Stop Smoking - Step 3: The Quitting Process

Now when we come to the actual quitting process, I would like to remind you once again that it is not going to be easy. Please do not consider yourself to be superhuman so be ready to get external help if you need it. There might be physical, mental and emotional changes when you stop smoking. But you do not have to worry. There is plenty of help available nowadays.

Medical Help

Do not feel bad about getting support. On the contrary, your chances of succeeding will increase many fold if you get professional help. Remember, nicotine is a very powerful substance and getting over it is no easy task. The more help you get, the better.

One of the most common problems that quitters face is frequent mood changes in the initial stages. You might even end up feeling sort of depressed and it is here that a medical practitioner can help you with anti depressants or mood boosters. It is well and good if you can quit by yourself and over come the powerful urges to relapse, but if you feel that you might need help there’s nothing to feel bad about.

If you need the help of medicines do not consider your self to be weak or look upon your self as a patient. All you have to do is understand how badly the nicotine had affected you and you can start counting your lucky stars that you decided to quit before something really bad happened.

HERBAL Remedies

Native Remedies has formulated three natural remedies to help address all the major problems associated with nicotine withdrawal. Although they are all excellent stand alone products, Rx-Hale tablets, Crave-Rx Drops and Triple Complex NicoTonic tissue salts are designed to work together and are recommended for use as part of a holistic treatment program.

1.Rx-Hale Tablets are especially formulated to prepare your body to stop smoking and are begun one month before you want to stop. They contain a unique combination of herbs which are well known for their anti-depressant and calming effect and include chromium to help prevent the tendency to overeat as a substitute for cigarettes. Taken during the month before you stop smoking and continued for a few months until the worst is over, Rx-Hale Tablets ensure that your efforts to stop smoking are not foiled by depression, mood swings and sugar cravings. Taking the tablets every day during the 30 days before you stop also prepares you psychologically for nicotine withdrawal and ensures that you begin the process feeling strong and ready to face the challenges ahead of you!

2. Crave-Rx Drops contain a unique combination of selected herbal ingrediants to assist with the management of nicotine craving, possibly due to their balancing effect on brain chemicals known to be associated with addiction. Containing herbs which have been clinically proven to reduce the craving for nicotine, Crave-Rx Drops also contain herbs which will help prevent the sugar cravings and compensatory overeating which often cause people to go back to cigarettes due to unwanted weight gain. Taken in a little water or juice three to four times a day, Crave-Rx Drops act quickly to reduce nicotine craving and keep you calm.

3. Triple Complex NicoTonic is a complex biochemic tissue salt formulation to assist with the 'short fuse' syndrome so frequently associated with nicotine withdrawal. Triple Complex NicoTonic helps to prevent irritability, temper outbursts and restlessness and ensures a calmer and more successful path to a cigarette free life! It does this by promoting the bio-availability of nutrients, hormones and bio-chemicals that are usually depleted by the stress of nicotine and drug withdrawal. Presented in convenient sucking tablets which are dissolved under the tongue when needed, Triple Complex NicoTonic can be taken as many times a day as necessary.

For more information on these natural remedies, please select the following link:

Stop Smoking Herbal UltraPack 

Medicines

Most of us feel queasy about taking medicines, and I don’t blame you if you feel the same. But try and look at it like this. Right now you do not have any serious affliction apart from the fact that you are smoking. In order to quit smoking you might have to take medicines for may be a month or two. This is a lot like getting a vaccination as a preventive measure to ward off a disease. But on the other hand if you continue smoking, you might end up with major illnesses which will require that you not only continue taking medicines for life but also that your time on earth will be considerably reduced. It’s a matter of being proactive than reactive.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved five medications to help you quit smoking:

1.    Bupropion SR — Available by prescription

2.    Nicotine gum — Available over-the-counter

3.    Nicotine inhaler — Available by prescription

4.    Nicotine nasal spray — Available by prescription

5.    Nicotine patch — Available by prescription and over-the-counter

Taking these medicines will not just double your chances of succeeding but will actually increase your chances by a whooping 80%. But of course it is highly recommended that you start using these medicines after consulting a medical practitioner. 

A Financial Reward

Sure cigarettes are expensive, but because people buy them in small quantities, the expense doesn’t seem much. So what you can do is start saving the money that you do not spend buying packets and packets of cigarettes. Save the money for something special and if you can, try to make it special for your family as well.

Promise the kids something like a trip to Disneyland or a vacation at the sea side. The advantage of making such public declarations is that you have all the more reason to refrain from buying cigarettes. Your kids too will be very enthusiastic about reminding you not to splurge on cigarettes and there is something to look forward to for all the family.

What if you do not have a family to save for? Well, go ahead and save for yourself. There’s always something that you would want but ay have refrained from buying because it might have been slightly over you budget. So now you can add the money that you are not spending on cigarettes to get yours elf that little something. 

The point that I am trying to drive home is that you should be rewarded for your efforts. You attempt to start smoking should not become a sort of punishment towards yourself but must promise better things for you later.

Bringing Down the Number

This again is another pitfall. There is often a misconception about quitting. Many people believe that instead of stopping at just one go; they should try to bring down the number of cigarettes that they smoke. Wrong! That is not the way that it should be done. If you try and bring down the number of cigarettes that you smoke, you will still be smoking and that just doesn’t help.

It is a very tricky thing indeed to fix on the number that is safe for you. If you are still carrying cigarettes with you then you are in fact tempting yourself. You might have brought down the number but since you still have a packet with you, you are in fact waiting for the slightest provocation and that number will shoot up again.

What is it that makes you smoke? Tension, excitement, anxiety, problems, the need to unwind, stress? Can we ever free ourselves form any of these? So the next time you hit one of these then that becomes your green signal for you will just whip out that packet, light one of them and start puffing away to glory. The excuse that will be reverberating in your mind is that “it’s just this once, just to get over this small problem.”

And then before you know it, you will be back to smoking the same number of cigarettes.

So let me emphasize that point again, you have to quit once and for all if you are really serious about quitting. It just does not work if you try to bring down the number. The number just never becomes zero. I have met many people who say, “I used to smoke 6 packets a day but now I’m down to just 2 packets a day.” I look at them out of the corner of my eye and I do not say anything to them though the message on my face is, “but you are still puffing away like a steam engine aren’t you?”

 Low Tar and Low Nicotine Cigarettes

Many people switch to low tar and low nicotine cigarettes thinking that there will be lesser harm done. This is again a myth. The point that such people are missing out is that they continue to smoke because the body or the brain has started demanding its daily doze of nicotine. Nicotine is what the body wants and nicotine is what harms the body most.

So no matter what you smoke you will try to give you body the nicotine that it has become used to. You cannot reason with the body. You accustomed it to a particular dosage of nicotine and when it doesn’t get that, its starts to complain. At such a tie even if you switch to a low nicotine cigarette it is not going to be of much use. 

The end result will be that you will start taking stronger pulls on these cigarettes, may increase the number of cigarettes that you smoke, or you might take more puffs per cigarette. Nicotine is a venomously addictive substance and once you get used to it, there is no bringing it down, there is only stopping it once and for all. 

The message here is loud and clear. Smoking any kind of cigarette is bad so don’t even consider other possibilities.