Tips On How To Stop Smoking For Good!

Smoking is highly addictive
Many people start smoking when they are young and most usually in their teens. This is often a response to peer group pressure or in the misguided attempt to cultivate a particular image.


Smoking is dangerous and harmful
Smoking is the leading preventable cause of premature death and illness around the world. Its harmful effects take hold from the very first cigarette you smoke.

The fact that many smoking related illnesses and diseases take time to develop and show up makes this fact initially hard to take on board, nevertheless it is true.


Quitting smoking will improve your health
This is a fact and one that comes true from the very first day your quit. No matter how much damage you think you may have caused yourself by smoking if you stop now you will prevent more damage and see an improvement in your overall well being.

Commit yourself to being a non-smoker
Once you've made up your mind to be a non-smoker for yourself, you will achieve it.


Don't rely on willpower
Either you have or you don't have a strong enough reason to quit. Once you have a strong enough reason everything else about the quit will be easier.

Prepare to stop
Break the process of stopping into manageable parts:

* Nicotine withdrawal

* Breaking you habit, and

* Coping with your new identity as a non-smoker

Understand each part and prepare a plan of strategies and distractions to help you cope with each of these areas. Once you have done that:

* Get as much support as you can from family, friends, colleagues, helplines, support groups, your doctor, the Internet or whatever suits you most.

* Ask you doctor or pharmacist about smoking cessation products, such as Nicotine Replacement Therapies, and be prepared to use them.

* Set a date for quitting and then stick to it.

Stop and stay stopped

Be ready and prepared for problems that may crop up and have coping strategies planned for dealing with them that suit your needs.

Use medical support if you need it and remember to take one day at a time.


If you don't succeed
Try again and again and again if necessary. Eventually you will manage to quit.


Good Luck!

Reference: Stop Smoking for Good Audio Book Order

REAL-LIFE STORY OF CIGARETTE ADDICTION

Let me tell you a story of addiction I experienced when I was young. . .

There was this old man who loved smoking “Bicycle” cigarette. I am talking of early 70s, I don’t even know if the cigarette still exists or it had gone into extinction. The old man became very sick such that he was carried to the city hospital from his native African village. He was fully taken care of and the doctor, when the old man was about, told him that he must stop smoking cigarette or else the cancer he was having might go beyond treatment.

Two weeks after the old man was discharged, the children and the grand-children accidentally found him on his farm writhing in pain while clutching his hands to his chest. At the spot, which is a hidden place on his farm, they found a lot of cigarette stubs and some new packets of this “Bicycle” cigarette.

They have to carry him to the hospital again and fortunately, one of his son who has been away to England for further study just arrived. So this son was able to follow them to the hospital and, as such, developed a rapport with the female doctor. The doctor implored the son to make sure that he watched the old man critically. After treatment, he was discharged on the third day and was told to come back for medical check-up the following week.



The following week, the doctor showed the X-Ray report to the old man’s son and explained that the old man was still smoking the cigarette. At this mention, the old man swore that he had stop smoking cigarette and called his son as a witness.

As a result of the old man’s denial, the doctor wisely called the young man aside and told him to be watching his father critically. Then, he discharged the old man to go home.

At that night around 1 a.m., the young man woke up and moved quietly to his father’s door. There, he heard some quiet sound as if someone is humming a song. Before doing anything, he called other people in the house and they opened the main door in order to go out and check through the grandpa’s window. There, they saw the window opened with their father’s locally-made ash-tray filled with cigarette stubs on the window sill and the old man majestically puffing his cigarette away while humming a local song.

The children were so shocked, afraid and embarrassed that they shouted in unison “Ha, Papa”; one of the children said “Why? Papa, why are you doing this?”

You know what the old man said?! Can you guess what the old devil said in reply!! The man bravely asked them, shouting “WHY ARE YOU ALL SHOUTING AND LOOKING AT ME? AM I NOT OLD ENOUGH TO DIE? PLEASE, LET ME ENJOY THE REMAINING PART OF MY LIFE. I WANT TO DIE HAPPY!”

Everyone became speechless with their mouth wide open!!!

YES! That is addiction. Sure, that's ADDICTION for real. The old man couldn’t give up the cigarette despite the fact that it would add more days to his lifespan. Addicts don’t drop the drug easily no matter what, even at the point of death. They always say “I will stop after taking this one, I won't touch this ‘thing’ next time” but that ‘next time’ never comes. That is the real point.

Though, a cigarette smoker knows quite well that his action is not good for his well being, yet he found it extremely hard to control himself.

Smoking is a true addiction, not just a habit as people often erroneously referred to. It is a form of addiction that is more powerful than dependence on other hard drugs such as cocaine, heroin or alcohol! In the whole world, there is no other drug that is self-administered with the kind of persistence, regularity and frequency of cigarette smoking.

According to research, it was discovered that within a year a cigarette smoker inhales 70,000 to 200,000 individual doses of mainstream smoke from his average of 2-3 packs-per-day. He only needs to take his normal 10 puffs per stick.

CAN YOU CALL THE ABOVE SCENARIO ENJOYMENT?

What Every Cigarette Smoker Should Know!

Every cigarette smoker should know that the cigarette he/she is smoking is a natural chemical specifically manufactured to destroy its user. He/she needs to know that this is an indestructible combination of dangerous chemicals that ...

