The nicotine replacement industry is probably the most heavily advertised method of stopping smoking. This is big business, very big business indeed. There are hundreds of companies all competing with each other to help you to quit. The problem is that they really do not care if you quit or not. Nope, they just care that you buy their product. To these people it is just a way of making money. People who want to stop smoking are easy prey. Desperation is a way of making money out of smokers who will try almost anything to stop. The key ingredient in all of this is the advertising. Those who invest the most in advertising get their product in front of the most potential customers, the current smokers who are literally dying to give up.
I did a little bit of research around the nicotine replacement industry and found some very suprising things. The current overall success rate for nicotine replacement is just 7% after one year. What Philip Morris's website will not tell you is that people who use over the counter nicotine patches have a 93% relpase rate after only 6 months. Even more disturbing is that people who have previously failed using nicotine patches have a 100% failure rate the second time. This means that if you try once with the patches you are guaranteed to fail the second time. These facts are based on studies that have been conducted on these nicotine patches.
I know where they are coming from because i tried several times using patches and the nicotine inhaler and failed. I even smoked with the patches on. Another side effect of the patches is the irritating red rash that appears wherever you stick them on your body. I use to change from one arm to the other, and i was left with little red patches all over my arms. I then tried sticking them on my legs, but they kept falling off. You can imagine the horror of finding that precious patch on the bloody floor and not being able to stick it back on because it has lost all it's stickiness.
The nicotine inhaler i tried was made to imitate a cigarette, you just add these little nicotine cartridges to them and suck away until there is nothing left. I went through loads of these things in just a couple of weeks. None of these things worked for me. I was still thinking about smoking all the time, and it was driving me crazy. You know the feeling, it is constantly on your mind. It is worse if you are at work and you go on your break and you realise that you don't smoke anymore because you are trying to give up. You get a real sense of depression because you used to look forward to that break because that is when you could light up and have a few cigs. You can imagine the feeling when you have to sit there andwatch others smoke, i used to get a feeling of missing out badly and it made me feel even worse than before. How can ever enjoy another break when you feel like this? I ended up cutting my break short to just get away and hopefully take my mind off it.
I felt like this even with the patches on, so why was this happening? Looking back now, and knowing what i now know about the whole smoking game, it is very simple. The problem is that the nicotine patches and the other products make it harder to quit. The reason is that they are still putting nicotine into your system, and most importantly into your brain. Smoking is just drug addiction and your brain wants more and more of it. When it gets the nicotine hit it is happy, so you feel satisfied, but only until the effects wear off and then your brain tells you it wants another hit thankyou very much. With nicotine it takes around 20 mins for this to happen. So you will want another cigarette every 20 mins, every day of your life. Of course you don't always light up every 20 mins, mainly due to work commitments and the actual cost of smoking. But by adding nicotine to your brain by using patches you are telling your brain that nicotine is still here baby so don't worry about that. This ensures that you will still be thinking about smoking all the time, and whilst this is going on you will certainly find it more difficult to stop smoking.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Stopping Smoking - a few home truths
Hello there. This blog is all about stopping smoking, and most importantly, how the hell do you actually do it? There are millions of smokers around the world and there are millions of people telling you how to quit. This whole business is a nightmare, full of loads of conflicting information, full of people who will tell you that their "amazing" method is the best. All wanting you to part with your cash. Stopping smoking is simple, you just stop smoking! Sounds easy when you lay it out like that, but it is one of the most difficult things to do if you are a smoker. I used to smoke, and let's get one thing straight right away. I am not some anti smoking preacher who thinks he is better than everyone else. I know first hand how smoking affects your mind and body. I know how it drags you down and keeps you there. I am not trying to sell you anything, i am just writing this blog because i had 20 years experience of smoking and what it does to you.
I am no stop smoking bloody guru. I will tell you a few home truths. I will not try to scare you into stopping, this never would work, it certainly didn't do it for me. I will just tell you what worked for me, how i stopped, and more importantly, why i stopped. There are hundreds of methods out there, some work and some don't. I believe there is no one way that fits all, everyone of us is different, and so everyone will find a way that works for them, and swear by it above all others. The only thing that really matters is that you stop smoking, however you do it.
I know what worked for me and will tell you all about it in future posts. However, what worked for me may not work for you, so keep that in mind. Quitting is a very personal thing, it is down to you to want to stop. I believe tat is the main thing in all of this. If you are not serious about quitting then get the hell away from this blog. Having said that, i bet there is not a single smoker alive who has not toyed with the idea of stopping, somewhere in the deepest parts of their brain. Even those who say they enjoy smoking and will never give up. Are you crazy? You can see what it is doing to your health on a daily basis. As the years go by the effects become more and more evident, you just choose to ignore them and carry on because it is just the way tings are.
Fear is the biggest problem in quitting. How can life ever be the same without those cigarettes? How will i be able to enjoy my life without lighting up every 20 minutes or so? Your whole life is based around wanting another cig, day after day. You wake up and the first thing you want is a cigarette. You go to bed and you want another. You go through the whole day wanting another. This is drug addiction people, plain and simple. This is what smoking is, drug addiction, or to be more exact, nicotine addiction. Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs known to man, and this is what is in every cigarette. It is not in there for the hell of it. It is there to keep you wanting another.
Once you understand what is really going on when you are smoking it will make it easier to stop in the future. When i decided to have a go at stopping i was totally unprepared. It took me 3 attempts to stop. The first two times i armed myself with all of things that people say you need to do. These being nicotine patches, nicotine gum and the pastic inhalers that mimmic smoking a cigarette. I failed miserably. I lasted one week before i was smoking with all the patches on as well. Talk about nicotine overdosing. If you have tried stopping with patches i just know you will have done the same thing. Many people do this, but many people also manage to quit using them. They use their will power to stop. Will power is a powerful thing, and it means you are struggling to stop your brain from wanting another cigarette, because that is all it wants.
