Quit Smoking Today » Smoking Cigarettes

Vaping my eCigarette -TITAN 510- quit smoking

admin — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 05:18:49 +0000

ouflower59 asked:

Here’s a little about me and what I vape! How I stopped smoking cigarettes. Sorry I said some links wrong. Here they are. www.totallywicked-eliquid.com http Thanks and add me.

The secrets of quitting smoking forever

admin — Sun, 02 May 2010 18:24:43 +0000

itn asked:

If you’re planning to quit smoking cigarettes in 2009, take a look at our essential tips for staying away from the smokes.

Why Do We Smoke?

admin — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:35:00 +0000

Mike Durand asked:

Cigarette manufactures have been required to put warnings on all their packages of cigarettes to tell us that cigarette smoking is dangerous to our health so why do we still smoke. According to United States studies, cigarette smoking is responsible for one out of every five deaths in the U.S. Smoking robs more than five million years of lifespan because of premature death. Cigarettes are the most addictive and destructive over-the-counter drug known to man. Cigarette smoking is equivocal to lung cancer. With this said, one may wonder why do we still smoke?

Before World War I, tobacco was smoked in the form of cigars. They were primarily smoked by the wealthy. Cigarettes, which are basically leftovers of the cigar making process, were smoked by the less affluent. The number of people who smoked cigarettes boomed when tobacco companies started to mass-produce cigarettes. Their clientele: soldiers of World War I.

As early as 1892 cases of epilepsy, insanity and death were frequently reported as the result of smoking cigarettes, while such physicians as Dr. Lewis Sayre, Dr. Hammond, and Sir Morell Mackenzie of England, name heart trouble, blindness, cancer and other diseases cause by cigarettes smoking.

Leading physicians of America in 1892 unanimously condemn cigarette smoking as one of the vilest and most destructive evils that ever befell the youth of any country, declaring that its direct tendency is a deterioration of the race.

It took some time before modern day physicians would acknowledged the deadly by-product of smoking. Doctors only took notice of the increase in lung cancer incidents 20

to 30 years after WWI. With this increase, Reader’s Digest published an article “Cancer by the Carton,” which prompted the public to be aware of the effects of cigarette smoking. Similar articles have been published to condemn cigarette smoking. Medical advancements have proven the correlation between cigarette smoking and lung cancer. But despite all of these, lung cancer has remained to be one of the most common diseases in the modern world so why do we still smoke.

Surgeon General Luther Terry issued a landmark concluding, for the first time, that smoking is a direct cause of lung cancer, heart disease, and emphysema in 1964 and then again on May 27, 2004 the U.S. Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona released a new comprehensive report on smoking and health, revealing for the first time that smoking causes diseases in nearly every organ of the body. Published 40 years after the surgeon general’s first report on smoking, which concluded that smoking was a definite cause of three serious diseases, this newest report finds that cigarette smoking is conclusively linked to diseases such as leukemia, cataracts, pneumonia and cancers of the cervix, kidney, pancreas and stomach so why do we still smoke?

Cigarettes’ most common ingredient is nicotine. Nicotine is more addictive than heroine, which is in fact, a prohibited drug in most parts of the world. Aside from heroine, doctors ranked nicotine ahead of alcohol and cocaine in terms of dependence. Indeed, research has shown that smoking four cigarettes a day can induce life-long addiction to nicotine.

The Cigarette manufactures are not helping according to this report from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, they are one of only 3 states that require tobacco companies to submit reports. What they found is, from 1998 to 2004 the amount of nicotine in a cigarette has increased steadily, the study showed that regardless of brand that the amount of nicotine that is actually delivered to the smokers lungs has increased significantly overall, nicotine yields increased ten percent. Marlboro, Newport, and Camel, the three most popular brands with young smokers, all delivered significantly more nicotine, and Kool menthol increased twenty percent. With all this new information why do we still smoke?

Maybe it’s because people who smoke tend to see smoking as a part of their personality, as something that they cannot live without. That is a clear sign of addiction. And the addiction to chemicals, which in the case of nicotine, is considered a sickness.

