Quitting Smoking: 7 Proven Ways to Quit the Habit

1. People’s Councils

The most popular of the folk recipes is as follows: moisten a cigarette to the filter in milk, dry it and light it. Most people feel nauseous right away. Or smoke one cigarette after another until you feel sick. It is believed that, having done this, a person will not be able to see cigarettes without shuddering.

Pros. Cheap.

Минусы. For example, I will not bring myself to a state of nausea voluntarily. And I personally know heavy smokers who, even after smoking to the point of feeling sick, take a break for a few hours, and then reach for a cigarette again. In addition, nicotine overdose can lead to serious poisoning.

2. Herbal teas

They are derived from plants (such as calamus roots) that, when combined with nicotine, cause nausea. They drink such teas 1-3 times a day.

Pros. Cheap. The price for a pack of tea (from 10 bags) starts from 30 rubles.

Минусы. These teas and pills taste like a rare nasty thing, so I could hardly force myself to swallow them. As soon as after 2 days I stopped gagging on tea, the desire to smoke immediately returned.

3. Nicotine patch, tablets, gum

I put on a patch, chewed gum or drank a pill – and a small dose of nicotine entered the body, designed to reduce the suffering from withdrawal.

Pros. Ease of use.

Минусы. Not cheap: a plaster – 7 pieces (for a week) from 500 rubles, pills, gum – from 300 rubles. Physically, I don’t seem to want to smoke, but the psychological habit has not gone anywhere: I want to hold a cigarette in my hand, light it after eating, during a conversation, when you are worried. And then, it is not clear how to wean oneself from the plaster, tablets, chewing gum. In addition, nicotine, even in small doses, destroys the body. Lasted a week.

4. Transition to “light” cigarettes, a gradual decrease in the number of cigarettes smoked

Pros… Some savings: smoke less – spend less.

Минусы. Having switched to “light” cigarettes, I noticed that I began to instinctively take a deeper breath in order to get my dose of nicotine, and I began to smoke more often. A deceptive stereotype is triggered: since a cigarette is “light”, it means less harmful. She returned to regular cigarettes and began to reduce their number. For a month, I barely reached 2 cigarettes a day: morning and evening. She stayed like this for a week. At a party in the company I fell out and smoked a pack. The next day I decided to smoke 3 cigarettes. A week later, getting nervous, she destroyed 7 cigarettes. Then I got tired of the torment, and I happily returned to the previous dose: a pack a day.

5. Reflexology

Eastern medicine methods: acupuncture, acupressure, moxibustion of points on the body.

Pros. It can help suggestible people who are sure that oriental medicine is omnipotent. I know people who were able to throw after needles.

Минусы. Expensive: course from $ 300. I personally will never agree to this method. Dangerous: real reflexologists are Chinese who have been studying at a university for at least 7 years. In Russia, there are a lot of charlatans, and the crusts of a reflexologist can be obtained in a few months of study. Making a mistake by a millimeter when acting on the points, you can knock down the work of the body, the consequences of this can manifest themselves years later.

6. Coding (hypnosis)

The smoker is put into a light trance and aversion to tobacco is made.

Pros. High efficiency, some acquaintances just threw it that way.

Cons… Expensive: $ 100 to $ 500. There are people who are not affected by hypnosis. I am personally against such methods: any intervention in the human brain is fraught with danger – the consequences are unknown. Moreover, psychological dependence will not disappear.

7. Psychotherapy

Pros. High efficiency. The psychotherapist helped me understand why I smoke, told me how to get rid of psychological addiction, and prescribed drugs that relieve irritability and bad mood – faithful companions of a quit smoking person. In addition, psychotherapy can be combined with other methods. The result is that I do not smoke for six months.

Минусы. Expensive: It will take about 10 sessions, each of which starts at $ 40.

Only facts

* Smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, you “eat” 700 grams of tar per year and receive a dose of radiation that is 5 times higher than the permissible value!

* 90% of lung cancers and 20% of other cancers, 75% of chronic bronchitis, 25% of cardiovascular diseases, 20% of impotence are caused by smoking.

Psychotherapist, candidate of medical sciences.