How to Quit Smoking
Kindle Motivation to Stop Smoking, With or Without Medication
Some failed attempts to quit smoking can be due to motivation that wavers. Even the use of medication cannot be expected to overcome lack of will. Ready to quit? Read on.
Medications to quit smoking, regardless of the type, help only a small minority of the people who use them. Yet millions of people stop smoking without the use of medication. Physical addiction can be overcome. Much of it has to do with frame of mind.
Ways to Quit Smoking
Cognitive-behavioral therapy teaches that if a person wants to quit smoking and is ready to quit, he or she will quit, (though some may need medication to do it.) Many people who try to quit smoking and fail may be trying to quit because they think they should. Should has never been a good motivator. In fact, many people rebel against “shoulds.”
One of the first things smokers can do is ask themselves if they really want to quit, and if so, why. When people are more committed to the reason behind their wanting to quit than they are to the gratification they will receive by smoking cigarettes at the moment of craving, then they will find ways to suppress the urge.
Successful dieters know this. Of course the dieter wants the chocolate cake. But when she remembers that she wants to look great when she sees her old rival at her high school reunion in 4 weeks, then she will be willing to forego the cake in that moment.
Staying in touch with one's motivation is one important tool to defeat cravings. There are others too. The American Lung Association has a free, online behavioral smoking cessation program that can help.
Lung Cancer Screenings Help People Quit Smoking
The concept of personal motivation (i.e. wanting instead of shoulding) could explain why lung cancer screenings are effective in helping people quit smoking. People who have received abnormal results on lung cancer screenings are more motivated to quit smoking. Understanding this can help people who want to quit determine whether their own motivation is strong enough.
People with an abnormal screen are able to replace the phrase, 'I should quit' or ‘I want a cigarette’ with ‘I want to live’ or ‘I want to reverse this disease and heal my lungs.’ The latter two sentences carry more weight than the first two.
If a person feels well and has no sign of disease, the medical reason to quit may be just a "should", i.e. 'smoking may or may not make me sick one day, I should quit.' But once the person’s own medical test shows the beginnings of disease, the person has a concrete choice to make: begin to heal the lungs and accept the momentary uncomfortable craving, or keep giving in to the joy of smoking and be sick with cancer.
Ideally people will become motivated before they get sick. The trick is to be able to keep one’s motivational reason clearly in mind so that motivation doesn’t waver in the face of cravings and withdrawal symptoms.
Past failed attempts do not doom people to failure. All anybody has is this moment. Right here, right now, people can choose to defeat this craving, if that is what they want.
Good Reasons to Keep Trying to Quit
According to the Harvard Mental Health Letter (June, 2007: vol. 3, no.2), Michael Craig Miller, MD states it is estimated that 100 million people died from smoking in the past 100 years. About 1 in every 10 deaths can be attributed to smoking. There is good reason for people who are trying to quit to not give up hope, and keep trying. So many people can and will succeed.
Some people find hypnotherapy or cognitive-behavioral therapy to be useful.They can ask their doctors for referrals. There are other websites chock full of resources, advice and help about how to manage one’s impulses and understand and leverage one’s motivation to quit smoking.
