As a
Pharmacist
with 30 years experience I have helped literally thousands of smokers
to quit.
Once you make the decision to quit you face a number of challenges.
Firstly there is the nicotine dependence. Nicotine , as you know, is
very habit forming.
Each puff has a very calming effect, it soothes the nerves as well as
giving you, the smoker, a feeling of wellbeing. The effect is instant
as well as rewarding and short lived which drives us to puff at more
regular intervals. This leads to the desire, over time, to smoke more
and more.
We tell ourselves to cut down, and do cut down, but over time the
numbers start rising again. We enter a vicious cycle which can affect
our health in many adverse ways.
Lets face it , we all know how dangerous smoking is. We kid ourselves
that it won't happen to us. Yet, in spite of knowing this, the habit is
powerful enough to keep us locked in.
Secondly we become very habituated to the act of smoking. Just think of
all the situations that lead us to want to smoke. A cup of coffee, A
drink, Lunch, dinner the list is endless. It is critical therefore to
have a strategy for giving up.
We
must deal with
the nicotine dependence, That
is where the gum
comes in.
Then we must deal with the actual
habit of holding, and smoking.
Science tells us that it is impossible to break a habit.
We
need to
replace an old habit with a new one.
We need to decide how we will
spend our smoking time in a way that removes the temptation.
