what is a good way to stop smoking.?

Question

I can't do it cold turkey and I really don't want to take a anti-depressent. Is there some other way to do it.

Answer 1

25 Ways to Stop Smoking Cigarettes

1. Make an honest list of all the things you like about smoking. Draw a line down the center of a piece of paper and write them on one side; on the other side make a list of all the things you dislike, such as how it can interfere with your health, work, family, etc., suggests Daniel Z. Lieberman, M.D., director of the Clinical Psychiatric Research Center at George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Think about the list over time, and make changes. If you are brave enough, get feedback from family and friends about things they don't like about your use of cigarettes. When the negative side outweighs the positive side, you are ready to quit.

2. Then make another list of why quitting won't be easy. Be thorough, even if the list gets long and discouraging. Here's the important part: Next to each entry, list one or more options for overcoming that challenge. For instance, one item might be: "Nicotine is an addictive drug." Your option might be: "Try a nicotine replacement alternative." Another reason might be: "Smoking helps me deal with stress." Your option might be: "Take five-minute walks instead." The more you anticipate the challenges to quitting, and their solutions, the better your chance of success.

3. Set a quit date and write a "quit date contract" that includes your signature and that of a supportive witness.

4. Write all your reasons for quitting on an index card and keep it near you at all times. Here are some to get you started: "My daughter, my granddaughter, my husband, my wife..." You get the idea.

5. As you're getting ready to quit, stop buying cartons of cigarettes. Instead, only buy a pack at a time, and only carry two or three with you at a time (try putting them in an Altoids tin). Eventually you'll find that when you want a smoke, you won't have any immediately available. That will slowly wean you down to fewer cigarettes.

6. Keep a list of when you smoke, what you're doing at the time, and how bad the craving is for a week before quitting to see if specific times of the day or activities increase your cravings, suggests Gaylene Mooney, chair of the American Association for Respiratory Care's Subcommittee on Smoking and Tobacco-Related Issues. Then arrange fun, unique things to do during those times, like some of the ones we recommend here.

7. Prepare a list of things to do when a craving hits. Suggestions include: take a walk, drink a glass of water, kiss your partner or child, throw the ball for the dog, wash the car, clean out a cupboard or closet, have sex, chew a piece of gum, wash your face, brush your teeth, take a nap, get a cup of coffee or tea, practice your deep breathing, light a candle. Make copies of the list and keep one with you at all times so when the craving hits, you can whip out the list and quickly do something from it.
8. When your quit date arrives, throw out anything that reminds you of smoking. That includes all smoking paraphernalia -- leftover cigarettes, matches, lighters, ashtrays, cigarette holders, even the lighter in your car.

9. Instead of a cigarette break at work, play a game of solitaire on your computer. It takes about the same time and is much more fun (although, like cigarettes, it can get addictive). If your company prohibits games like that, find another five-minute diversion: a phone call, a stroll, or eating a piece of fruit outdoors (but not where smokers congregate).

10. Switch to a cup of herbal tea whenever you usually have a cigarette. That might be at breakfast, midmorning, or after meals. The act of brewing the tea and slowly sipping it as it cools will provide the same stress relief as a hit of nicotine.

11. Switch your cigarette habit for a nut habit -- four nuts in their shell for every cigarette you want to smoke. This way, you're using your hands and your mouth, getting the same physical and oral sensations you get from smoking.

12. Carry some cinnamon-flavored toothpicks with you. Suck on one whenever a cig craving hits.

13. Make an appointment with an acupuncturist. There's some evidence that auricular acupuncture (i.e., needles in the ears) curbs cigarette cravings quite successfully, says Ather Ali, N.D., a naturopathic physician completing a National Institutes of Health-sponsored postdoctoral research fellowship at the Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center in Derby, Connecticut. You can even do it yourself by taping "seeds" (small beads) onto the acupuncture points and squeezing them whenever cravings arise.

14. Swing by the health food store for some Avena sativa (oat) extract. One study found that, taken at 1 milliliters four times daily, it helped habitual tobacco smokers significantly decrease the number of cigarettes they smoked.

15. Think of difficult things you have done in the past. Ask people who know you well to remind you of challenges you have successfully overcome, says Dr. Lieberman. This will give you the necessary self-confidence to stick with your pledge not to smoke.

16. To minimize cravings, change your routine. Sit in a different chair at breakfast or take a different route to work. If you usually have a drink and cigarette after work, change that to a walk. If you're used to a smoke with your morning coffee, switch to tea, or stop at Starbucks for a cup of java -- the chain is smoke-free.

17. Tell your friends, coworkers, boss, partner, kids, etc., how you feel about situations instead of bottling up your emotions. If something makes you angry, express it instead of smothering it with cigarette smoke. If you're bored, admit to yourself that you're bored and find something energetic to do instead of lighting up.
18. If you relapse, just start again. You haven't failed. Some people have to quit as many as eight times before they are successful.

19. Put all the money you're saving on cigarettes in a large glass jar. You want to physically see how much you've been spending. Earmark that money for something you've always dreamed of doing, but never thought you could afford, be it a cruise to Alaska or a first-class ticket to visit an old college friend.

20. Switch to decaf until you've been cigarette-free for two months. Too much caffeine while quitting can cause the jitters.

21. Create a smoke-free zone. Don't allow anyone to use tobacco in your home, car, or even while sitting next to you in a restaurant. Make actual "No Smoking" signs and hang them around your house and in your car.

