Smoking Why Is It So Hard ...

[Dawiss 0]

I have smoked and im only 14! that sux but thats the world!... Try just droping them out and stopd doing it... but thats very hard to do so..Maybe try going on easyer cigarets with less nikotin less and less that at end you just dont use them... but thats maybe not working My friends gave me once cigarete that has been sunk in milk and then dryed... It was so horrible!!! from that time I get sick when i see someone smoking GooD LucK!

[LanarkshirePets 0]

Giving up smoking is one of the hardest things I've done. Although I've not completly given up. I used to smoke around 5 a day, which so quickly shot up to 25 over time, after I moved out and was allowed to smoke inside!I found the gum to be horrid, I couldn't use it without feeling sick - whatever brand I used. After that I just tried cutting down and have got it down to less than 10 cigarettes a day. I'm slowly weaning myself off these cigarettes. First it was the "I'm bored, I'll have a smoke" cigarettes. Then the "in bed, just about to sleep" one. Now I don't smoke with my morning coffee or when I'm waiting on a bus! Telling yourself that you'll giving up on a certain cigarette makes it easier.. I found that doing something like doing the dishes or making myself coffee instead of having a smoke when I was bored not only got stuff around the house but I forgot that I wanted one.Waiting on the bus? Listening to music. Just about to go to sleep? Read, talk to my boyfriend. Morning coffee? I eat breakfast instead. Next up is the post-sex cigarette, the one I enjoy the most... It's slow, but I'm getting there. You just need to stick yourself in the right mindset!

[shigajet 0]

A friend of mine managed to quite smoking after he read Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking . Without using any patches or Nicorette gum, he read the book several times and it gradually changed his mindset. I think most people who constantly think to themselves "I have to quit smoking!" may find it very difficult to quit, even after they tried to do so.

[icemarle 0]

Well, this may seem a bit unrelated, but my grandfather smoked a lot. I was living in his house for a few years, so I was exposed to it. Then, I got acute bronchitis from the second-hand smoke. I'm not a smoker, but I have to suggest... the best way to avoid serious consequences in the end is not to smoke in the first place. I know how hard it is to do self-control. In fact, I've tried to tear myself away from procrastinating... It was no joke... But think about the consequences that might happen. If you smoke, not only do you do damage to yourself when you get hooked, but you also get to harm people around you... Like what happened to me when I got my acute bronchitis... All you need is self-control and a lot of determination!

[brandice 0]

Most people who smoke started very young, except for my dad, who started in his 30's. you would think people would know better by then.Anyway, I've seen how hard it is for people to not smoke. My mom started when she was 12, so she's been smoking about 40 years (yikes!) and when she runs out of cigarettes it's horrible to see what she has to go through. She gets shaky and aggitated and she can't stay still. My older sister stopped though, cold turkey. She hasn't smoked in 8 years or so, but she still get the craving every so often but then she remembers how she's gone so long without one and her pride stops her. She was cranky for about a week, but then she kind of leveled out and became normal. Her ex-boyfriend stopped by getting some shots that put him to sleep for three days- just long enough to get all of the nicotene out of his system.

[Kubi 0]

I find it easier to just not start, though once that is to late, best thing to do is try self-restraint.Set limits. Smoke twice a day, if you smoke more, take away your privilages. Say you have a bofriend/girlfriend. Smoke 3 times, you can't see them for a week. It sounds cruel but it'll get you to cut down.After a while, make it one cig a day, and set the standards even higher. Once You get that high, just stop.If all else fails, Patchs + DuckTape + Body. Tape the patches to your skin ><!

[round 0]

I'll start off by saying that i'm a smoker, one who doesn't feel like quiting again. The patches and gum don't work. Seems stupid to take the drug that your having a problem with, and almost injecting it into your system. I think i know more people addicted to the gum than ever before. Try cold turkey, i've done it. Trick for me was whenever i felt like smoking, i just told myself i wasn't a smoker, never smoked a day in my life. Sounds stupid buy i'm awfully gulible in that way. convinced myself every time.round

[freesoul 0]

Smoking from age 11?! My my... now that's serious. How old are you now. Lets just imagine that you are in your teens. Even then its pretty damn trouble. And how the hell did your mother get you into this?!What happened when you tried the gum. All these medicines are gonna kill people more than the smoke itself. and if the patches don't stick use some glue Just kidding. Like our buddy said you need determination and will power (and a better patch) if you are gonna get yourself outta this mess.

