It is generally accepted that smoking is only a bad habit, but in reality dependence on tobacco is a disease that also has a designation: F17.Every fifth in the world is a smoker.
The addiction implies not only the constant supply of nicotine, but also the rituals: go to a smoke break, take a cigarette together with a glass of wine, patty yourself in the pants looking for a lighter.All these are the usual neural paths that the body is not only to stop when a person stops smoking.Therefore, it is important to get rid of both physical and psychological dependence.
The material was controlled by the Narcologist based on evidence, psychotherapist, cognitive-behavioral therapist.
Because you have to stop smoking immediately
According to statistics, in 2017, over 8 million people around the world died from diseases associated with tobacco smoke, of which 1.2 million from the passive consumption of tobacco.
For comparison: during the Covid-19 epidemic, 2.1 million people died because of the disease.At the same time, for each death to smoke, it represents 30 patients suffering from diseases associated with this habit.Damn substances cause the development of over 15 types of cancer, cardiovascular diseases, chronic obstructive lung disease.
Tobacco smoke, which consists of 4000 chemical compounds, weakens the immune system and therefore negatively affects all organs of the body.It can cause infertility and impotence and also negatively affects the quality of the sperm, which can later lead to congenital defects of the embryo.Smoking also weakens bones and teeth, which is why they become more fragile, causes the development of rheumatoid arthritis, type 2 diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, including an ulcer.
As soon as a person stops smoking, the body begins to recover instantly.After a day, blood pressure normalizes and blood circulation improves, after two days a person distinguishes and smells better, and after a month the walls of the lungs are regenerated.
Modern ways to quit smoking
There are several methods of refusal of smoking that help to resist in the most difficult days.They will be effective only if a person has a motivation to deal with addiction.
Nicotine -Sostitire the therapy
Plaster, inhalers and chewing rubber that contain nicotine deliver it to your body in a much more saved way than cigarettes.
Pros:They help to get rid of addiction uniformly, gradually reducing the dose and without exposing the body to the shocking.
Against:They do not compensate for the "smoker ritual" when a person is used to collecting a cigarette after coffee or during a break at work.
Allen Carra books
The method is not a ban on certain actions, but in the development of motivation.Allen Carr, who once smoked several packages a day, and then became one of the main British and world experts to refuse smoking and other addictions, constantly explains not only those disadvantages that refer to health, but also to others, which are associated with psychology.In particular, it indicates the replacement of the concepts of "like smoking / I dide from smoking", attracting the reader's attention to the fact that dependence is weakness.
Pros:Allen Carr gradually prepares the reader for changes.So, for example, he says that you can smoke while reading his book, but you have to stop immediately after the last page has been turned upside down.
Against:A person can extend the reading for a long time, launch the book at some point or simply do not follow the author's instructions.
Meditation
It can be an auxiliary practice in stress conditions in case of refusal of smoking.It has been shown that after several hours of lessons, people calm down, have a car --catropolle and their mood increases.
Pros:It helps not to think about tobacco.It reduces the desire to smoke a cigarette.
Against:Requires regularity.
Hypnosis
The most important thing in preparation is a desire.People who bring their loved ones usually have the opposite effect.A person does not lend himself to the doctor's settings, but, on the contrary, after the procedure he shows off that nothing takes him.
Pros:If hypnosis passes successfully, you can get rid of habit very quickly.
Against:So far, there are no scientific data that hypnotherapy is the best and 100% effective way to quit smoking.
Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is built at work with dysfunctional thoughts and the patient's irrational beliefs.For example, this: "To relieve stress, I absolutely have to smoke", "speak in a team of smoke and at the same time not smoke it alone", "it is very difficult to quit smoking and I can't do it."
The method provides excellent results in combination with the therapy with nicotine replacement, some experts also use hypnosis.
Pros:A person has a support and a "conductor" who will lead him out of the withdrawal states.
Against:Price.However, he will pay by saving cigarettes.
Electronic cigarettes will not help
Often in an attempt to reduce dependence on nicotine, people move on to electronic cigarettes.Alas, as recent studies demonstrate, this is far from an harmless device.These devices support the ritual of behavior and contain nicotine.
Those who do not recognize electronic cigarettes as a means of therapy suspected from nicotine.
Even scientific and ready medicine has questioned acupuncture.This method lies in the fact that needles are introduced under the skin that facilitate the symptoms caused by the abolition syndrome.For those to whom this process may seem unpleasant, there are simulation needles that do not go inside the fabrics.According to clinical research, this therapy does not provide an adequate result.
That still does not help to quit smoking
Smoking mixtures often contain tobacco and other harmful substances.Homeopathic assistance also raises questions.So far, there are no reliable studies on the subject if naturopathy helps.
What you need to know before quitting smoking alone
According to the European Journal of Social Psychology, the formation of new habits lasts from 18 to 254 days.It all depends on the age and ability of neurons to create new ways.In reality, they like to run along the paths already trampled, which is why it is so difficult for us to greet the usual way of behavior.
However, it is possible to deceive the brain with nicotine addiction.
