What Is The Best Method To Quit Smoking? All At Once Or Gradually?
Smoking kills around 8 million people around the world every year. Most sensible smokers fear that sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.
Thus, millions of people around the world want to overcome tobacco addiction, but they ask themselves: what is the best method to quit smoking? Stop smoking suddenly overnight, or stop smoking gradually, little by little, gradually? In this article I explain it to you.
For some people it can be good, for others it can be absolute hell. Let’s face it: every person is different. And I’m not just talking about his opinions and ideas, but about your metabolism and your genetics
There are people who, when they try to quit tobacco suddenly, with a brave “I won’t smoke anymore tomorrow,” achieve it with hardly any anxiety or monotony or physical symptoms of tobacco withdrawal syndrome. But only some people.
If you take a walk through Internet forums and Facebook groups, you will read that most people endlessly repeat the same copy-and-paste speech of “all you need is willpower, you leave it right now and that’s it.” ”. However, no matter how pretty we paint it, reality is not so sweet for everyone.
As I told you before, Individual differences matter, whether we like it or not There are people who suffer a lot of anxiety when they try to quit tobacco overnight. And anxiety does not usually kill people, but in the case of smoking we have to take it into account.
With anxiety, it is much more difficult to maintain abstinence When a person suffers from nicotine withdrawal anxiety, they are much more likely to suffer a relapse to tobacco, because smoking is the quickest way to “calm down” the unpleasant symptoms of withdrawal syndrome.
Simply, quitting tobacco cold turkey doesn’t work for everyone It is not a question of willpower or attitude. It’s biological.
Let’s review the points against trying to quit smoking cold turkey:
The advantages of quitting smoking gradually
Below I am going to comment on some of the advantages and benefits of quitting smoking little by little:
1. Self-awareness of consumption habits as a smoker
A very common mistake among people trying to get rid of tobacco is to skip the self-knowledge phase and become familiar with one’s own consumption habits.
The majority of smokers who fail to quit tobacco have something in common: they have not dedicated themselves to carefully observing when they smoke, when they smoke, how they smoke, who they smoke with, what they feel before, during and after smoking a cigarette.
Using an old metaphor, It is very difficult to defeat the dragon if you do not know its weak points
2. Mental preparation to quit smoking on D-day
When a smoker has done this prior observation work well, he can become psyched up and strategically reduce his daily cigarettes.
This way, when you mark on your calendar the day from which you will no longer smoke, you will be able to make proper mental preparation and get there with the greatest chance of success.
Many people mark a day on the calendar without giving much thought to whether it is the most intelligent or the most realistic , and sometimes they get unpleasant surprises, like that day “arrives very quickly”, or it is harder than they imagined, or that they had not thought about what they were going to do when they met other smokers or went to places “as always” without smoking or buying tobacco. And they realize that talking is much easier than doing.
3. Learn to avoid relapses into smoking
Tobacco addiction is one of the most “simple” if we compare it with other addictions such as gambling, cocaine or alcohol, which are more complex and difficult to overcome. That’s why so many people are successful when they try to quit smoking for a few days or a few weeks.
It reminds me a lot of the first days of January, when the gyms and parks fill with people with very good intentions and motivation, only to be empty again before February arrives.
The majority of people who try to quit tobacco without preparing for possible relapses… relapse. Is a reality. If this were not the case, we would not have almost 30% of the population addicted to tobacco. Most smokers have tried to quit, and very few succeed without prior help. There are statistics that speak of 95% of attempts ending in failure
@professional(2055054, “Are you looking for professional help to overcome an addiction?”)
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