What adds to the addiction to smoke cigarettes is the psychological pleasure or satisfaction a smoker gains when puffing a cigarette. Smokers describe smoking as a “pat-on-the-back” after a hard day’s work. One smoker confesses that it is not the taste of the cigarette; it is actually the sense of satisfaction that you get from it that keeps you smoking. Studies have also shown that depression is twice as common to people who smoke against those who do not smoke. Some also use cigarettes as an ersatz activity to pass time and be patient. Just like in war movies, when a soldier is waiting for the signal to attack, he is seen holding a gun in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

Nicotine triggers the smoker’s brain to be more efficient in processing information. It also reduces anxiety and induces euphoria. Researches have also shown that nicotine induces alertness and arousal, and sedation and relaxation based on the dose of nicotine intake. These effects, though, do not outweigh the harmful effect of nicotine addiction, which is lung cancer, and possibly other ailments, which will all eventually lead to death, so why do we still smoke?

People who cannot stop smoking may see it the other way around. They may be blinded by the short-term effects of nicotine. Aside from nicotine, smokers rarely know that a cigarette contains acetylene (fuel used in welding), cyanide, nitrogen oxide, and carbon monoxide, all of which are harmful chemicals. These chemicals are also used as poison, so why do we still smoke?

Psychosocial factors also contribute to why people continue to smoke. People surrounded by people who smoke, like family and friends, can soon develop the habit of smoking. And as its addictive nature, the smoker will have a hard time quitting the habit. An environment permissive and indifferent towards cigarette smoking will produce significant numbers of smokers.

Recently, researchers have reported that genetic variables also play a role on why people keep on smoking. These genetic variables affect the tendency of a person to smoke to the chances of quitting.

Given the many facts and figures related to the hazards of smoking cigarettes, the percentage of smokers has not experienced any considerable decrease. In fact, it continues to increase. The World Health Organization has estimated that by year 2020, tobacco will kill more people than any single disease in the world.

Educating people about the dangers of smoking doesn’t seem to help. For some smokers, thinking that smoking is directly related to lung cancer and eventually death is a myth yet to be proven.

I don’t know the answer to why do we still smoke, I do know that smoking is not only a habit but in fact that smoking is also an addiction, and sooner or later, this will eventually cause death,so why do we still smoke?

With the cigarette manufactures increasing the nicotine in tobacco which is a highly addictive drug that affects nearly every organ in our body it makes it more difficult to quit smoking, maybe its time to answer the question why do we still smoke. We know that smoking is a very powerful addiction and with the increase of nicotine, it can take multiple attempts to quit smoking, it’s time for you to answer the question why do we still smoke and seek out the help you need to quit.

Quit Smoking in 7 Steps The Nancy Reagan Way

admin — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:35:00 +0000

Tony Yost asked:

Do you want to stop smoking cigarettes? I don’t mean your wife/husband, girlfriend/boyfriend, mother/father, or doctor wants you to stop smoking.

Do you want to stop smoking?

If you do, then I can help! If you’re just trying to please someone else, don’t bother. Quitting is very, very hard to do, and doing it because you want to is the only way you’re going to be able to do what it takes to quit.

Some background… I smoked like the proverbial choo-choo train for about 20 years. Not “I didn’t inhale”, or “One cigarette every now and then”… I mean “chain-smoking, if you can’t smoke there, I don’t want to go there”, 2-3+ packs a day, smoking. See, I smoked before the “non-smokers revolted”. In those days, you could smoke on airplanes. You could smoke at work. (In fact, the CFO at one of the places I worked had a (humorous?) sign that read, “This is a smoking area. Please smoke. If you persist in non-smoking you will be asked to leave.” So I could chain smoke, even at work… no waiting for “a smoke break”. You could smoke in restaurants, too. And I did.

Later, I became an independent computer consultant. Somewhere around 1991 companies started restricting smoking. I began to have a tough time with some of my clients. After about 45 minutes in a non-smoking meeting, I would agree to just about anything… if they would just let me take a quick break (this was not a good negotiating tactic).

I also found that I didn’t really enjoy smoking any more. I just had to smoke. I was addicted to smoking cigarettes. And the coughing that came with it didn’t make me feel better either. I made the decision that I was going to quit.

There are many reasons to quit.

- You will have more money for things that you do enjoy (cigarettes are expensive!).