How to quit smoking yourself
- Designate an appointment when you forgive with tobacco.Two weeks before the hour, ICS can start preparation.For example, abandon ritual cigarettes in the morning and for coffee.It makes sense to follow what smoke moments, because you really want it, and when it is only a habit - during a walk, guide, under your favorite song, after eating.All these schemes must be broken one after the other.
- Tell everyone.In a solid decision, it is advisable to warn all friends and acquaintances.It is possible through social networks.If many people know what you have abandoned, it will be more difficult for you to admit them that you could not do it.
- Fix a goal.To begin with, you can tell yourself that you do not smoke for a week.The most difficult thing will be the third day without nicotine, when its quantity in the blood is reduced to a minimum.It is during this period that a person begins to experiment with the cancellation syndrome, which is accompanied by irritability, headache and increase in appetite.For this day you can prepare yourself in advance and find what to distract yourself.Relaxing practices can help. After passing the first "break", you have to sit a second goal.For example, he resists ten days.And so gradually moved to the goal.
- Take your hands.This will help to interrupt the ritual of habit.It is recommended to have a sort of article, for example spinner or pencil.The perfect solution is a puzzle for 1000 pieces or puzzles.
- Prepare to replace addictions.The simplest option is to eat more.That's why, abandoning cigarettes, a little weight.Over time, the power supply process is normalized and the extra kilos will go away.During this period, it is better to have a bottle of water at hand or low -calorie snacks, such as vegetables and chopped fruit.As a replacement of habit, you should engage more actively in your body, for example practicing yoga or running.
- Don't scold with a breakdown.Fight not only with a habit, but with addiction.This is a disease that is not so easy to win alone.So if you smoked a cigarette, it is important to praise you for so long and prepare the next goal.
Applications to quit smoking
For those who have difficulty cope with alone, there are applications that help survive this period.Many of them are built on motivation.You have to indicate how many cigarettes it disappears from your pack a day, the date you intend to leave and then - look in the application every time you want to drag.Here the amount of time and money that you have not spent.For example, if smokes one package a day and costs in the $ 1.3 area, the annual savings will be approximately $ 530.
But above all, the application will say what is going on to your body.So, already six hours later, the lung cleaning process will begin and after ten the body will get rid of half of the nicotine and carbon oxide in the blood.
A program developed on the basis of cognitive-behavioral therapy methods will gradually help those who wish to abandon cigarettes.The main task is to help gain control over your actions.Instead of forcing you to quit smoking immediately, the application offers to set objectives, for example, smoking three cigarettes a day.After completing the business, you will find out how much money they saved, how many months of their life have returned.
There is a program for 222 days.In the game, which was developed together with the Center for the Prevention of Cancer Diseases, a person opens new levels every day, receiving motivational messages.
Comments of specialists
"As for nicotine addiction, we can safely say that you can often stop smoking yourself. In my practice, there have been cases in which a cognitive-behavioral therapy session was sufficient for the patient, during which the patient's idea" I could not quit smoking "was questioned. This is an irrational belief. Objective that is established.
In the event of an anxious component to adhere to the abstinence syndrome, both pharmacological treatment (nicotine substitute therapy, anxiolytics) are required and the protocols of normal duration of cognitive-behavioral therapy or motivational advice.
A good help here will be dialectical and behavioral therapy, which in its arsenal has many self-help skills both with anxiety and with mood swings.
If the therapy is performed correctly, the risk of "flowing" one dependence in another is minimal.The increase in appetite in the first moments after refusing tobacco should be treated calmly, this is a normal body reaction."
“In our culture, smoking is often treated as a habit with a bad reputation. People who cannot abandon tobacco consider them weak, unable to force themselves to change even under the threat of health damage.
From the point of view of a psychologist, everything is more complicated.Often, the smoke process is only the visible peak of the iceberg, in the underwater part of which the mechanism of dependence itself is concentrated, both psychological and chemical.And those who have decided to tie, most likely, face one and the other component: they are interconnected.
The deepest roots of habits - to take a cigarette during stress - can be formed before 1.5 years.During this period, a child, in order to reduce the alarm and relax, for example in the absence of a mother, begins to suck a mannequin or finger.
Smoking can satisfy a variety of needs.Furthermore, far from being always a person is able to recognize them, since they were not only frustrated, but also supplanted in the unconscious.
In the event that a person has stopped smoking with a strong -willed decision, the symptom can move in the direction in which a vague unconscious tension can be downloaded and find a symbolic support in another way.Often this support becomes food, the most convenient form of replacement and individually suitable for an addiction to another.People unconsciously perceive it as a symbol of belonging and love.Often, instead of emotional closeness, others offer food as the only form of the manifestation of care.Having adopted the behavior of the elderly, the children already grown up keep loyalty to this car -hexonement.However, in this way, a person finds himself at the top of the iceberg of his needs again.
The practices of awareness, which aim to understand and feel themselves, their needs and reasons, their body, will help to understand it.For example, psychotherapy, yoga, meditation.Having satisfied his real needs, a person is quite able to forget when a cigarette lasted in the mouth."