Hello my dear readers! Oh, how many packs of cigarettes were smoked by smokers, the boxes of which read: "The Ministry of Health warns - smoking is dangerous to your health! "So what? How many smokers paid attention to this inscription? Maybe someone did. But did he quit smoking? Hardly! But how to quit smoking on their own, once and for all, is a question asked by many, since other methods do not help them. And can you quit at all? This is what will be discussed today.
How smoking affects health
70% of smokers dream of quitting this bad habit, 80% of them have tried repeatedly, but have not been able to quit. According to statistics, more than 200 thousand people die annually from diseases caused by smoking.
Smoking statistics say that 96-100% of smokers suffer from lung cancer, because tobacco smoke contains substances that cause mutations in the p53 gene; 75% suffer from chronic bronchitis, and almost 25% suffer from heart disease. Unfortunately, mortality from this addiction is growing more and more every year. For example, earlier than 26% of regular cigarette smokers die each year due to smoking. Many of them could have prolonged their lives by 20 years if they had quit smoking 5 years ago.
Which systems and organs are affected by smoking?
- Respiratory system: cancer of the lungs, tongue and upper respiratory tract, bronchial asthma, chronic obstructive bronchitis;
- Cardiovascular system: ischemic heart disease, angina pectoris and myocardial infarction, obliterating endartaritis and atherosclerosis of the vessels of the lower extremities;
- Gastrointestinal tract: gastric ulcer and 12 duodenal ulcer, gastritis;
- Central and peripheral nervous system: neuroses, headaches, memory impairment, neuritis, polyneuritis, radiculitis, a smoker with many years of experience becomes irritable and quarrelsome;
- Vision: decreases in visual acuity, changes in color perception, increases the likelihood of developing glaucoma;
- Hearing: hearing acuity gradually decreases due to changes in the eardrum, the mobility of the auditory ossicles decreases;
- Taste: Taste decreases and becomes distorted;
- Smell: poor sense of smell;
- Fertility decreases in women, men are more prone to impotence.
Dear smokers, have you ever thought about the harm that secondhand smoke brings to the people around you? It is especially dangerous for pregnant women. And a disease like COPD can be fatal.
Smoking dependence
The pharmaceutical industry offers many different types of plasters, chewing gums, and other products. But even this will not be enough if you do not understand this issue "at the root". There are 2 types of nicotine addiction: physical and psychological.
Physical dependence is the body's need for the next dose of nicotine. Most often, stress, irritation, bad mood, fatigue "seize" a cigarette. The fact is that the action of nicotine causes the adrenal glands to secrete the stress hormone - adrenaline and norepinephrine. These hormones, to some extent, have a positive effect on the cardiovascular system, forcing the heart rate to increase, increase blood pressure and improve the mood of the smoker.
Psychological addiction is considered more complex. Even if you realized that you managed to cope with physical addiction and you overcame yourself without smoking another cigarette, then with the next stress or being in the company of the same smokers, it will be much more difficult for you to overcome yourself in the irresistible urge to smoke a cigarette.
How to Stop Smoking Cravings
To overcome cravings, of course, you need strong motivation and your strong desire. I will give you a commentary on my article "Are pregnancy and smoking compatible? "
I will tell you from my own experience that you can quit smoking if you have this desire yourself, took it and gave it up, the same as with alcohol, no coding and treatment will help you, only yourself andstrength of will. I tried everything, just a waste of time and money, all these encodings and different methods, this is only self-deception and yes, self-deception can also come to a result.
Here's what I will say about motivation using my husband as an example. He smoked a lot with me, and it came to pass when he smoked almost 2 packs of cigarettes a day. In the workshop where he worked, he took off work stresses with a cigarette, in the forest while hunting or fishing, he saved himself from mosquitoes with cigarette smoke. In general, I smoked before such a disease as obliterating endarteritis. What kind of illness this is, I wrote about it in detail in this article. Smokers read, do not be lazy.
The main cause of this disease is smoking, and gangrene is a formidable complication. When I told my husband that if you do not quit smoking, then you will have to move around on bumps in the forest on crutches. Will it be comfortable for you to walk through the forest like that? And he simply cannot live without a forest. This was a strong motivation for him. Quit smoking, has not smoked for a year and a half.