- You will not stink to your non-smoking friends (yes, I know you can’t smell it, but they can).

- You will get your sense of smell back (I didn’t even know mine was gone until a few weeks after I quit, I started smelling things again. What a pleasure!).

- You will be healthier. (I am told that after 10 years, an ex-smoker’s lungs are about as healthy as a non-smoker’s).

- If you’re a lady, maybe you don’t want to develop those wrinkles around your mouth.

- Ultimately, you will feel better, have more energy, and live longer.

You may have other reasons…

If you really want to quit, for your own reasons, I can tell you how I did it, and how you can do it, too.

Some of the things I will suggest are the exact opposite of what others say to do. I am not a doctor, or a psychologist. I am not giving medical or psychological advice. I am just telling you what worked for me. I quit on Saturday, Feb 22, 1992 and I haven’t had more than 6 cigarettes since. (I had those with my Mother when my Dad passed away).

Ready?

Step 1: You have to decide that, this time, you are going to do it. “There is no try, there is only do, or not do”. (I thought that was an ancient Chinese proverb, but someone told me it came from Star Wars). Regardless, either decide you are really going to quit, or don’t put yourself through the pain of trying.

Step 2: Decide on a nicotine-containing product to help you with the withdrawal. There is a real physical addiction to smoking, and you should get help with that. I used the Nicoderm patches. In those days, you needed a prescription for them. It was a 10 week program. The large size for 6 weeks, the medium size for 2 weeks, and the small size for 2 weeks. The patches have the advantage of giving you the nicotine without you doing anything that reinforces the habit (chewing the gum, “smoking” the fake cigarette, etc). At the same time, it gives you the mental strength to know that you are only fighting the mental habits (which is no small feat), not the physical issues too. If you have questions about this one, ask your doctor.

Step 3: Decide when you are going to quit. I purposely decided on Saturday at noon. I could smoke as much as I wanted until then. (And believe me, I did! I sat in a chair and smoked and smoked until noon.)

Step 4: On the designated day, throw out all cigarettes, except for one unopened pack. You don’t need them anymore, right? So, throw them out. The one unopened pack is to remind you that this is a choice that you have made. No one is making you quit, it is your own choice.

Step 5: Keep it a secret. This is where I differ from most people who would give you advice. To me, keeping it a secret gave it power. While inside my head I would be screaming “I need a smoke!!!”, on the outside I would play a game. “Would these people notice that I am not smoking? I mean, how could they not? They never saw me without a cigarette before!” I was surprised how long it took most people to notice. If they did notice, I would very casually say, “No, not right now… “. That kept the game going. It was powerful!

The other reason to keep it a secret, is that well-meaning, non-smoking friends will try and encourage you. They mean well, but they really have no idea what you are going through, and so their advice seems hollow and useless. Maybe that’s just me…

Step 6: Do not allow the internal argument about smoking. When you quit smoking, you will almost certainly begin to have internal dialog, usually depicted by the devil sitting on your shoulder talking to you.

It goes something like this:

devil: “A cigarette would sure taste good now, wouldn’t it?”

You: “Yes it would, but I’ve quit smoking and I’m not going to have one!”

devil: “If it would taste so good, then why not?”

You: “Because I want to feel better.”

devil: “Oh, so you feel a lot better now, huh?”

You: “Actually, no, I feel like @#$%^*!”

devil: “Just 1 cigarette will make you feel better. You can cut down… then quit.”

You: “Well… I guess 1 wouldn’t hurt”

To me, this is the single most important step, and it’s the reason that I call this the “Nancy Reagan approach”. Ms. Reagan started the slogan “Just Say No!” Please don’t dismiss this as just a shallow slogan. Hear me out.

You must not allow this inner conversation to take place. If you do, there is a very good chance that you will lose. What I did, and what I suggest that you do, whenever this conversation starts in your head, immediately just say the word “No!” and force yourself to think about something else. Do not let that conversation begin. You will have to do this many times… that devil (a.k.a. your habit) is very persistent. And it will come at you when you are the weakest. Just say “No!”

Step 7: Make the rule for yourself that “Anything goes, as long as it’s not a cigarette.” You can eat, run, exercise, take a vacation, swim, drink, watch tv, shop… anything as long as it’s not a cigarette.

