In general, it is accepted that smoking is just a bad habit, but in fact, tobacco dependence is a disease that even has a designation: F17.Each fifth in the world is a smoker.
The dependency implies not only the constant refueling of the nicotine, but also the rituals: go to a smoke break, take a cigarette along with a glass of wine, accelerates in the pants in search of a lighter.All these are the usual neuronal paths that the body is not just to interrupt when a person quit smoking.Therefore, it is important to get rid of physical and psychological dependence.
The material was verified by the evidence-based narcologist, psychotherapist, cognitive-behavioral therapist.
Why do you need to stop smoking immediately
According to statistics, in 2017, more than 8 million people worldwide died of diseases associated with tobacco smoke, of which 1.2 million of the passive consumption of tobacco.
By way of comparison: During the COVID-19 epidemic, 2.1 million people died due to the disease.At the same time, for each death by smoking, it represents 30 patients suffering from diseases associated with this habit.Harmful substances cause the development of more than 15 types of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The smoke of tobacco, which consists of 4000 chemical compounds, weakens the immune system and, therefore, negatively affects all the organs of the body.It can cause infertility and impotence, and also negatively affects the quality of sperm, which can then lead to congenital embryo defects.Smoking also weakens bones and teeth, so they become more fragile, causes the development of rheumatoid arthritis, type 2 diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, including an ulcer.
As soon as a person quit smoking, the body begins to recover instantly.After one day, blood pressure is normalized and blood circulation improves, after two days, a person distinguishes tastes and smells better, and after a month the lung walls are regenerated.
Modern ways of quitting smoking
There are several methods of rejection of smoking that help maintain in the first most difficult days.They will be effective if a person has a motivation to deal with dependence.
Nicotine replacement therapy
The plaster, the inhalers and the gum that contain nicotine they deliver it to your body in a much more terrifying way than the cigarettes.
Pros:They help get rid of addiction without problems, gradually reducing the dose and without exposing the body to shock.
Cons:They do not compensate for the "smoker ritual" when a person is used to collecting a cigarette after coffee or during a break at work.
Allen Carra Books
The method is not a prohibition of certain actions, but in the development of motivation.Allen Carr, who once smoked several packages per day, and then became one of the main British and world experts in rejecting smoking and other units, constantly explains not only those disadvantages that are related to health, but also others, which are associated with psychology.In particular, it indicates the replacement of the concepts of "I like smoking / depends on smoking", attracting the reader's attention to the fact that addiction is weakness.
Pros:Allen Carr gradually prepares the reader for changes.So, for example, he says he can smoke while reading his book, but he must stop immediately after the last page gets upside down.
Cons:A person can stretch the reading for a long time, launch the book at some point or simply not follow the author's instructions.
Meditation
It can be an auxiliary practice in stress conditions in case of rejection of smoking.It is shown that after several hours of classes, people calm down, have self -control and their mood increases.
Pros:It helps not to think about tobacco.Reduces the desire to smoke a cigarette.
Cons:It requires regularity.
Hypnosis
The most important thing in preparation is a desire.People who bring their loved ones generally have the opposite effect.A person does not lend himself to the doctor's configuration, but, on the contrary, after the procedure boasts that nothing carries it.
Pros:If hypnosis is successful, it can get rid of the habit very quickly.
Cons:Until now, there are no scientific data that hypnotherapy is the best and 100% effective way to quit smoking.
Cognitive psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is based on work with dysfunctional thoughts and irrational beliefs of the patient.For example, this: "To relieve stress, I must definitely smoke", "talk in a smoking team and at the same time not smoke myself", "it is very difficult to quit smoking, and I can't do it."
The method offers excellent results in combination with nicotine substitution therapy, some experts also use hypnosis.
Pros:A person has support and a "director" who will take him out of retirement states.
Cons:Price.However, it will bear fruit saving cigarettes.
Electronic cigarettes will not help
Often in an attempt to reduce nicotine dependence, people change to electronic cigarettes.Unfortunately, as recent studies show, this is far from being a harmless device.These devices support the rituality of behavior and contain nicotine.
Who does not recognize electronic cigarettes as a means of nicotine replacement therapy.
Scientific and fast medicine also questioned acupuncture.This method lies in the fact that the needles are introduced under the skin that facilitate the symptoms caused by abolition syndrome.For those to whom such a process may seem unpleasant, there are simulation needles that do not enter the tissues.According to clinical research, this therapy does not provide an adequate result.
That still does not help quit smoking
Smoking mixtures often contain tobacco and other harmful substances.Homeopathic assistance also raises questions.Until now, there are no reliable studies on the subject if naturopathy helps.
What you need to know before quitting yourself
According to the European Journal of Social Psychology, the formation of new habits takes 18 to 254 days.It all depends on the age and ability of neurons to create new forms.Actually, they like to run on the roads already stepped on, that is why it is very difficult for us to say goodbye to the usual way of behavior.
However, it is possible to deceive your brain with the dependence of nicotine.