If you are one of the many smokers who have stopped using those patches, then well done to you. I just didn't have the will power to do it. When i tried using the patches and failed, i felt inferior, afterall, this is the established way to stop right? Everyone is doing it this way, so it must be the way to go. Not true at all. When i stopped i didn't use the nicotine patches, or the gum or the sprays, or the inhaler. Nope, i just read 3 books. And when i mean read, i mean i really read those books, cover to cover. I was at my wits end, i just felt i could not bloody stop no matter what i tried or did. This is what worked for me because i understood what smoking was all about before i made another quit attempt. I make no excuses here, i am a firm believer in these methods because they worked for me. But that is just me. What worked for me may not work for you. Just remember that the goal is to stop smoking, no mater how the hell you do it.
I am no stop smoking bloody guru. I will tell you a few home truths. I will not try to scare you into stopping, this never would work, it certainly didn't do it for me. I will just tell you what worked for me, how i stopped, and more importantly, why i stopped. There are hundreds of methods out there, some work and some don't. I believe there is no one way that fits all, everyone of us is different, and so everyone will find a way that works for them, and swear by it above all others. The only thing that really matters is that you stop smoking, however you do it.
I know what worked for me and will tell you all about it in future posts. However, what worked for me may not work for you, so keep that in mind. Quitting is a very personal thing, it is down to you to want to stop. I believe tat is the main thing in all of this. If you are not serious about quitting then get the hell away from this blog. Having said that, i bet there is not a single smoker alive who has not toyed with the idea of stopping, somewhere in the deepest parts of their brain. Even those who say they enjoy smoking and will never give up. Are you crazy? You can see what it is doing to your health on a daily basis. As the years go by the effects become more and more evident, you just choose to ignore them and carry on because it is just the way tings are.
Fear is the biggest problem in quitting. How can life ever be the same without those cigarettes? How will i be able to enjoy my life without lighting up every 20 minutes or so? Your whole life is based around wanting another cig, day after day. You wake up and the first thing you want is a cigarette. You go to bed and you want another. You go through the whole day wanting another. This is drug addiction people, plain and simple. This is what smoking is, drug addiction, or to be more exact, nicotine addiction. Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs known to man, and this is what is in every cigarette. It is not in there for the hell of it. It is there to keep you wanting another.
Once you understand what is really going on when you are smoking it will make it easier to stop in the future. When i decided to have a go at stopping i was totally unprepared. It took me 3 attempts to stop. The first two times i armed myself with all of things that people say you need to do. These being nicotine patches, nicotine gum and the pastic inhalers that mimmic smoking a cigarette. I failed miserably. I lasted one week before i was smoking with all the patches on as well. Talk about nicotine overdosing. If you have tried stopping with patches i just know you will have done the same thing. Many people do this, but many people also manage to quit using them. They use their will power to stop. Will power is a powerful thing, and it means you are struggling to stop your brain from wanting another cigarette, because that is all it wants.
If you are one of the many smokers who have stopped using those patches, then well done to you. I just didn't have the will power to do it. When i tried using the patches and failed, i felt inferior, afterall, this is the established way to stop right? Everyone is doing it this way, so it must be the way to go. Not true at all. When i stopped i didn't use the nicotine patches, or the gum or the sprays, or the inhaler. Nope, i just read 3 books. And when i mean read, i mean i really read those books, cover to cover. I was at my wits end, i just felt i could not bloody stop no matter what i tried or did. This is what worked for me because i understood what smoking was all about before i made another quit attempt. I make no excuses here, i am a firm believer in these methods because they worked for me. But that is just me. What worked for me may not work for you. Just remember that the goal is to stop smoking, no mater how the hell you do it.
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If you wish to opt out of Advertising companies tracking and tailoring advertisements to your surfing patterns you may do so at Network Advertising Initiative.
Google uses the Doubleclick DART cookie to serve ads across it's Adsense network and you can get further information regarding the DART cookie at Doubleclick as well as opt out options at Google's Privacy Center
Privacy
I respect your privacy and I am committed to safeguarding your privacy while online at this site stoppingsmokinghelp.blogspot.com The following discloses how I gather and disseminate information for this Blog.
RSS Feeds and Email Updates
If a user wishes to subscribe to my RSS Feeds or Email Updates (powered by Feedburner), I ask for contact information such as name and email address. Users may opt-out of these communications at any time. Your personal information will never be sold or given to a third party. (You will never be spammed by me - ever)
Log Files and Stats
Like most blogging platforms I use log files, in this case Statcounter. This stores information such as internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring, exit and visited pages, platform used, date/time stamp, track user’s movement in the whole, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.
Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. This blog doesn't use cookies. However, some of my business partners use cookies on this site (for example - advertisers). I can't access or control these cookies once the advertisers have set them.
Links
This Blog contains links to other sites. Please be aware that I am not responsible for the privacy practices of these other sites. I suggest my users to be aware of this when they leave this blog and to read the privacy statements of each and every site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Blog.
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I use outside ad companies to display ads on this blog. These ads may contain cookies and are collected by the advertising companies and I do not have access to this information. I work with the following advertising companies: Google Adsense, Please check the advertisers websites for respective privacy policies.
Contact Information
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Stopping Smoking
Welcome to stopping smoking help. On this blog you will find some useful information on how to stop smoking, what works, what may not work, but most of all, what is best for you. Smoking is a killer, but you already know that, that's why your here. Hopefully i can help you see the addiction for what it really is, and help you in your quest to quit. If you have any questions please feel free to get in contact with me at sledger1@hotmail.com
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