One thing I did was to eat sunflower seeds in the shell. That kept my hands and my mouth busy. I also took my family to the lake for weekend vacations… boating, walking… etc.

Looking back, I really don’t think I could have done it without this rule. But I have to be honest… for me it did have one undesired side effect. Since I mostly used eating to compensate for not smoking, I gained weight. Given the choice, it is a trade that I would make again, though. I watched my Mother gasp for air, unable to breathe properly for the last three years of her life (it’s like drowning very slowly… a very unpleasant way to go) because of cigarettes.

Maybe you can make this step work for you without the weight gain… or work on the weight issue after you’ve quit smoking. The point is… you chose to quit smoking, whatever it takes.

OK, that’s it. After you get through the hardest part (for me it was about 10 weeks), life begins to get good again. One day, I noticed that I could smell things again (and I found out why people say that smoking stinks). And food tastes better. And I could go the distance in long business negotiations. And I will more likely live long enough to play with my grandchildren (if I ever have any).

Good Luck! If I can do it, You can do it!

See you in the non-smoking section!

admin — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:33:46 +0000

Abhishek Agarwal asked:

If you are breastfeeding then you should avoid smoking as it causes health problems both for the baby and mother. All the poisons and toxins contained in cigarettes also goes to the baby. It has been seen that many women smoke even after they know its ill effects during pregnancy or if they are breastfeeding.

There are women who continue to smoke even during breastfeeding. Smoking and breastfeeding at the same time is very dangerous and must be avoided by the nursing mothers. Baby gets all the ill effects of smoking if 20 cigarettes or more than that are consumed by the mother daily. More the cigarettes, more the baby would be effected.

Heavy smoking also results in reduced milk supply in mothers. It also causes symptoms such as diarrhea, abdominal cramps, vomiting, nausea etc. on rare occasions in nursing mothers who smoke heavily.

The risk is even more high if women smokes cigarette during or just before feeding. This is due to the fact that the level of nicotine in her milk and blood increases rapidly. Although it decreases over the time but is still harmful for the baby.

It takes around ninety-five minutes for the body to eliminate half of the nicotene from the body. This is also known as half-life of nicotine. Even if a mother smokes cigarette then she should feed the baby only after one and a half hour.

If we talk of smoking and breastfeeding then maternal smoking might result in let down reflex, inhibition of the milk ejection, lowered milk production and early weaning. Not only this, it also lowers the level of prolactin in the blood. Heavy smoking mothers are sometimes leaner and have higher metabolic rates than the non-smoking mothers.

Babies of smoking mothers who enjoy smoking during or before breastfeeding are fussier and colicky than those babies whose mothers are non smokers.

The baby should not even be exposed to any second hand smoke from the people who are smoking cigarettes. Many diseases such as SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), stunted development, respiratory illness and many other health hazards may occur due to second hand smoke.

Many people smoke and let others smoke around them even after knowing all these facts. They are very well aware of the types of tongue, mouth, lip, lung cancer etc. that are consequences of smoking. Even after so much knowledge these people are not willing to quit smoking.

Although a smoking mother is always advised to quit smoking but many experts agree that benefits of breastfeeding overcomes the results of smoking. So, even if a mother smokes, she can give breastfeeding. It would be better if she follows some time gap between her smoking and breastfeeding.

Is it as Dangerous to Smoke Cigars?

admin — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 05:33:46 +0000

Jackie Winn asked:

In the present day there must be virtually nobody on the planet who can claim that they are unaware of the risks to health attached to smoking cigarettes, but are the same risks to be found with smoking cigars, or are they safer or maybe even a bigger danger to health?

The American National Cancer Institute have said that regular cigar smoking has proved to contribute a considerable danger to human health. Research projects have firmly linked cigar smoking with the types of cancer that attack the lungs, larynx, oral cavity and pharynx. More modern conclusions have suggested that smoking cigars may be also linked to pancreatic cancer. Tobacco users who on a regular basis breathe in smoke from cigars undergo a tremendously multiplied chance of enduring both lung and disease.

