how do you stop smoking cigarettes?

Question

my aunt is currently smoking cigarettes and i really want her to stop. what are the risks and what should she start doing first so she doesnt have to do it all of the sudden, and some extra tips and web sites too?thanks to all for your help :D

Answer 1

How about realizing that your aunt is an ADULT and she will only quit IF and WHEN she is ready. It is sweet that you are concerned but you can't change other people, only yourself.

Answer 2

Natural Quit Smoking Magic

Answer 3

The risks are lung cancer and heart disease, among others. Unfortunately, just like every other addiction, the addict has exactly the same answer 'it won't happen to me'.

I used to joke about only smoking the kind of cigs that cause low fetal birthweight in pregnant women.

I was fairly lucky, I was still young, and hadn't been smoking for very long, or very heavily. It was still strange - because someone gave me a pipe and some tobacco for christmas one year. I like the way it tasted, so for a week or two I would just puff on it. I had left a pack of cigs on the mantel, and so one day I grabbed it, and lit one up - they were stale and nasty, so I put it out, and grabbed the pipe. Now, I could've easily just traded one habit for another, but fortunately the pipe is a pain to pack, get lit, keep it burning, and clean it out. I would smoke it from time to time, but it got less and less.

Now I smoke the occasional cig, but they make me nauseous (which is great).

I would suggest giving her a pipe - most tobacco stores have them. They have all sorts of varieties of tobacco (without all of the chemicals that are in cigarette tobacco and on the papers) - get a few samples so she can try them out. It may or may not work, but it's worth a shot. Besides the nicotine addiction (its been proven that tobacco companies have been slowly adding more nicotine to their cigarettes for the last decade or so to make them more addictive) there is also an oral fixation, which the pipe can help with. One of the funniest episodes of 'my name is earl' was where he was trying to quit smoking, along with helping his friends mother quit. He said: 'someone said you could substitute carrot sticks, but we couldn't get 'em to light'

You can also resort to dirty tricks like the old 'exploding cig' trick - available in most novelty stores, but that'll most likely just piss her off more.

Answer 4

I am trying to quit now, if I do break down and smoke I brush my teeth immediatly and do not beat myself up for the mistake. I have smoked for 28 years and smoked 2.5 packs a day. This week I smoked a pack. Celebrate every victory.

Answer 5

I too had a problem with trying to quit. I tried the nicotine gum, but personally it didn't help me. Then I got the Nicotine patch,which I am still using.

Try to keep your aunt away from cigarettes and try to get her involved with other activites(such as biking,community service,etc.)something to keep her mind off of smoking.

I found this website helpful http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/how2quit.htm

Hope your aunt can quit!
If you have any other questions email me.

Answer 6

Quitting smoking can be very difficult to accomplish..Your aunt has to WANT to quit...or she will not be successful. I finally succeeded about 8 years ago...after having smoked for 20. I'll tell you my secret....pretzel rods...the long pretzels....I walked around for a couple months with pretzels hanging out of my mouth...sucking the salt off them (incase your not aware...salt is a substitute for nicotine cravings)....when my cravings got really bad I would go to the kitchen...pour some salt in the palm of my hand and lick it off.....cravings gone! Also, I had a perscription for Welbutrin...this is a generic for Zyban. While most insurance perscription plans will not pay for stop smoking aids...Welbutrin is also an anti-depression medication....if she goes to see her physician...tell him/her what she's trying to accomplish...I'd bet they would be willing to write her a perscription for Welbutrin with a depression diagnosis and her insurance will cover the medication cost. The instructions for quitting smoking while taking Welbutrin are: take the medication twice a day....continue to smoke for 7 days.....on the 8th day you wake up....and don't smoke....for as much as I was certain it was NOT gonna work, because I didn't feel any different for that 7 days...it did work.....I got ready for work that morning...thinking hmmmm....this isn't so bad....got 1/2 way thru my day...thinking wow! this is pretty amazing....about 2:00 that afternoon...I called my dad...asking him to go get the 2 packs of smokes out of my house....so the temptation wouldn't be there when I got home. I did however, quit smoking in my house and my vehicle a month or so before hand....working to free those places of the icky smoke smell.....(going outside to smoke in the winter when it's 10 below zero wasn't anything I was looking forward to doing)..giving myself some additional incentive! Then off to the store for a bag of pretzels....I kept a bag in my desk drawer at work...a bag in my car..and a bag or two in my kitchen....I remained on the 2 times a day dosage of Welbutrin for about a month...then weened myself down to 1 a day...then to every other day..and so on until I was no longer felt the need for the medication or the nicotine.....Pretzels are very very low in fat...and are very inexpensive...if ya don't wanna eat them with the salt is gone...throw them in the trash! It's still WAY cheaper than the cost of a pack of smokes! Ask friends and co-workers for words of encouragement...if they are smokers....it would help if they would have enough respect for her and her goal to not smoke around her! She must accept responsibility for her actions....stive for a positive attitude...and know that the way she's gonna feel in the end is WONDERFUL!! Not to mention...food tastes GREAT! I have 3 children, and at the time was a single mom....my greatest memory of my stop smoking is this....My daughter..who at the time was 9 years old, went to spend the night with a friend...when she came home the next day she said to me...."Mom, I didn't realize how much smoke stinks until you quit smoking" WOAH! If that wasn't incentive to never start again...I don't know what was! ... Best of luck to her.and, tell her to keep her chin up...IT DOES GET EASIER! I promise!!!

Answer 7

Lots of willpower! Don't be afraid to fail. If you have the willpower, acupuncture is also very effective in quitting smoking - my uncle smoked three packs a day, and he quit instantly after doing so.

Answer 8

100% Natural Quit Smoking Magic - http://Go.QuitSmokingMagics.com

Answer 9

CHANTIX!!!!! IT DOESN"T HAVE TO BE COLD TURKEY YOU CAN SMOKE BUT I ASSURE YOU AFTER A WEEK OR TWO YOU WILL LOSE THE WANT TO SMOKE IT JUST WON'T DO ANYTHING FOR YOU CHANTIX IS WORTH THE TRY!!! IT IS IN PILL FORM NEED PRESCRIPTION!

Answer 10

Well its basicly mental that u need to smoke and my parents have patches and stuff but basicly she has to decide her self wheather she needs or wants to smoke or not.