Overcoming Nicotine Dependence

Suparna went to a party with her cousin on a weekend. Most of their friends were enjoying drinks and puffing cigarettes. She was little shy initially but she found it fine to smoke though somewhere she was feeling out of the place, and deep in her heart she knew, just to feel accepted by the group, she felt it’s necessary to smoke.  And that is how the journey begins -It’s now more than seven years, now she puffs around 11 sticks a day.

Suparna wanted to start a family; she has been trying quitting for past four months. She did it successfully three years before, she did not touch a single stick for three months, but again one fine day, it started again.

It’s not about only Suparna, perhaps everyone starts or tries smoking for fun with friends, to be accepted in a group. After few years of smoking everyone lives with an accumulated guilt and try to quit, sometimes successfully or sometimes not.

Quitting has nothing to do with your will power. Long term smoking and tobacco habits create changes in the brain areas which urge one to smoke more and that’s how you start depending on nicotine and become addicted.

Quitting smoking needs a comprehensive plan. Medicines, behavior therapy and better lifestyle including right nutrition, yoga and exercise help to shorten the journey of quitting.

Your quitting plan:

When you can stop …you don’t! And when you want to stop …you can’t! – Luke Davies

No one is immune to addiction, but for sure everyone can overcome.

Talk to your doctor: Meet your physician for help before starting available over the counter solutions. Your doctor can prescribe and administer appropriate dose of medication after proper examination. It will shorten your tenure of quitting, you can enjoy early success.

Take behavior therapy: The  behavior therapist helps to design the strategy for quitting. They help you with tools to overcome your addiction.

Right Nutrition:  Take help from your dietician. The nutrition experts can guide you with ‘Detox plans’ and appropriate nutritious food choices.

Be Active: Right breathing techniques and exercises keeps you active which certainly help you to align with a nicotine free healthy lifestyle.

Fix a date: Fix a date for quitting, and start medicines two weeks before the fixed date.

Make a quit buddy: take help from colleagues and family members. And keep charting your mood, urges to smoke and your successes in curbing your urges.

Break the pattern: Ditch the urge by changing your schedule, learn music or start playing a sport when your urge is at its peak. Take plenty of fluids to keep you hydrated. Avoid tea and coffee.

A single puff, yes even a single puff carries more than 4000 harmful chemicals which can weaken your heart! Smoking is one the prime causes of heart attack at young age. Long term smoking impacts your lungs and is one of the biggest causes of cancer across the world.

Be a Hero:  Help others to quit smoking. Be a mentor; it shall keep your morale high to quit. Be a proud quitter.