22. Find a healthy snack food you can keep with you and use in place of cigarettes to quench that urge for oral gratification. For instance, try pistachio nuts, sunflower seeds, sugarless lollipops or gum, carrot or celery sticks. The last ones are best if you are concerned about weight gain.

23. Picture yourself playing tennis. Or go play tennis. British researchers found volunteers trying to quit smoking were better able to ignore their urges to smoke when they were told to visualize a tennis match.

24. Quit when you're in a good mood. Studies find that you're less likely to be a successful quitter if you quit when you're depressed or under a great deal of stress.

25. Post this list in a visible location in your house. Whenever you're tempted to light up, take a look at all the ways smoking can damage your health:

Increases risk of lung, bladder, pancreatic, mouth, esophageal, and other cancers, including leukemia

Reduces fertility

Contributes to thin bones

Affects mental capacity and memory

Reduces levels of folate, low levels of which can increase the risk of heart disease, depression, and Alzheimer's disease

Increases likelihood of impotence

Affects ability to smell and taste

Results in low-birth-weight, premature babies

Increases risk of depression in adolescents

Increases risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure

Increases risk of diabetes

Increases your child's risk of obesity and diabetes later in life if you smoked while pregnant

Answer 2

Natural Quit Smoking Magic

Answer 3

If you have pain in your chest when you smoke that is very helpful in keeping you on track. You may not have that pain, but keep thinking about the pain you do suffer, the coughing in the morning, or whatever. In other words, when you think about cigarettes think about the negative. I did quit cold turkey, but that was the only choice back then. One trick I found very helpful was to make a habit of not buying or carrying cigarettes, and if somehow I did get some throwing them away. (this works with liquor too). Obviously, you need to not be bumming cigarettes either. Think about how cheap and foolish you are to do that. The thing about not buying cigarettes is that the buying is at least a little painful so that is a good place to intervene if you start back up again. Likewise if you have started again and feel disgusted that is a good time to throw them in the stove (I have a wood stove) and then if you want more you would have to buy them. You just set up a steady negative wind... Good luck! You'll be feeling a lot better in just a few months.

Answer 4

The best way to quit smoking is what ever work. For some people, cold turkey works. For others, the nicotine patch or gum works. And others get help from anti-depressants. But, the best thing you can do, along with one of these methods, is to get counseling. This will really increase your chance in succeeding. Talk to your doctor about a support group in your area.

I smoked for 25 years before I quit (3 years "smoke-free" now!). I signed up for a study at the Mayo Clinic to be a guinea pig for a new drug. I don't know if I was on the drug or a placebo, but it still was hard to quit. But the counseling they provided really helped a lot. I don't think I could have gotten through without it.

Answer 5

Quitting smoking is a great opportunity to learn about ourselves.
Congratulate yourself on having the desire to stop - then you are over the worst, but still need to maintain your resolve. It's just so easy to start thinking that just one won't hurt, but it does. Just one achieves nothing except feeling the need for another. Whatever you do, don't have just one. Beware - alcohol will weaken your resolve.
Here's a few home-brewed tips that might be useful.
It's not just nicotine addiction - there are 50+ chemicals in cigarettes. Also the main problem is habit.
We have been used to having body sensations which we translate as 'my body needs something', which we have attempted to satisfy by having a cigarette.
When we try to stop smoking, we still get these 'my body needs something' sensations, and we still feel that we want a cigarette. We have to train our body to be more selective. When we feel we need something, we have to work out what it is that we actually need.
A glass of water is an excellent substitute if nothing else comes to mind, as it helps with the clearance of the toxic substances in our body. Another good substitute is a bag of salted peanuts, used in combination with the water.
Another thing to do is to find an activity which occupies the mind or body. Go swimming - nobody wants to smoke while they are swimming. Slowly, as our body adjusts and translates the 'want something' feelings into something other than cigarettes, then the feelings begin to go away. We know its not a cigarette that the body really needs, because as soon as we've had one we still have the feeling, and want another!
We will have a few bouts of feeling or even being short tempered. We must try to bite our lip, and control; ourselves. Recognise the short temper as being the removal of toxins which are trying to find a way out. They went in through the mouth, and they try to get out that way to. We must learn to keep our mouth closed, and force the toxins out the other way.

After we have stopped for a while we will begin to feel that just one wont to any harm.
All that leads to is a desire for just another one. We must guard very strongly against the desire to have just one.

Answer 6

The Homeopathic Remedy CALADUIMS in 1M potency taken once a week is known to take away the craving for smoking with regular use and always proves to be of help whenever I have prescribed it to anyone for quitting smoking. Totally Non Addictive with no side effects or complications.
Take care and God Bless you !

Answer 7

Quit Smoking Cigarette With QuitSmokingMagic : http://Go.QuitSmokingMagics.com

Answer 8

An anti-depressant won't help you anyway.

you might think about using a nicotine patch or some gum at the start, which will give you a supply of nicotine (you reduce it, but it prevents really bad craving) and helps you break from the habit of actually smoking.

Personally I found it difficult as I was used to having a cigarette in my mouth, so you might want something else... a pen to chew on or something - sounds lame but helped me!

Answer 9

Tally up exactly how much money your habit costs you in a year. Then think of something that costs a lot of money that you would really like. Say, a larger apartment or an overseas vacation.

Just think: If you quit smoking, you can afford that. And save every dollar you DON'T spend on cigarettes to achieve that goal.

Good luck!

Answer 10

they is no way to stop smoking u want to control urself
when u thinking about smoking just chewing gum or any other chocolate

Answer 11

Sorry to say but cold turkey is the best. Plus some help from gum or band-aid maybe.