Ø1 Is extremely addictive when smoked. The more you smoke the more you crave for it.

Ø2 Can precipitate smokers to die young. This has been proved physically, scientifically and otherwise.

Ø3 Is extremely addictive when chewed. There is some difference in cigarette addiction when it is chewed from its addiction when it is smoked.

Ø4 Causes addiction as permanent as alcoholism. An alcoholic and a cigarette smoker-addict are in the same category.

Ø5 Is not medicine and its use not therapy. There is nothing to be gained either medicinally or therapeutically in cigarette smoking. The effect, physically, spiritually or medically is purely negative.

Ø6 Prevents pre-cancerous cells from dying by encouraging its multiplicative growth. The environment created by cigarette smoking inside the body is a very favourable one for the continuous growth of the pre-cancerous tumour in human body cells.

Ø7 Proves so hard to quit than its counterpart drugs: heroin and cocaine. (What makes this die-hard habit possible is that cigarette smoking is openly acceptable in the society, usually seen and bought over-the-counter (OTC) while other drugs are used hidden. Cigarette is extremely cheaper than any other drugs and can be bought without the law slamming down on you.)

Ø8 Sometimes damage the brain and resultantly affect the memory. Yeah, this is real since it is like smoking fresh fish over a smoking coal fire.

Ø9 Contributes to artery hardening as a result of the accumulated smoke passing through the artery.

Ø10 Is ineffective as a stand-alone quitting aid.

Ø11 Accelerates cancer tumor growth rates through the cancer-causing chemicals in the nicotine.

Ø12 Likely causes brain damage and depression which can eventually leads to the death of the brain of the addict.

Ø13 Has a metabolite which may cause cancer. In every aspect, the overall outcome of cigarette smoking is cancer in different form.

Ø14 Eliminates 50% of adult smokers 13-14 years earlier than their expected year of demise.

Ø15 Is directly linked to lung cancer. This is inescapable for all cigarette smokers, either young or old. Lung cancer is a direct product of cigarette smoking.

Ø16 Is also a foetus destroying teratogen. Women who smoke especially when they are pregnant stand a very high risk of having miscarriage.

Ø17 Is beat by never taking another puff or chew! This is the only way to stop cigarette addiction. Don’t take the next one!

Ø18 A lot of cancer-causing chemicals totaling 81.

Ø19 Contains additional over four thousands (4,000) other chemicals in every single puff of cigarette smoke inhales by a cigarette smoker which aids the destruction of the body system of the smoker.

Ø20 Additionally contains nearly seven hundred (700) tobacco company flavor and engineering additives in every single puff of cigarette smoke which goes into the body system of the smoker and works hand-in-hand with the all other chemicals above in sealing the fate of the cigarette smoker.

It should be noted that "Rome was not built in a day". All this destruction is not achieved within a day, week or month or even a year. It is the accumulation of these chemical in their minute unseen form that becomes the indestructible death causing cancer and some other ailment within the body system of the smoker.

An average smoker, who smoke 20-60 cigarettes in a day, injures not only himself or herself but his/her non-smoking friends, neighbours and acquaintances by polluting their lifestyle in having a greater share of this chemical-filled smokes. Hence, he not only harm himself but other people who are non-smokers. For every cigarette puff inhaled by a smoker, his non-smoker friends, neighbours and acquaintances are also being punished by him.

So, which way? The only way is for him to QUIT SMOKING.

Cigarette Smoking & Its Dangers

Cigarette smoking serves as a major cause of premature death, which is preventable, especially in the developed world. Apart from being the major cause of these preventable deaths, it first leads to Coronary Artery Disease (CAD). This is a situation whereby the blood vessels linking the heart muscles become constricted thereby resulting in chest pains (angina) or heart attacks.

The image above shows coronary arteries (coronary arteries are the blood vessel supplying blood to the heart). The narrowed arteries restrict the flow of blow to the body. This scenario is peculiar in smokers.

The consequences of this heart attack are that:

The heart becomes damaged thereby resulting in heart failure or its inability to pump blood satisfactorily.

The lungs and the limbs of the smoker become swollen by the building-up of the body fluid. This is the situation being referred to as heart failure because the body cannot metabolize as a result of the heart not being able regulate the flow of the blood in the body again. Disability and death are very common to the victim at this stage.

The heart becomes blackened with an internal chamber "smoky" layout. This is due to a stagnation or stoppage of flow due usu. to obstruction in the main chamber of the heart referred to as the left ventricle (LV).

The left ventricle (LV) becomes enlarged, with thin and damaged walls as a result of which the rate of its contract reduces.

The side-effect of smoking

Smokers stand a great risk of being victims of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes.

Research revealed that the death rate of smokers is at a higher rate of 60% - 70% than that of non-smokers.

Considering women, those who smokes cigarettes have 10 times higher risk of contracting coronary artery disease (CAD) than their counterparts who don’t smoke.

Youths who smoke cigarette can experience unexpected, unforeseen or abrupt death as the first symptom of coronary artery disease (CAD) in them.

Cigarette smokers stand a greater risk of developing lung cancer, which in most cases leads to death if not cured as quickly as possible.

For more information on addiction, hard drugs, the side-effects, etc. and how to become addict-free visit, go to http://yourhealthmanager.blogspot.com/