It is generally accepted that smoking is just a bad habit, but in fact, tobacco addiction is a disease that even has a designation: F17.Every fifth in the world is a smoker.
Addiction implies not only the constant filling of nicotine, but also the rituals: go on vacation with smoke, take a cigarette with a glass of wine, get into your pants in search of a smoother.All these are the usual neural paths by which the body is not simply to interrupt when one gives up smoking.It is therefore important to get rid of both physical and psychological dependence.
The material was checked by the evidence-based drug, a psychotherapist, a cognitive-behavioral therapist.
Why should you immediately give up smoking
According to statistics in 2017, more than 8 million people worldwide have been killed by tobacco smoke diseases, of which 1.2 million of the passive consumption of tobacco.
For comparison, during the Covid-19 2.1 million epidemic, they were killed due to the disease.At the same time, for every death of smoking, it represents 30 patients who suffer from diseases associated with this habit.The harmful substances cause the development of more than 15 types of cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Tobacco smoke, which consists of 4,000 compounds, weakens the immune system and thus adversely affects all organs of the body.It can provoke infertility and impotence, and also adversely affects the quality of the semen, which can later lead to innate defects in the embryo.Smoking also weakens the bones and teeth, which is why they become more brittle, provokes the development of rheumatoid arthritis, type 2 diabetes, gastrointestinal diseases, including ulcer.
Once a person gives up smoking, the body begins to recover immediately.After one day, blood pressure normalizes and blood circulation improves, after two days the person distinguishes the taste and smells better and after a month the walls of the lungs are regenerated.
Modern ways of giving up smoking
There are several methods of smoking rejection that help to withstand themselves in the most difficult first days.They will only be effective if a person has the motivation to deal with addiction.
Nicotine -replacement therapy
Plaster, inhalers and chewing gum that contain nicotine supply it to your body in a much more happiness than cigarettes.
Pros:They help to get rid of addiction smoothly, gradually reduce the dose and without exposing the body to shock.
Cons:They do not compensate for the "smoker ritual" when a person is used to taking a cigarette after coffee or while on vacation at work.
Alan Kara's books
The method is not a ban on certain actions, but in the development of motivation.Alan Carr, who once smokes several packages a day, then became one of the leading British and world experts to refuse smoking and other dependencies, consistently explains not only those disadvantages related to health but also who are related to psychology.In particular, he indicates the replacement of the concepts "I like to smoke / dependent on smoking", attracting the reader's attention to the fact that addiction is a weakness.
Pros:Alan Carr gradually prepares the reader for change.For example, he says you can smoke while you read his book, but you should stop as soon as the last page is turned upside down.
Cons:One can stretch reading for a long time, throw the book at a time, or simply not follow the author's instructions.
Meditation
This can be an auxiliary practice under stress conditions in the event of smoking rejection.It has been proven that after a few hours of lessons, people calm down, they have self -control and their mood increases.
Pros:Helps not to think about tobacco.Reduces the desire to smoke a cigarette.
Cons:Requires regularity.
Hypnosis
The most important thing in preparation is the desire.People who wear their loved ones usually have the opposite effect.One does not succumb to the doctor's settings, but on the contrary, after the procedure, he parade that he does not take him.
Pros:If hypnosis passes successfully, you can get rid of the habit very quickly.
Cons:So far, there is no scientific evidence that hypnotherapy is the best and 100% effective way of giving up smoking.
Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is built while working with dysfunctional thoughts and irrational beliefs of the patient.For example, this: "In order to relieve stress, I definitely have to smoke," to talk in a smoking team and at the same time not to smoke it myself "," It's very hard to give up smoking and I can't do it. "
The method produces excellent results in combination with nicotine replacement therapy, some experts also use hypnosis.
Pros:One has support and a "conductor" who will bring him out of the state of download.
Cons:Price.However, he will pay off by saving cigarettes.
Electronic cigarettes will not help
Often, in an attempt to reduce nicotine dependence, people go to e -cigarettes.Alas, as recent studies show, this is by no means a harmless device.Such devices maintain the ritual of behavior and contain nicotine.
Who does not recognize electronic cigarettes as a means of therapy that replaces nicotine.
Scientific and rapid medicine also calls into question acupuncture.This method lies in the fact that needles are introduced under the skin, which facilitate the symptoms caused by the removal syndrome.For those who may look unpleasant, there are simulation needles that do not enter the tissues.According to clinical studies, such therapy does not produce an appropriate result.
This still doesn't help to give up smoking
Smoking mixtures often contain tobacco and other harmful substances.Homeopathic help also raises questions.So far, there are no reliable studies on the topic of whether naturopathy helps.