[DreamCore 0]

Wow man, you have smoked a lot.. I think its easy to stop smoking beacuse, I dont some... Easy for me too say But you shuld think at you family when you are trying to stop somking beacuse its more Important than an Cigaret and sometimes it helps you to stop somking.. You shuld try it some time The only thing that can almost stop and save alot of lives is to stop producing the cigaretts. Are we going to distroy ouselfs?? So the only best way to stop almost evry human from smoking is to stop producing the damn cigaretts. Hope that they will do it some day But until then

[Jesse 0]

yes i realize that i need to use self control but its not that easy, my life gets very stressing and so it makes the addiction worse, smoking for so long and now not being able to do so it makes me quite an angry person towards some people and they dont like that and neither do i but how do you quit smoking when the side effects make you a person that you dont really want to be in the first place?

[selim 0]

Snuff

One way of giving up smoking There are plenty of reasons for giving up smoking (especially cigarettes) of which the least is its health hazard.  It's not only expensive, it exposes one to the most vicious persecution.

I have snuffed & smoked alternately for 55 years.  When in 1992 I was stuck into smoking heavily, I had an operation & was not allowed to smoke in hospital.  So I went back to snuff, and on being discharged, considered:  do I want to go on travelling to London in a 10-carriage train together with half the passengers crammed into the single smoking carriage?  Do I want to spend Ł1460( § - see below ) a year on cigarettes (being a heavy smoker) when I can enjoy snuff for Ł60 a year (being a heavy snuffer)?  So I have stuck to snuff ever since, and found no deprivation in the transition.

Check out more of the site. And ok so it's not really giving up but it beats smoking. And those scientist people seem to claim it's not hazardoues (sp?) to your health but I think wedging wads of tobbacco under your upper lip must do something to your mouth.

I haven't done it but I had a few friends who did and it does help stop/cut down smoking but they did say it seemed to be making that small gap between your gum and lip deeper. It might just all be in the mind, I don''t know. Maybe if you try it out you'll know, or if someone who takes it now might tell you.

[msdeeva 0]

Well time for me to Rant Again.

 

I have been smoking cigs for as long as I can remember, I think I was about 11 or 12 when I started. And I remember that it was my mother that got me onto them. And now I have a serious health problem and I was told to stop. Ok no problem, you care to explain how I do that?

 

Well this is what I was told, use patches and gum. Ok I use the patches, they stick for a few hours and fall off. They are surpost to be on for 24 Hours at a time. Well how can they stay on if they wont stick probably? I am surpost to use them for 12 weeks, how if they wont stick 

 

It is so hard to stop considering I have been smoking for so long already. But I know that I could be in more serious health problems if I dont. But man why is it so *darn* hard. I know that the nicotine is a problem because of how addictive it is. But yikes.

 

Listen you patch making companies, if you seriouslly wanna help people quit for good, then at least make a *darn* product that works properly 

209747[/snapback]

First, you probably already figured it out by now, but you need to wash and dry the skin where you are going to apply the patch. Do not put on any lotion as this will make the surface slippery, and the medication will not dispurse into your system properly.

 

As far as the whole addictive nature, nicotine as you know, is very addictive. Basically it acts as a neurotransmitter in your body and release another chemical that tells your body that it feels good. Your body gets used to this "high," and goes through withdrawal when it can't have it anymore. That's what's good about the nictotine patch and gum. Your body is slowly weened from this addicting substance.

 

Make sure what ever you do, do not smoke and use the patch/gum at the same time. This can be a fatal combination.

 

As a final note: You can do it! after quitting, your lungs will become healthier and provided that you do not have an irreversible condition such as emphysema, they will revert back to it's pre-smoking state. If you love yourself and those around you, just know that quitting is the best decision you ever made your life.

 

By the way, in case you wanted to know, that's free advice from an R.N.

[webishqiptar 0]

If everyone who smoked would stop today, that would do more to improve national health than any other single step. In the United States alone rougly 320,000 deaths each year are related to smoking, and 10 million more people have smoking related chronic diseases(DHHS, 1998). In a study od Scandinavians, Scholl estimated that one third of all deaths in 50 to 60 year old men could be avoided if all of the smokers had stopped at age 50.