How to Stop Smoking Cravings Quickly and Easily? What can be done?
It's easier to overcome physical addiction. This can be overcome with the help of medicines: tinctures of valerian, motherwort, or other sedatives. Aromatherapy with bergamot, geranium, orange, basil oil discourages the desire to smoke.
Psychological cravings are much more difficult to overcome, but you can deceive them by replacing regular cigarettes with others.
- Electronic cigarettes - they create the illusion of smoking a regular cigarette, but such cigarettes do not contain dangerous compounds: benzopyrene, ammonia, various resins and arsenic compounds. The work of electronic cigarettes resembles a regular inhaler, in which cartridges change from weak to heavy in terms of the amount of nicotine content. In this case, you can gradually reduce the dose of nicotine, thereby reducing the craving for nicotine.
Acupuncture, hypnosis, coding can help to quit smoking. But you must admit that if you have a strong motivation for this, then it is quite possible to quit smoking on your own and at home. Try these methods first.
What else will help you quit smoking?
How to quit smoking on your own if there is no willpower? Of course, the example of others is important. Maybe there are people in your environment who also want to get rid of this bad habit. So why don't you unite in this noble cause? Here are some tips to help you:
- Tell your loved ones about your intention, they will definitely support you in this matter.
- Give up the companions of cigarettes - coffee and alcohol.
- Food on quit days should be light, include only plant-based foods.
- You can immediately give up cigarettes, but this is more difficult, but more effective and more accurate. To make it easier to get through this stage, you can reduce the number of cigarettes you smoke every day.
- Drink a glass of water on an empty stomach in the morning. During the day, try to drink as much water as possible, it not only distracts from thoughts of smoking, but also allows you to better remove harmful substances from the body.
- Sunflower seeds or lollipops can be a distraction.
- Move the ashtray, cigarettes, lighter out of sight.
- More outdoors, exercise, hobbies.
- On the invitation to smoke, answer with a categorical refusal.
- Join a non-smoking company. Avoid situations where you have always smoked: do not go to the smoking room with colleagues, do not visit places where there are many smokers, move further away from people with a cigarette at a bus stop, remove the ashtray and cigarettes from the computer.
How to quit smoking on your own - folk ways
Folk methods tested by many people will help you to get rid of nicotine addiction. Reviews of former smokers speak of their effectiveness.
St. John's wort tea. Put 3-4 stalks of St. John's wort in a boiling kettle, let it brew during the day instead of tea.
Plant leaves. Mix in about 1 tablespoon each. chopped fresh leaves of horseradish and plantain. Chew this mixture 2-3 times a day for 5 minutes, swallow the juice and spit out the remaining leaves.
Filler cigarettes. This is an old way of adding clipped nails, crayfish shells, etc. to tobacco. The fillers should be dried, ground in a coffee grinder and added to the tobacco in cigarettes. Smoking such a mixture completely weaned off smoking for life. As it caused severe headaches, nausea and vomiting.
Rinse before smoking. If there is an intolerable desire to smoke, then rinse your mouth with a solution of baking soda or sea salt: you need to dilute 1 tablespoon in a glass of water. soda or sea salt.
Lemon juice. Lemon juice can create aversion to tobacco, the sour taste of which will help distract from the thought of smoking. To do this, squeeze the juice of one lemon and dilute it in a glass of water.
Herbal decoction for internal use. Take 100 grams of dried dandelion and plantain leaves, pour 1 liter of milk and simmer for half an hour over low heat, then cool and strain. Should take 1 tbsp. after meal. Such a decoction will help the discharge of phlegm.
Pipe smoking. But instead of the tobacco filling, fill the pipe with a herbal filling made of equal parts of the European Clefthoof, Clavate Leopard and lingonberry leaves. Smoke this pipe 2 times a day. Then drink 2 glasses of mineral water.
Conclusion
It is important to stay without cigarettes for a week, then you will feel better. And also count. how much money you spend on buying cigarettes. The figure, I think, will impress you. This money can be spent on vacation or the right thing.
Maybe some of you, dear readers, faced the same problem and you have experience how to quit smoking on your own, help smokers and share with your readers, maybe your advice will help them.