Healthy Living: How to Motivate Yourself to Stop Smoking

LifeStyleJuly 18, 2017

Planning to quit smoking? Today is the right time to start heading your way out of this bad habit. Smoking is one of the many vices or even addictions running rampant in our society today. Even minors have been able to get hold of cigarettes or have been victims of this addictive “piping habit”. In fact, a lot of chronic smokers start young while some of them continue to smoke – getting more intense and dependent each day.

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Smokers must then be vigilant. They must fight for their lives and the best way to do so is stop smoking. Unfortunately, this struggle is not easy. Just like any kind of addictions, smoking is not easy to get rid of. The mere act of quitting an addiction can also be damaging to health. Withdrawal syndromes, the same seen on drug addicts under rehabilitation, can occur among those who have been seriously addicted to smoking for a quite a long time.

Cautions should then be taken while in the process of quitting smoking. For anyone to completely stop smoking, one must go through a process that starts with motivation and ought to end with the person sustaining the habit of not smoking. Indeed, it seems learning to stop smoking is harder than learning how to start smoking.

Awareness is a big thing.

However, again, to start the ball rolling, the smoker needs a motivation or, better yet, some dose of inspiration to keep him going. Motivation will be rooted on what the smoker knows about smoking. That is why public awareness and that information imparted by those who care are essential to piquing the attention of smokers on the negativity of smoking.

Time is of the essence.

Only strong motivations could push the smoker into action. Again, being a form of addiction, a simple desire to quit would not be enough because the addiction now has some control on the psyche of the addict. Even the very phase of building up enough motivations to start quitting smoking takes time, not to mention patience. It is then vital to start early before it is too late.

Find your personal urge to quit.

Motivations might include the desire to save our health since more and more diseases are being found to be related to or caused by smoking. For some, additional urge to stop smoking would be the wish for better looks because smoking is also found to make one look old faster than non-smokers do, or even uglier outright.

Here are some other reasons to consider.

Your chances of having cancer, heart attacks, heart disease, stroke, cataracts, and other diseases will definitely decrease.
You will be less likely to catch colds or the flu and will be able to recover quicker if you do get sick.
You will breathe easier and cough less.
Your blood pressure will go down.
Your skin will look healthier and you will look really younger.
Your teeth and fingernails will not be stained.

The bottom line: Quitting will make you feel better and improve your health. See this infographic to know what we basically mean.

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Build your support group.

Another strong motivation is the smoker’s loved ones. Secondhand smoke can affect the health of people around a smoker. Despite being an addict, a smoker may still care enough for the people he or she loves to steer them away from health risks. And one of the best ways to do so is stop smoking.

Besides he or she would also be able to stay away from the guilt not only of making them ill but also of making them suffer if and when the smoker gets into a seriously unhealthy condition. Indeed it is those people who care who would shoulder the grief, worries, not to mention the financial burden. In short, the love for self and loved ones is the perfect motivation to stop smoking, now.

Learn the science of quitting.

The psychological aspects of the habit are especially important to understand because they so often lead to relapses. Linda Thomas, manager of the Tobacco Consultation Service at the University of Michigan Health System said “A lot of people think they’re weak because they tried to quit and couldn’t beat the addiction. Hence, one of the things that make groups successful is helping people understand that smoking is more than a physical addiction. It is integrated into their life and behavior, it’s a coping mechanism for stress and depression, and it’s the way they socialize.”

Good luck, folks!