 

These are sobering statistics. Despite age related decreases in the rate of cigarette smoking the chronic disease caused by smoking often are at their worst in old age. As we will see, the problem with cigarette smoking is that the dangers are indirectly tied to age, in that it usually take years before the devastating effects become apparent to the smoker.

 

The rates of smoking vary not only with age but also with sex and ethnic status. Adult men tend to smoke than adult women, although this difference is negligible in young adults. Among ethnic groups native Americans tent to smoke less than Whites, Blacks tent to smoke more and Hispanics and Asian Americans smoke about the same as Whites. These differences in smoking rates result in different rates of smoking related desease later in life; for example lung cancer is relatively rare among elderly native Americans.

 

The Hazards of Cigarette Smoking

The connection between cigarette smokinga nd lung cancer has been well documented for over 25 years by the U.S surgeon general. The U.S public health service notice that smokers has ten times as much lung cancer, 3 to 10 times as much cancer of the mouth and tongue, 3 to 18 times as much cancer of the larynx, and 7 to 10 times as much bladder cancer as nonsmokers. Smoking plays at least one inidrect role in over half of all cancer deaths, and it is directly repsonsible for 75% of all lung cancer. Nine out of every ten people who develop lung cancer are dead within 5 years.

 

Clearly, smoking takes a frightening toll. But the prospect of the lung cancer or other related smoking disease has significantly lowered smoking rates only among men. For women the number of smokers, especially among adolescents and young adults, is higher than ever. The american cancer society estimates that at current smoking rates lung cancer will become the most common form of cancer among both men and woman. Lung cancer among older woman is the only major cause of death to show an increase during the 1980s.

 

Cancer is not the only disease caused by smoking. Emphysema and heart disease are two others. The carbon monoxide and icotine inhaled in cigarette smoke foster the development of atherosclerosis and angina. Women who smoke and take contraceptive pills for at leats 5 years have an increased risk of heart attacks until menopause, even if they stop taking the pill. Smoking after the fourth month of pregnacy is linked with an increased risk of stillbirths, low birth weight and perinatal death.

 

The Hazards of secondhand smoke

 

The hazard of cigarette smoke do not stop with the smoker. Nonsmokers who breathe the smoke of others are also at higher risk for smoking related diseases, including chronic lung disease, lung cancer and heart disease. Additionally, pregnant women who breathe second hand smoke for as little as 2 hours a day at home or at work are more likely to give birth to infants who are below in average in weight. For these reasons many states and communities have passed stringent legislation severely restricting smoking. For example beggining in April 1988 smoking was not allowed at all on airplane flights of 2 hours or less within the United State.

 

Quitting Smoking

If you smoke and want to quit, how should you proceed? Many people sucessfully quit on their own, but others have found assistance through formal therapy. Whether a particular approach is effective depends on the individual; no one approach works with everyone.

Most stop smoking programs are multimodal, in that that they combine a number of aspects from different therapeutic approaches. For example Lando(1977) used several behaviour modification techniques as well as "booster session" after therapy was over. lando reported a success rate of 76%, which is much higher than the typical 20% or 30% abstinence at 6 to 12 months follow-ups. It appears that the use of booster sessions is the key to difference. Otherwise the potential for relapse is quite high.

 

Because 70% to 80% who try to quit eventually relapse, Marlatt and Gordon investigated the relapse process itself. They concluded that for most people who have successfully quit smoking one cigarette is enough to create a full blown relapse complete with feelings of utter failure. Marlatt and Gordon suggest that treatment programs take this into account and incorporate strategies to deal with these feelings caused by a slip. Although some poeple may find formal programs helpful in their battle to stop smoking, as many as 95%

of those who quit do so on their own, according to a survey by the Surgeon General's Office. Schachter speculates that people tent to go to clinics only after they have tried to quit on their own and failed. Thus those who attend a clinic may not be a representative sample of smokers who try to quit on their own and failed; success rates of 20% to 30% reflect success with difficult cases.

 

To date however no one has convincingly demosntrated that one method of quittings moking is more effective than another. It apperas that what may matter most is the person's commitment to quitting and being in an environment that fosters not smoking. if you smoke the statistics about the effects of smoking on health and availability of effective therapies may have convinced you to stop. You may wonder then, if your health would ever return to normal. It takes considerable time but eventually people who quit smoking return to a normal risk of disease. For example within ten to 15 years the risk of lung cancer has dropped to normal. In the long run it is certainly worth everyone's while to quit.