How to stop smoking cigarettes

The simplest way to answer the question of how to stop smoking cigarettes is to say, just don't smoke anymore! That is a bit of a fickle response though because if it were that easy, no one would bother to ask how to stop smoking cigarettes would they?

The reason why cigarettes are so hard to stop smoking is because of nicotine addiction. Many smokers and healthcare professionals believe that smoking is a 'habit'. I can assure you and them that this is not the case. Biting your fingernails is a habit, smoking tobacco is the manifestation of an addiction to nicotine.

One of the common answers as to how to stop smoking cigarettes is to turn to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) such as nicotine patches or nicotine gum. This in my opinion is possibly the stupidest course of action to take. The reason I think this is because of what I have already said about addiction and habit. I also think it is stupid because any drug addiction treated with more of the same drug just seems silly.

When you are told how to stop smoking cigarettes using NRT, you are basically told you have to overcome the habit of smoking and then you have to overcome the addiction to nicotine. Stop smoking then stop using the patches.

What I can tell you is that there is no need to use the patches to try and overcome the 'habit'. There is no habit in smoking. It is all the result of addiction. The only reason you keep smoking is because you are addicted to nicotine. It has nothing to do with you needing to put a cigarette in your mouth. Children need soothers but adults do not!

Another common response smokers are given when they ask how to stop smoking cigarettes is to turn to a 'wonder' drug such as zyban or chantix.

Zyban and Chantix have respectively 16% and 22% success rates. (Chantix does not have the 44% Pfizer like to suggest it has by the way.) The problem with both Zyban and Chantix is that they break the physical addiction to smoking. They stop nicotine working somehow (and by the way, the doctors don't know how!) but they don't change your emotional attachment to smoking.

Without dealing with both your physical and mental addiction to nicotine, you are highly likely to fall back into smoking once your prescriptions for zyban or chantix run out.

The other problems with these drugs are the side effects. There is the nausea, the chances of seizure and a whole host of others. I cover those in more detail in other articles on my blog.

So what is the answer as to how to stop smoking cigarettes? Well, in my humble opinion, it is achieved through adjusting your mental attitude towards smoking. It is achieved through understanding your enemy. In short, understand nicotine and how it has changed the way your body operates. One way this can be achieved easily and quickly with an open mind and a fresh look at smoking through an approach known as cognitive behavioural therapy.
Cognitive behavioural therapy works by looking at smoking in a different way. The relationship you have with cigarettes is often based on a series of misconceptions. It breaks your relationship with tobacco down into bite-sized chunks and deals with each misconception individually. It may seem hard to believe but just because you think you have a handle on smoking, doesn't necessarily mean you actually have!

People who use cognitive behavioural therapy to stop smoking often report 'seeing the light' or having an 'epiphany' about smoking when they complete the course. More often than not, they know they will never start smoking again after they have given up because the whole smoking relationship has been blown to pieces.

Finally, there are many ways to stop smoking and it is important that you find the one that works for you, so as ever, my most important piece of advice to any would-be quitter is, never stop trying to stop smoking.

How to stop smoking easily

Virtually every smoker in the world would pay a good price for the answer to "how to stop smoking easily". Whilst studies have indicated that as many as 80% of smokers yearn to stop, unfortunately, they spend very little time or money on trying to stop.

Internet search engine data suggests that stop smoking information is searched for more than twice as much during the 4-week period around New Year. The sad fact of the matter is that most smokers have a look for information and end up reading the same tired old advice about how to stop smoking - and that it isn't easy. Unfortunately, most of this information is based on why they should stop smoking. They then fail to stop smoking and leave it another year before having another go.

And so the cycle continues.

Firstly, in answer to the question of "how to stop smoking easily", there is no method that doesn't require effort. It is easy to stop smoking, but it requires effort and there is a difference. To put it another way, making love is easy to do but it does require effort. Do you see what I mean?

Secondly, if you want to know how to stop smoking easily, telling you that you are killing yourself smoking is not going to make it any easier. Of course all smokers these days know that they are doing harm to themselves – that is why they all want to stop smoking. The "health police" go around reminding smokers that they are doing all this harm to themselves does not help them stop smoking.

In fact, it doesn't help smokers in any way stop smoking by telling them what damage they are doing to themselves. The only way to help someone in such a predicament is to tell him or her HOW to stop smoking. After all, every smoker in the world knows WHY he or she should stop smoking. The 'health police' never seem to have an answer for this.

Thirdly, if you want to know how to stop smoking easily, you have to change your attitude towards cigarettes. That is all done in your head – by changing the way you think about cigarettes. Taking pills or taking more nicotine in another form does not do it – changing your mindset does.

I know people who have said they will stop smoking cigarettes and only 'have a cigar or two once in a while'. Within a couple of weeks of giving up cigarettes, they are smoking 10 cigars a day that probably do more damage than the 20 cigarettes they used to smoke. This is because they are addicted to nicotine and will get it in any form they can

Fourthly, possibly the most important means of how to stop smoking easily, is to accept your life without cigarettes. After all, you weren't puffing away on a Marlboro when you were born. It just might be possible to spend the rest of your life without cigarettes!

As ever, my final piece of advice is to never stop trying to stop smoking.

Pete Howells has written the EasyQuit System that will help any smoker quit tobacco. He also blogs quit smoking advice at http://quit-smoking-motivator.blogspot.com Visit http://easyquitsystem.com/ to find out more about his incredible process for quitting smoking that boasts 96% customer satisfaction.