Herbal Medicine

Here Are My First Helpful Hints For Quitting smoking

May 25th, 2008 Subscribe To Our Feed

by Lorelei Fenton

Long term smokers often wonder why they cannot quit. They wonder what
makes them keep smoking, insanely, in the face of very probable lung
cancer, and a long-drawn-out, painful death. This same question baffles
most people, smokers and non-smokers alike.

Well you are not stupid or crazy, but I can tell you that you are
struggling to break free of one of the most, if not the most, severe
addictions on the planet.

I can see your reaction could be, “All that’s very interesting, but how
does it apply to my life?”

In essence, from an addiction standpoint, you have about 10 trillion
cells in you body. Now with nicotine addiction, it will not take very
long before every one of those 10 trillion cells is addicted to that
substance. And when that happens, you’ve got trouble. You have a full blown
addiction that is just as strong as any skid row addict’s dependency.
But unlike the skid row addict, it seems you can operate relatively
functionally with this addiction. So there is not the strong pull to get
help for yourself. On the contrary, with ten trillion cells telling you
to smoke, it’s pretty easy to ignore the claims that some day, in the
future, you might get sick and die. From your cells point of view, you
are dying now if you are not getting it.

Now you might be inclined to believe, as most of us do, that one of the
best helpful hints for quitting smoking is to taper off slowly. Again
from an addiction standpoint, this is bad news. You see as you become
addicted to nicotine, and many other drugs, your body grows receptors to
handle the influx of huge amounts of the substance. These receptors
will never go away and the only thing they do is long for, and receive,
the drug. If they don’t get what they want, they will eventually slow
down and stop screaming for the drug. So going cold turkey can have its
benefits if you can last out the process.

Now if we look at the other side, when a receptor gets its drug, but
does not get enough, it will continue its metaphorical screaming, until
the screaming hits a manic pitch. Like a child in a temper tantrum, the
receptors demand the drug with a vengeance, now that they know is out
there and available. Thus it is much harder to taper off than it is to
quit cold-turkey.

We still do not know the best way to quit smoking. One way that people
have met with success with this very physical addiction is the body,
mind, spirit method of getting help through the 12-step program, Nicotine
Anonymous. Such a program for smoking addiction will also allow you to
share your journey with other people in the same boat. And if it saves
your life, it is worth the trouble.

There are also a lot of people who espouse the method of
Neuro-Linguistic Programming. The theory here is that since the brain and nervous
system control the hands and the body- they could potentially over-ride
the cells longing for the substance, as well as the receptors ‘kicking
and screaming’ for it. But whichever method helps you to stop, be sure
you never pick nicotine up again. Because if you do, you are bound to go
right back down the road from whence you started.

For lots of assistance with your addictions visit famed spokesperson
and writer Lorelei’s blogs at
(helpfulhintsforquittingsmoking.blogspot.com)
helpfulhintsforquittingsmoking and also at (fightingfoodcravings.wordpress.com)
fightingfoodcravings