Smoking is a vice, we all know that. The amazing thing is that even smokers know what a dangerous habit smoking it, taking a heavy toll on their health, relationships and finances. But still, they are will not – or perhaps they think they cannot – kick the smoking habit. However, there are stop smoking aids available today that can actually help the smoker to give up smoking and seriously increase the quality of his or her life. Experts suggest the following aids to stop smoking.
Self Determination and Support – Initially, a smoker may smoke because of the so-called thrill the habit provides, but as time passes on, smoking become a more or less mechanical activity. Hardened smokers do not find any pleasure in smoking; they smoke only because they cannot give up the habit. Hence, if you want to stop smoking, the first thing you must have is will power. Once you have that, half the battle is won.
Then tell everyone you know that you are quitting the habit. You will be surprised how well this works. If everyone knows you are trying to quit smoking, you will find it very difficult to smoke in public. You can also join the several support groups that discuss stop smoking aids at length. There is a lot of morale boosting here, which could go a long way in helping you to come off the smoking habit.
Medications and Therapies – If you are already a long way into smoking, then quitting the smoking habit will become much more difficult for you. Apart from your determination, you will also need to take treatment for the havoc nicotine has already caused in your body. Here, there are many herbal remedies that can help you. The benefit of the herbal remedies is that they will not only repair the damage done in your body, but they will also help to wean away your smoking addiction slowly but surely. In order to resist from smoking, doctors would sometimes prescribe antidepressants to smokers.
Nicotine Patches – One reason why most smokers are afraid to give up smoking is that they think they will not be able to resist the withdrawal symptoms that would come in. Withdrawal symptoms will occur if you have been smoking for too long, but if you are a mild smoker, then there will be no such problems.
Anyways, today there are nicotine patches for those who cannot give up smoking all at once. These nicotine patches reduce the temptation for a smoke, and help the person to quit smoking. However, many medical experts are against nicotine patches because they are, after all, nicotine products. Experts believe that patches are never able to reduce the urge of smoking, but they can only reduce the frequency.
Alternative Therapies – Today, alternative therapies have made a huge impact on the medical world, just because of their effectiveness at treatment without causing any side-effects. Smokers are using natural therapies like yoga and Ayurveda to a very high degree. Yoga helps the individual to exercise better control over the mind, while Ayurveda is an ancient herbal science that can work at the internal body system.
When both yoga and Ayurveda are practiced together, they can become two of the most formidable stop smoking aids. There are many western herbs like St. Johns Wort, which are currently being investigated for their properties in making people giving up smoking. Today, different forms of hypnosis are also being used in a significant way to help people stop smoking.
Thus, there are many stop smoking aids available and, frankly speaking, it is easier to quit smoking today than it ever was before. A right mix of determination, support and remedies could go a long way in converting a smoker to a nonsmoker.