A Basic Guide to Stop Smoking Products
How do you quit smoking? Do you slap on a nicotine patch and hope for the best? Do you buy a box of gum and chew a piece with each urge for a cigarette? Maybe you join an online support group and chat with people during your worst cravings? The answer for each smoker is going to be wildly different, but the most important thing to know about any smoking cessation program is that knowledge is power.
This means that someone who truly wants to stop smoking is not going to scour the market of available stop smoking products in search of a single miracle cure. Instead they are going to accept that there will be some serious challenges ahead, but that there are some excellent aids to help them get through the worst parts of the process.
Let’s first take a quick look at the most common steps in the stop smoking process and how people have tackled them. Obviously, the first thing to do is to stop smoking, but this is more difficult than it might sound. For instance, if someone is frequently surrounded by smokers they might find it very hard to stop smoking themselves. This means that step one is to really scrutinize the lifestyle of the smoker and identify the tools they will need to help them succeed.
The tools will include everything from nicotine replacement treatments (NRTs) such as patches, gums, lozenges, and sprays to a support network that includes friends or co-quitters who are also in the process of eliminating smoking from their lives too.
With a well-organized plan, the soon-to-be-former-smoker will be able to prepare themselves for the worst moments.
What will those worst moments be? Generally, someone who quits smoking using the “cold turkey” method will deal with roughly 72 hours of withdrawal symptoms. This means three full days of irritability, intense cravings, depression, mood swings, headaches, and a host of other conditions. Instead of doing this, most people opt to use the stop smoking products to slowly wean their bodies off of nicotine and to stop smoking.
This is the reason that the advanced planning is necessary. Consider the person who is frequently surrounded by smokers; they are going to require something to help them forgo the offer of a cigarette. This might be the piece of nicotine gum, or it could be an unplanned cell phone call to their co-quitting buddy who is ready to talk them through a really tough ten minutes.
Regardless of the program put together by the smoker, it is best to also sit down with a doctor ahead of time to ensure that the plan is a safe and healthy one too.
