Avoid any "100 guarantee" product or service to stop smoking

Several services send me daily updates on news items, blogs and other postings on anything to do with tobacco issues. I'm always amazed at the amount of misinformation available and the products that guarantee a smoker will quit. That 100% guarantee should be the tip off that it's just a 100% guarantee that they want your money. Every method will work for some individuals but no method will work

The best way to quit smoking is to never start

For the past seven years I have been visiting Mrs. Smith's health education classes at Coachella Valley High School as a guest speaker. It's one of the most important talks I do and one of the most rewarding. Mrs. Smith handed me an envelope full of letters from students that attended my last talk. Each thanked me for for talking to them and listed what they learned that was most important to

Building Hope

A large woman walked into my presentation in Hawaii. Both legs were bandaged due to circulatory problems from her diabetes. A two + pack a day smoker, she admitted she had never gone an hour without a smoke break. Her doctor had given up on her ever quitting and allowed her to leave in the middle of her medical appointments to go grab a smoke. She stayed and listened to the entire hour plus

Is nicotine addiction a disease?

Addiction Box by Dirk Hanson

This is an interesting article about whether addiction is a disease or not. The case can be made that individuals that are addicted to a substance (whether it's nicotine or something else) have a powerlessness over the ability to abstain from their nicotine (or other substance). In this post, the point is made that often addiction is a change in the nervous system

President Obama continues to struggle to quit for good

The White house released the results of President Obama's first physical which noted that occasional use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). Obama admitted to smoking an occasional cigarette but what does that mean -what is "an occasional" cigarette. Regardless of his apparent health--no one who smokes is healthy. One cigarette increases the heart rate, blood pressure, releases carbon monoxide

Stop Smoking Aids for Beginners

Finding good stop smoking aids is no easy job, especially for those people who don't trust medication. In other words, if you are a person who thinks quitting smoking is possible without any prescription from your therapist it means you are heading towards a brighter smoke less future. However, there are cases when people are too desperate and don't have a clue where to start from. In most of these cases, medication and drugs that could help one overcome all the withdrawal symptoms and cravings are given. No matter how strong one might be, there are situations when the pain is so huge that you would do anything for it to go away just for one minute.

We previously talked about one of the most important requirements that a person who is willing to quit smoking must have and that is commitment. Without being determined to start a new life and to totally give up smoking you won't be able to do it, even with the most expensive aids that are produced for heavy smokers. There are plenty of nicotine replacement products nowadays. When I say "plenty" I mean really "a lot" of them. You have those that you can stick on your skin, the gum, etc. There are so many that sometimes people who are looking for solutions to give up smoking fast and easy seem to be a little bit overwhelmed and have no clue where to start.

Sometimes you just have to learn how to quit smoking from those who already did it. So why not seek the blog of an ex smoker and try to calculate his or her progress. I think that this might be a really good idea since in most of the cases people are just saying one thing and doing the vice versa. Make a commitment right now, just after finishing to read my new post and begin your smokeless life changing program. If you are a heavy smoker willing to see something new in this world, you need to stop being addicted to nicotine. The failure to achieve this goal is going to lock you in the tobacco prison for the rest of your life, which in fact, isn't that long if you continue this way.

Sure thing, I don't believe in drugs either and I never took them (honestly) when quitting smoking and even when facing those awful cravings. Anyways, this doesn't mean that I never wondered, "How the heck to I get rid of cravings when quitting smoking?". The problem is that in most of the cases this is the price that you will be required to pay for spending the rest of your life away from cigarettes. Otherwise, you are welcome to continue your daily one pack routine and enjoy a lung cancer in several years; and as nowadays they don't have any reliable cancer treatment for most smokers that get it, I suppose that you are a grown up and realize what is going to happen.

The purpose of this post entitled "Stop Smoking Aids for Beginners" is to show you once again that if you don't take action nothing is going to happen. As my main purpose is to try and help as many people as possible quit smoking, I won't possible try to influence you to use any particular method to get rid of this life taking addiction. However, if you think that being aided by some kind of drug like Zyban or Chantix is going to help, than you are welcome to try - maybe you'll succeed. Anyway, be aware of the possible secondary effects that most of these products have. It's great to quit smoking, but it's not okay to face suicidal thoughts afterward.

If you are a quit smoking beginner and you need help, you may try several stop smoking aids in order not to go crazy the first several days (mostly first week) after you stop inhaling the smoke from cigarettes and decide that you won't be smoking again. I would suggest nicotine patches, but as most of you already realize that this is not honest stop smoking, you can go without taking anything at all. However, don't say that you haven't been warned. In most of the cases you will be facing terrible pain, nausea, insomnia and many other unpleasant issues. So, take your time for your decision. Most aids to help you get rid of nicotine also have their negative aspects so don't blindly believe in everything that you are being given or told.

Charlie

Time to think of nicotine addiction in a different way

Last night was graduation for the participants in my smoking cessation workshop. All had quit smoking for varying lengths of time from a couple of days to two months. For most, it had been three weeks but a common thread was, "Why is it still so hard? Why do I still have cravings? Why doesn't it seem to be getting any easier?"
Those comments are an example of still thinking of smoking as just a