The hazards related to an individual’s wellbeing have been quantified to increment dramatically in people who smoke who smoke cigars regularly and breathe in the smoke. An individual who smokes merely three or four cigars every day could be raising the danger of being diagnosed with cancer of the oral cavity by 8 times that of a person who does not smoke

Many individuals are curious as to whether smoking cigars is as addictive as smoking a different tobacco product such as cigarettes. For instance an immense number of tobacco users discover themselves hooked on smoking cigarettes yet a much lower percentage of people who smoke, smoke cigars. The truth is, manifestly every tobacco product is going to be habit-forming merely due their nicotine content. Consider for instance the consequences of “smoke-free” tobacco items including snuff and chewing tobacco, these products can quickly get really habit-forming because of the fact they each incorporate nicotine.

The majority of individuals who choose to smoke cigars don’t breathe in the smoke as deeply; consequently any nicotine is inhaled into the lungs in lower amounts. A person who smokes cigarettes broadly speaking breath in the smoke more deeply into their lungs allowing for lungs to readily absorb larger amounts of nicotine. Even allowing for the proposition that people who smoke cigars breathe in lower amounts nicotine, it’s all the same still quite probable that they’ll get addicted to nicotine if they continue regularly smoking cigars on a over a prolonged period of time.

The question is often raised as to why individuals who smoke cigars appear to smoke less often than those who smoke cigarettes? It would appear that people who smoke cigars stave off the addiction process because of several causes. The primary grounds appears to be due to cigar smokers breathing in lower amounts of smoke and nicotine, in addition to this cigars are broadly speaking less obtainable than cigarettes and are looked on a “luxury” or “special occasion” item, associated with rare treats for exceptional events.

Regularly smoking cigars may nevertheless get habit-forming, and fetch with it every associated health risks with those hazards accelerating dramatically as the quantity of cigars smoked increments.

Creating Motivation To Stop Smoking

admin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 00:26:08 +0000

Alan Densky asked:

There are two mental states that must be contented before a smoker will voluntarily quit smoking. These essentials are called “Desire,” and “Decision.”

DESIRE: A want, crave or a wish for

DECISION: Making up of one’s mind / a verdict or judgment

In order to quit smoking, you have to DESIRE to quit. You probably want to quit smoking, at least some part of you does, or you wouldn’t be reading this article.

In addition, in order to quit smoking, you have to DECIDE to give up the smoking addiction. Since you haven’t quit smoking, it simply means that you have not DECIDED to quit smoking yet.

So what you need is to feel a strong motivation to make a “DECISION” to quit smoking.

MOTIVATION, we all want it. The source of each of our motivations is a belief. Think about it, if you didn’t have a belief that you would be hurt if you jumped from a tall building, then you would not feel motivated to be alert. If you did not believe that the gnawing sensation in your stomach meant that you were hungry, you would not feel motivated to eat.

When it comes to giving up the cigarette addiction, people who smoke need to feel a lot of motivation to make the DECISION to quit. Motivation is based on the ideas that we believe. So you will need to figure out exactly what ideas would motivate you if you believed them. Because when you feel powerfully motivated, you will quit smoking.

Thanks to NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) and hypnosis for motivation, it’s much easier to learn how to believe these new ideas than you think it is. However, you don’t believe the ideas that will motivate you to quit smoking at this point, or you would have already quit smoking cigarettes.

For the purpose of this discussion, we need to define a few words.

DOUBT: Uncertain/distrustful/dubious – “maybe it’s this way, and maybe it is not.”

BELIEF: Trust/faith/tenet – A state of mind devoid of all doubt. In other words, belief means, “this is the way that it is.”

HIGHLY VALUED CRITERIA: What is most important to you, as an individual human being.

When you believe that if you continue to smoke your highly valued criterion is jeopardized, you will feel the motivation that you require to break your smoking addiction. We call this a negative motivator, because it’s a belief that motivates by giving you bad sensations. Negative motivators are great for getting you to make decisions and changes in your life.

When you believe that if you do quit smoking, your highly valued criteria will become enhanced, you will also feel the motivation that you require to quit smoking. This is a positive motivator, because it motivates you by promising good feelings if you quit smoking.

The first assignment is for you to figure out what the most essential aspects of your life are. Your most highly valued criteria are usually intangibles. For example: Money would not be highly valued criteria, but the freedom, fun, or security that money can purchase would be. Write your list of highly valued criteria down on a piece of paper.

