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Aids For Stopping Smoking; Do they Really Work? |
By Pavion Jordan
 These days there are various kinds of stop smoking cigarette aids available. This article considers nicotine replacement aids and whether they assist in the drive to quit smoking. Smoking is an dependence and it is often said that the nicotine in cigarettes and cigars is as addictive as heroin, or even more. This is a genuine physical addiction, not just a habit. If you woke up tomorrow with absolute amnesia so that you could not recall anything about your life until now and even had no clue what a cigarette was, you would still suffer the effects of nicotine dependence.
Some ways of quitting smoking involve supplying nicotine to the body in other ways to reduce these physical effects. For example, you can get nicotine gum, patches and inhalers. The idea is that by step by step reducing the nicotine intake, you reduce the body's dependency until it reaches zero. At the same time, you quit the habit of smoking (holding a lit cigarette, inhaling, always smoking with a coffee, etc) on day one,
so that is dealt with independently from the physical habit.
These aids have a good success rate - around twice as many people are successful at quitting than those who go 'cold turkey'. It is hard to say precisely why, but if you think of other like situations, you can start to appreciate.
For case in point, using the idea of reducing addiction, you would think that a good way to quit would be to gradually decrease the number of cigarettes that you smoke each day until after 20 days or whatever you reach zero, and then you have quit. No problem, right? Wrong. You most likely know this because you tried it already. Most everybody did, because it seems like it should be such a grand method. In fact, it sucks.
Why? Because at particular point, you must actually end smoking. At that instance you need a big boost of incentive. You have the enthusiasm now - but will you still have it 20 days from now? Probably not. Somewhere along the way you are likely to start thinking that in fact, you would be happy if you just halved your intake. So you determine to do that instead, and then pretty soon it starts to edge up all over again.
Nicotine patches and gum are a lot healthier than the 'cutting down' approach because they do need you to quit smoking the cigarettes right away.
Another big advantage that nicotine surrogate has, is that it reduces the withdrawal symptoms. This is very essential for some people and probably is the chief reason why these aids really do help many people to quit.
Two things that worry people about giving up smoking are the predisposition to put on weight, and amplified irritability. Many people, even those who actually want to stop, would rather to keep on smoking than to quit and gain weight. Others are afraid that stopping will make them so irritable that they may lose a relationship or a career.
Often they have had former experiences of trying to quit, with these penalty. For other people these fears are unconscious, but they are there all the same and they are a big incentive killer. Patches or gum can assist with both of these.
So quitting aids can assist people to give up in some circumstances, but you do still need enthusiasm. The aids are not going to work by themselves. Combining them with other methods is the top way.
Nicotine is a hazardous substance. The sale of these products may be restricted in some jurisdictions. Always scan the instructions on any medication and check with your doctor for advice before using stop smoking cigarette aids.
If you finally know its time to stop smoking it still may be beneficial to use an aid that will help you in this quest. This is the best one you will ever find. Stop Smoking Cigarettes
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