The dangers and the horrors of what smoking can do your body are well known and unlike in the past, we now have a full idea of just what kind of damage this habit can do. We all know how bad it smells, we know that it stains fingers and teeth, stunts growth and costs money, not to mention the high risk of cancer, emphysema and heart disease that smoking brings. In spite of knowing about these dangers and negatives of smoking, it is still a very difficult habit to quit. Take my buddy Matthew F Knouff and I, we both quit at the same time, he succeeded and I failed. Ultimately, smoking is an addiction and getting rid of any addiction is not easy, thankfully however, there are some options for you which can greatly help you to kick the habit once and for all. Let’s take a look at what is out there to help you get smoke-free.
Champix
Champix is the brand name for a drug called Varenicline and it is a drug which can greatly increase your chances of quitting smoking for good. The nature of the tablets is that you take 0.5mg once per day to let your body get used to it before gradually upping the dosage until you are taking 2mg per day, once in the morning, once at night. Unlike with other quit smoking aids, you must continue to smoke for the first 2 weeks of your treatment and what the tablets do is to train the receptors in your brain, to basically dislike the taste and smell of cigarettes. After just 10 days of taking the tablets, cigarettes will begin to taste disgusting and your desire to smoke will be massively diminished. Continue taking the tablets for a further 2 and half months and you will have a great chance of quitting for good.
Patches
The addictive substance in cigarettes is nicotine and when you quit smoking, it is the withdrawal to nicotine which causes the anger and the impatience. In order to help you wean off nicotine, you can use nicotine replacement patches. On the day that you quit smoking, you place a patch on your skin and it will slowly release nicotine into the body, as the weeks go on, you will reduce the level of nicotine in the patches, until you are ready to stop using them altogether.
Cold Turkey
If you feel as though you have the strength to simply quit smoking, the most successful way is to go cold turkey, as in quit without an aid. Going cold turkey can be challenging and will really test you, with this being said, it is suggested that those who go cold turkey, have a much better chance of staying quit for good. If you are going to do this, make sure that you have a plan in place to keep your mouth and fingers busy, and that you have a way of taking your mind off the fact that you want a cigarette.