Dealing With Smoking Addiction: What You Should Do?
Smoking is an issue these days as it has been for many years. Sadly, many young and even younger people start smoking at a very early age. Smoking is bad for your body and mind. It has countless negative effects, but not a single positive one. The first thing you need to know is that you are an addict and you need to help yourself. Here’s a down to earth, practical guide for dealing with a smoking addiction.
Make a plan and stick to it
The first thing you need to do is to make a decision. Would you like to stay a smoker or not? If the answer is positive, ask yourself the following question. Would you like your child to smoke? None of the smokers will say yes, meaning they all know smoking is a bad habit and therefore should be eliminated.
In some way, smoking is the same as gambling addiction. Gambling addicts have help from experts such as IzonFree.com where they can get all the assistance and defeat the addiction once it for all. Smokers have similar help available plus many books and different methods you can try.
Your friends and family can also help. Once you have determined that you want to stop smoking, pick a date, and throw away the rest of the cigarettes. Well done, you are a non-smoker now. But, there are a few more things you need to do in order to make this plan successful.
Avoid all possible triggers
Triggers are all the situations that can make you want to smoke again. There are countless of them and most are the same but some depend on your lifestyle and your personality. In general, triggers are morning coffee, stress, when drinking alcohol, driving and etc. Smoking triggers will vary, but your will and your determination must remain the same.
Keep in mind that you are a non-smoker now and you must not light up a cigarette. If you smoke just one cigarette, you are a smoker again. You will need to plan how to stop smoking once again, you will need to withstand extreme cravings and you will need to suffer once again to reach this level. As long as you don’t smoke, you will live a healthy and much happier life. Keep in mind that almost all cravings last 10-20 minutes. You can withstand this period of time without a cigarette.
Although the stress is the most common trigger and all smokers will smoke when under stress, there are a lot of things you can do to avoid it. There are countless tips and tricks to fight stress in the modern era and most of them work perfectly. You will probably want to stay away from other smokers (your friends especially) for some time. Some friends will want you to smoke, just because they can’t stop! If you add alcohol to the equation, you can get a clear idea of why avoiding these situations is crucial.
Remove things that may remind you of cigarettes or smoking in general
When you see a person smoking, a cigarette butt on the street, or even an ashtray, this will remind you of a ‘’great time’’ when you were a smoker. In reality, this will remind you of a time when you had to burn tons of money every week to buy something that kills you. You were walking up in the morning tired, with bad odor in your mouth and you didn’t have the energy for anything. Is this a great time?
Once you stop smoking, you need to eliminate all the things that will remind you of that period of your life. Of course, you cannot remove other smokers, but you can remove lighters, matches, cigarettes, ashtrays, and all the rest. The secret here is to throw them away. As long as you keep them, you are at a higher risk of becoming a smoker once again. Believe it or not, this can make a massive difference and it will have a huge, positive effect on your success and you staying as a non-smoker.
Remain determined for the first 2 weeks
Nicotine will leave your body within 24 hours once you stop smoking. Some smokers may still have nicotine in their blood between 3 and 10 days after they have stopped smoking. The reason why is complicated. Basically, every body processes nicotine in a different way.
During the first 2 weeks, your brain is stressed due to a lack of nicotine and most ex-smokers start smoking again in this time frame. After 3 months, there won’t be any cravings or any issues. Within 3 months, your brain will return to normal. All you need to know is that during the first 2 weeks, you need to keep your mind and hands busy, stay with friends, and avoid all situations which may affect your plan.
Conclusion
Dealing with smoking addiction is actually very simple. There are a few rules to follow and you need to follow them up to 3 months. Keep in mind that you are a non-smoker as soon as you stop smoking! The mentioned time is just to eliminate traces and restore your brain to original state.