Are you still trying to ‘give up’ smoking?
How are you getting on with your new-year resolution to ‘give-up’ smoking? Have you given up ‘giving up’ already, are you still struggling along or have you achieved your goal easily and effortlessly? If it’s the latter, congratulations!
Whilst some people manage to stop smoking easily others find it a real struggle. The reason for this difference in outcome can’t be due to the nicotine or the cigarette itself as they don’t change. I would assume that the physiological effect on a smoker’s body will be similar for everybody, therefore, the only other factor left is the psychology and behaviour of smoking and the ability of human beings to adapt to change.
The message that stopping smoking is an extremely difficult thing to achieve has been programmed into the consciousness of society by the medical profession, tobacco companies and the drugs companies who have a vested interest in perpetuating this myth. Nicotine replacement products (NRT), such as patches, gum, pills and potions create vast profits but do they really help a smoker to quit?
The drugs companies state that you are twice as likely to succeed with NRT as you would with ‘willpower’ alone. Recent research suggests that using ‘willpower’ alone is more successful than NRT. Whichever you believe to be true ‘willpower’ has a very low success rate. If NRT was so effective, you would have thought that smoking would have been ‘wiped out’ by now.
My experience of helping smokers to quit over the last 17 years has convinced me that this is principally a psychological, behavioural, emotional and environmental issue and that this applies to both the habit of smoking and how to stop successfully. Over the next couple of weeks I will be sharing with you some tips on how to make the transition from smoker to ex-smoker easier!
If you can’t wait to implement these tips or feel that you need some professional help to change your attitude and ‘mindset’ have a look at what some of our clients have to say about our stop smoking programme.
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