Hypnotherapy For Smoking Cessation

How to Quit Smoking Cold Turkey Kick the Cigarette Habit without Expensive Gums or Patches

May 17, 2008 Christina Gleason

As many ex-smokers can attest, it can be very difficult trying to figure out how to quit smoking cigarettes. According to an article in the New York Times (Blakeslee, March 29, 1987), cigarette smoking is harder to quit than heroin. One of the hardest ways to quit smoking is “cold turkey.”

Quit Smoking Cold Turkey

Some smokers are able to quit “cold turkey,” picking a day to smoke their last cigarette and vowing never to smoke again. While some smokers choose a day in advance and mark it on the calendar, many smokers decide to quit on the spur of the moment. When the decision to quit smoking comes suddenly, an important mental hurdle is throwing out that last pack of cigarettes. It’s more helpful to some people to be able to remind themselves that they chose to throw the cigarettes away and never look back; this mental advantage isn’t present for smokers who decide to quit smoking when the last pack is gone.

Nicotine Withdrawal

Quitting cold turkey can be very difficult, especially for people who have been smoking more cigarettes for a long period of time, because nicotine withdrawal can be a very unpleasant thing. What are some of the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal?

• Irritability
• Intense craving for cigarettes
• Insomnia
• Tiredness
• Headaches
• Tension
• Problems concentrating
• Increased appetite
• Weight gain

Increased appetite and weight gain are important to note, because they are especially troubling to many people who are trying to quit smoking. Nicotine is an appetite suppressant, so it is hard for the body to adjust to a normal level of appetite. In general, though, the positive health effects of quitting smoking far outweigh the negative health effects of gaining a few extra pounds.

The important thing to remember is that the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal decrease over time. If you can make it through the early days of quitting cold turkey, it will get easier to avoid picking up cigarette smoking again as time goes by.

Tips for Cold Turkey Success

Keeping all of this in mind, there are some things you can do to make the cold turkey method easier on yourself, and make it less likely to start smoking again.

One thing you need to do is to drink plenty of water. Not only will drinking water keep you hydrated and give you something to do with your mouth instead of puffing on a cigarette, but it will help your body flush the impurities out of your system faster.

Keep your mouth busy. Chewing sugarless gum or sucking on hard candy will keep your mouth busy when you start feeling the need to smoke. Sucking on a lollipop or chewing on a straw or a pen will also give you something to hold onto if you need to keep your hands busy as well as your mouth.

When a craving hits, try closing your eyes and counting to ten while taking some deep breaths. If that doesn’t work, take a walk to get yourself away from temptation.

If all else fails, call a friend, relative, co-worker, or a smoker’s help line. Get some outside support to remind you of all the reasons why you decided to quit in the first place: your health, your family, your finances, your appearance, etc. Or talk about anything but smoking to divert your attention until the urge to smoke passes.

Additional Resources

This article is not a substitute for medical advice. Please consult your doctor for any questions you may have about quitting smoking cold turkey. MedlinePlus and Quit Smoking were used as references for this article. For more advice on how to quit smoking, you may be interested in New Ways to Quit Smoking.

• Federico Bellino” onclick=”openImage(381602)” />

  The last cigarette – Federico Bellino

Comments I am only 17, almost 18 and i’ve been smoking for 5 sum years…it’s getting harder each time i buy a new pack, i don’t know how many times i’ve tried to quit cold turkey and i always seem to sway back to my normal routine of cigarettes when i wake up, at lunch, and a few when i get home, it’s escalated to the point where my girlfriend is affected by it, we’ve been going out for 2 years, and i don’t want my addiction to be the end of it, if i don’t quit now…when will it end? i need to just smoke my last 2 packs, and make myself a promise that if i don’t, it could be my relationships, and frankly i prefer sex over a cigarette haha i’ve smoked roughly 1 pack a day from 13 years old to almost 21 years old; cigarettes quickly gained a place in my daily routines. everything i did included a cigarette, or had the thought of a cigarette break present. tobacco seems to integrate itself easily into life, routine, and ultimately into controlling your behaviors to certain extent. a similar effect can be said of heroin, and accept or dispute, nicotine has been referenced as more addictive than heroin. as a former addict of both cigarettes, i.v. heroin, and other chemicals/behaviors, my personal experiences give me statute to understand a hard lifestyle change as quitting cigarette smoking. to anyone who may read this article, let its words ring through your head, and remember although you may quit for life, it is much easier to not use/quit for the day first. good luck! This may sound weird (I’m on my xth time attempt to stop smoking!!) but I’m changing the way I think about ‘quitting’. Instead of saying I’m ‘quitting smoking’, I’m saying I’m ‘choosing not to smoke’, I’m not an ex smoker, I’m a non smoker! Because the minute you tell yourself your quitting, you feel like you are deprived of something.

I’m 29, have stopped smoking for 18 months before and 5 months until recently. This time I swear I won’t touch another cigarette, it’s soo easy to get back into smoking.

I have used NRT in past, this time I’m going ‘cold turkey’. I feel like crap today but once I’ve got through tomorrow, the 3 day hurdle I’ll be fine! After the 3rd day it’s easy.

This article is really good, I’m downing litres of water at the moment & on the chewing gum, they make a difference & water fills you up so you don’t snack as much!

Good luck to you all!!!

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