine replacement therapies is that many people will fail to quit using the nicotine replacement methods when necessary because they have not addressed the emotional aspect of smoking. In essence, they will be trading their cigarettes for nicotine replacement therapies but never truly breaking the addiction to nicotine because they have not learned to modify the HABIT aspect of smoking. This is where behavioral modification plays an important role in kicking a nicotine addiction.
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