How to quit smoking
- Design an appointment when forgive with tobacco.Two weeks before the time, ICs can start preparing.For example, leave ritual cigarettes in the morning and to have coffee.It makes sense to follow the moments you smoke, because you really want it, and when it's just a habit: on a walk, driving, under your favorite song, after eating.All these patterns must break one after another.
- Tell everyone.In a solid decision, it is advisable to notify all friends and acquaintances.It is possible through social networks.If many people know what you left, it will be more difficult for you to admit that you could not do it.
- Establish a goal.To start, you can tell yourself that you don't smoke for a week.The most difficult thing will be the third day without nicotine, when its amount is minimized in the blood.It is during this period that a person begins to experience cancellation syndrome, which is accompanied by irritability, headache and an increase in appetite.For this day, you can prepare in advance and find what to be distracted.Relaxing practices can help. Having spent the first "broken", you must establish a second goal.For example, wait ten days.And so, he gradually advances towards the goal.
- Take your hands.This will help interrupt the habit ritual.It is advisable to have some type of article, for example, spinner or pencil.The perfect solution is a puzzle for 1000 pieces or puzzles.
- Be prepared to replace addictions.The easiest option is to eat more.Therefore, abandoning cigarettes, some gain weight.Over time, the energy process is normalized and the additional kilos will go.During this period, it is better to have a water bottle by hand or low -calorie snacks, such as chopped vegetables and fruits.As a substitution of the habit, you must participate more actively in your body, for example, practice yoga or run.
- Do not scold yourself with a breakdown.You fight not only with a habit, but with addiction.This is a disease that is not so easy to win on your own.So, if you smoked a cigarette, it is important to praise you for lasting so long and set the next goal.
Smoking applications
For those who find it difficult to deal with their account, there are applications that help survive this period.Many of them are based on motivation.You must indicate how many cigarettes disappear from your package per day, the date you are going to go, and then look for the application every time you want to crawl.Here the amount of time and money that did not spend.For example, if you smoke a package per day, and costs in the $ 1.3 area, then the annual savings will be approximately $ 530.
But most importantly, the application will tell you what is happening to your body.So, six hours later, the lung cleaning process will begin, and after ten the body will get rid of half of the nicotine and carbon oxide in the blood.
A program that develops on the basis of cognitive-behavioral therapy methods will gradually help those who wish to abandon cigarettes.The main task is to help control your actions.Instead of forcing it to quit immediately, the application offers to establish goals, for example, smoking three cigarettes per day.Having completed the task, he will discover how much money saved, how many months of his life have returned.
There is a program for 222 days.In the game, which was developed together with the Center for Cancer Disease Prevention, a person opens new levels every day, receiving motivating messages.
Comments of specialists
"With regard to nicotine addiction, we can surely say that it can often quit smoking. In my practice, there were cases in which a cognitive-behavioral therapy session was sufficient for the patient, during which the patient the patient's idea" could not quit smoking. "This is an irrational belief that can be completely refuted by facts. The objective established.
In the case of an anxious component, they are joined in withdrawal syndrome, both pharmacological treatment are necessary (nicotine replacement therapy, anxiolytic) and normal duration protocols for cognitive-behavioral therapy or motivational consulting.
Good help here will be dialectical and behavioral therapy, which in its arsenal has many self -help skills both with anxiety and humor changes.
If the therapy is carried out correctly, then the risk of "flow" of one dependence on another is minimal.The increase in appetite in the first moments after rejecting tobacco should be treated calmly, this is a normal reaction of the body."
"In our culture, smoking is often treated as a habit with a bad reputation. People who cannot leave tobacco consider them weak, unable to force themselves to change even under the threat of damage to health.
From the point of view of a psychologist, everything is more complicated.Often, the smoking process is only the visible top of the iceberg, in the underwater part of which the addiction mechanism itself is concentrated, both psychological and chemical.And those who decided to tie, most likely, have to deal with one and the other component: they are interconnected.
The deepest roots of habits, to take a cigarette during stress, can be formed before 1.5 years.During this period, a baby, to reduce the alarm and relax, for example, in the absence of a mother, begins to suck a doll or finger.
Smoking can meet a variety of needs.In addition, far away a person can recognize them, since they were not only frustrated, but also supplanted the unconscious.
In the event that a person stopped smoking with a strong decision decision, the symptom can change in the direction in which he can download a vague and unconscious tension and find symbolic support in another way.Often, this support becomes food, the most affordable and individually adequate replacement form of one addiction to another.People unconsciously perceive it as a symbol of belonging and love.Often, instead of emotional proximity, others offer food as the only form of manifestation of attention.After adopting the behavior of the elderly, the adult children retain loyalty to such selfport.However, in this way, a person is again at the top of the iceberg of their needs.
The practices of consciousness, which are intended to understand and feel, their needs and motives, their body, will help to solve it.For example, psychotherapy, yoga, meditation.Having satisfied his true needs, a person is quite able to forget when he lasted a cigarette in his mouth."