What do you need to know before you leave the smoking yourself
According to the European Social Psychology Journal, the formation of new habits takes 18 to 254 days.It all depends on the age and ability of neurons to create new ways.In fact, they like to run along the already stuffed paths, which is why it is so difficult to say goodbye to the usual way of behavior.
However, it is possible to mislead your brain with nicotine addiction.
How to give up smoking yourself
- Determine a date when you forgive 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 moments you smoke because you really want it and when it's just a habit - for a walk, driving, under your favorite song, after eating.All these models must be broken one after the other.
- Tell everyone.In a solid solution, it is advisable to inform 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 to them that you could not do it.
- Place a goal.For starters, you can tell yourself that you don't smoke for a week.The most difficult will be the third day without nicotine when its amount in the blood is minimized.It is during this period that one begins to experience cancellation syndrome, which is accompanied by irritability, headache and increased appetite.For this day, you can prepare yourself in advance and think of what to distract.Relaxing practices can help. Once you have passed the first break, you have to set a second goal.For example, last ten days.And so gradually move to the target.
- Take your hands.This will help to break the habit ritual.It is advisable to have some element, such as a spinner or pencil.The perfect solution is a puzzle of 1000 pieces or puzzle.
- Be prepared to replace addictions.The easiest option is to eat more.Therefore, abandonment of cigarettes, some bid.Over time, the power process is normalized and excess weight will leave.During this period, it is best to have a bottle of water at hand or low -calorie snacks, such as sliced vegetables and fruits.As a replacement of the habit, you should more actively participate in your body, for example, practice yoga or running.
- Do not fight with a breakdown.You fight not only with a habit but also with addiction.This is a disease that is not so easy to win alone.So if you have smoked a cigarette, it is important to boast about lasting so long and set the next goal.
Smoking Refusal Applications
For those who are difficult to handle on their own, there are applications that help to evaluate themselves during this period.Many of them are built on motivation.You need to indicate how many cigarettes disappear from your package per day, the date when you leave, and then - look at the app every time you want to drag.Here the time and the money you didn't spend.For example, if you smoke a package a day and it costs in the area of $ 1.3, then annual savings will be approximately $ 530.
But the most important thing is that the app will say what is happening to your body.So, six hours later, the process of cleansing the lungs will start and after ten the body will get rid of half the nicotine and carbon monoxide in the blood.
A program that is developed on the basis of the methods of cognitive-behavioral therapy will gradually help those who want to abandon cigarettes.The main task is to help get control over your actions.Instead of forcing you to give up smoking immediately, the app offers you to set goals, for example, smoke three cigarettes a day.After completing the task, you will find out how much money saved, how many months of their lives they have returned.
There is a program for 222 days.In the game, which was developed with the Center for the Prevention of Cancer, one opens new levels every day, receiving motivational messages.
Specialists' comments
"With regard to nicotine addiction, we can safely say that you can often give up smoking. That it is placed.
In the case of an alarming component, it joins withdrawal syndrome, both drug treatment (nicotine replacement therapy, anxiolytics) and protocols for normal duration of cognitive-behavioral therapy or motivational counseling.
A good help here will be dialectical and behavioral therapy, which in its arsenal has many self -help skills with both anxiety and mood swings.
If the therapy is done properly, then the risk of "leakage" of one dependence in another is minimal.Increased appetite in the first moments after refusing tobacco should be treated calmly, this is a normal reaction of the body."
"In our culture, smoking is often treated as a habit with a bad reputation. People who cannot give up tobacco consider them weak, unable to change even under the threat of health harm.
From the point of view of a psychologist, everything is more complicated.Often the smoking process is only the visible tip of the iceberg, in the underwater part from which the mechanism of addiction itself is concentrated - both psychological and chemical.And those who decide to connect, they probably have to deal with one component: they are interconnected.
The deepest roots of habits - to take a cigarette during stress - can be formed 1.5 years ago.During this period, a baby to reduce the alarm and relax, for example, in the absence of a mother, begins to suck a dummy or finger.
Smoking can serve different needs.Moreover, far from always a person is able to recognize them, as they were not only disappointed but also displaced into unconsciousness.
In the case where a person abandons smoking with a strong will, the symptom can shift in the direction in which you can discard a vague, unconscious tension and find symbolic support in another way.Often this support becomes food, the most accessible and individually appropriate form of replacement of one addiction to another.People subconsciously perceive it as a symbol of belonging and love.Often, instead of emotional proximity, others offer food as the only form of care.After accepting the behavior of the elders, already grown children remain loyalty to such self -support.In this way, however, one again finds himself on the top of the iceberg of his needs.
The practices of awareness that are aimed at understanding and feeling themselves, their needs and motives, their body, will help to understand.For example, psychotherapy, yoga, meditation.By satisfying his or her true needs, one is quite able to forget when he continues a cigarette in his mouth."