Next you need to DECIDE what you would need to believe to feel motivated to break the habit. Here is the good news, sort of: Logic has nothing to do with belief. Things don’t have to be logical for a person to believe them. As a matter of fact, they rarely are. So do not worry about logic!

The format for your negative motivator beliefs will be: “I believe that if I continue to smoke, something horrible will happen to my most highly valued criteria.”

Make sure that you frame your motivators in the positive. In other words, always state what you want or what will happen. Never state what will not happen. Eliminate the “not” word from the beliefs.

In this example we will say that your children’s welfare is your most highly valued criteria.

WRONG: “I believe that if I continue to smoke, I won’t be doing my kid’s health any good.”

CORRECT: “I believe that if I continue to smoke, my secondhand smoke will make my children sick.”

Next, create a list of positive motivators. “I believe that if I quit smoking: (something very important will be enhanced).”

WRONG: “I believe that if I stop smoking, I won’t make my kids sick.”

CORRECT: “I believe that if I quit smoking, my kids will be safe because I will eliminate their exposure to the dangers of my secondhand smoke.”

The next step is to change the computer codes in your brain to make yourself actually believe these motivational ideas. Now for a bombshell: Your beliefs have nothing to do with what is real. Instead, your beliefs have everything to do with your perception of reality. In other words, it has a lot to do with the way that you see things.

Our belief systems are located in our subconscious. The subconscious mind is like a computer. Computers do not reason. The input to a computer controls the output from a computer. To demonstrate, I want you to think of something that you already believe without the slightest bit of doubt. Make it a belief that makes you feel good.

For instance, it’s easy for most people to believe that they love their kids. If that is true for you, make a mental image that lets you experience that feeling of love.

I’m going to ask some questions, and there are not any correct or incorrect answers.

Is your mental image a moving picture, or a still?

Is it in color, or in black and white?

Is it close or far?

Is it focused or fuzzy?

Is it normally bright, overly bright, or dim?

Is there a border on it?

Is it borderless?

Is it a panorama?

It does not matter what your answers are write them down. These are the computer codes that your subconscious uses to make you feel your feelings of belief. In this case they are the mental codes for positive belief, because you have chosen a belief that gives you a positive feeling. You have just calibrated your positive belief.

All positive belief pictures are bright and focused. If yours are not, then you probably do not really have total belief. An element of doubt is probably present. So find another belief to calibrate.

If you think of something that you doubt, and you make a mental image of it, one or more of these computer codes will probably be different. Similarly, if you have a belief that gives you a negative feeling, (a negative belief): one or more of those codes will be different.

In NLP we call these particular computer codes visual submodalities.

Now you will need to calibrate a negative belief. So repeat the same exact process, but do so using an idea that you already believe, that makes you feel ghastly.

Once you have calibrated both your positive and your negative beliefs, it’s a simple issue to manipulate what you believe so you can motivate yourself to DECIDE to quit smoking.

So, to summarize, using the above example: “I believe that if I continue to smoke, my secondhand smoke will ruin my kid’s health.”

1. Become aware of how motivated you feel to quit smoking.

2. Make a mental image that illustrates the above belief.

3. Adjust the computer codes (visual submodalities) of the image so that they match the codes from your calibrated negative belief image.

4. If you are right handed, move your eyeballs (and your mental picture) up to your left and hold it there for five seconds. If you are left handed, go up to the right. This will help you to quickly memorize the belief.

5. Now sense how well motivated you feel to quit smoking. Do you feel more motivated? Do you feel less motivated? Or are your feelings the same?

By utilizing this system you can make yourself believe almost anything by making an image in your mind that illustrates your new idea and then adjusting your mental image to make it match your calibrated belief pictures.

And if you have a belief that is holding you back, you can use the same technique to change that belief to doubt by changing one or two of the submodalities and memorizing it that way.

Now that you can motivate yourself to DECIDE to quit, you will quit smoking. A DECISION to quit means: I’m quitting no matter what it takes. If you are similar to most, you will not want quitting to feel painful. The good news is that you will not have to suffer. Because there are several hypnotic and NLP methods that can greatly reduce, or even completely eliminate the discomforts of withdrawal from the cigarette smoking addiction.