Jane was sitting comfortable in her armchair enjoying her after-diner cigarette. While checking the mail, she spotted an email - “Stop smoking now!” Although it was one of those irritating spam emails, it somehow caught her attention. She has been smoking for a few years and there were some signs that her body was not responding very well to this abuse. “May be it is time to stop smoking…” Jane thought. “But I am not a strong-will person, moreover I am allergic to many medicines… how can I stop smoking?”
She made some quick internet searches and within a few minutes she was carefully reading an acupuncture quit smoking – stop fact sheet revealing a possible way of smoking escape.
If you are in Jane’s shoes, here is some interesting information about acupuncture and how it can help you quit smoking.
Acupuncture is an ancient technique for inserting and manipulating thin needles into specific points of the body. The aim is to restore health and well-being. It is one of the Chinese medicine methods widely used nowadays.
Acupuncture quit smoking stop techniques are suitable for people who are unable to take any kind of stop smoking products due to allergies or medical conditions. The only option for them is to try to quit smoking using the cold turkey way, or in other words depending on their determination and will only. It may sound fair enough for a non-smoker, but most smokers find this way very hard and often unsuccessful.
Acupuncture can help such people as acupuncture quit smoking stop treatment results into reduced cravings and fewer withdrawal symptoms. With these benefits, the chances of successful smoking cessation are much higher. Moreover, in an acupuncture quit smoking stop program is combined with a correct behavioral therapy, the results are almost guaranteed.
If you are eager to try it, than the first thing you should do is to ask your doctor for an acupuncturist who has experience in similar treatment. It is important that you find a good acupuncturist because of the better results and some simple facts – as acupuncture includes inserting needles into your skin it is of utmost importance that you go to a high-standard place with guaranteed hygiene and acupuncture supplies.
The next steps are more than clear. Go to the clinic to have your initial exam and attend the sessions. An acupuncture quit smoking stop program may be over after a single session but in some cases, the sessions might be more.
“Ah, that sounds good for me!” Jane picked up the phone and arranged a meeting with her doctor for a chat about the best acupuncture quit smoking stop clinics in her town…
Showing posts with label addiction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label addiction. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
About smoking addiction
The addiction to smoking, which implies addiction to the substance nicotine has several components. The better one is aware of these components and understand them, the better is the chance for succeeding in stopping the smoking habit. Here is a survey of the components that addiction to smoke consist of.
THE SOCIAL COMPONENT
To some extend the habit of smoking is a product of socialization. Socialization is simply the tendency to repeat patterns of behaviour one sees other persons in the society exhibit. Socialisation is one major way children and young people learn social skills. Children and teenagers learn skills necessary to live and work in the society by a socialisation process. Unfortunately also bad habits and bad ways of thinking are learned the same way.
If one lives or works together with other smoking individuals, one will more or less automatic adopt these individuals’ smoking habits. If one then tries to break out of the social structure, one will feel anxiety for not being accepted any more by the social group one is a part of.
If the other individuals also make moves to threaten or freeze out an individual trying to brake this bad social standard, the difficulty of breaking out of the habit will be even greater. The threatening actions may not even be very serious to frighten a person from braking out of such a socially standardized habit, and may not even be meant as a threat.
THE NEED FOR SUCKING AND CHEWING
Every person have a need for sucking and chewing. This need is necessary in early infanthood, but it also persists into adult life to some degree. Some persons use cigarettes or other smoking devices and the smoke as a means to satisfy this need. There is a hypothesis that this need is greater by some adults then by others because this need, or some other similar basic need, has not been fully satisfied in early infanthood.
If you want to stop smoking, you can try to satisfy this need by other means, for example by always keeping something in your pocket that you can put in your mouth to chew at when the need for smoke appears.
AUTOMATIC REPEATING
When a person have done something many times and frequently enough, there will be created a pattern of automatic repetition of that particular behaviour. This is especially true if the particular action is done in a distinct recognizable situation.
The pattern of automatic repetition also have the effect of making a person feel safer in the daily life and routines.
Such a pattern of automatic repetition is always a component in the smoking habit. It you want to quit smoking, you should make an investigation to find out in which situations and which environments you usually take a cigarette.
Then try to avoid these situations or environments where you use to smoke, or to deliberately alter these situations.
NICOTINE USED AS A SELF MEDICATION
Nicotine has a tranquilizing effect upon nervous feelings. At the same time it has some anti-depressive effect, at least in the short run, and it makes a person feel more awake. A person suffering from nervousness or from depressive symptoms may feel that the smoking helps him against his mental symptoms.
However, gradually there will be a need for steadily higher doses of nicotine to give these good effects, and if there is a lack of nicotine in the body, the nervous or depressive feelings will be greater than before.
This gratification, but with the need for steadily higher doses to get the good effects is a major incentive for the smoking habit. You should consider if this anti-depressive or tranquilizing effect is a reason for your smoking. Then you should try to find other ways to achieve the same effect. Engaging in some sport or outdoor life will often make you feel less depressed. If the depressive feelings are more serious, some appropriate treatment can be necessary.
THE PLEASURE COMPONENT
There is to some degree a plain and direct pleasure connected with smoking. This pleasure is in itself a good effect. This good effect is probably in most cases too small compared to the painful effects of smoking, but will gives a temptation for an individual to continue the habit. However, also this pleasure effect will gradually be difficult to obtain without increasing the doses.
If the plain pleasure of smoking is a main reason for your habit, then you should try to find other sources of pleasure instead, for example some good food, some good music or some erotic action.
THE GENETIC COMPONENT
Not all people get equally easy dependent of nicotine. There are factors yet not fully understood that make some people more easily addicted than others. Perhaps some persons have receptors on their nerve cells that more easily get trigged by nicotine than others, or perhaps some people have more receptors with the ability to get trigged by nicotine, and this is inherited in the genetic code.
THE NERVOUS MECHANISMS WORKING BY ADDICTION
The normal brain has signal substances with a tranquilizing effect, and substances with a stimulating effect upon nerve cells. Like most narcotic substances, nicotine act like a signal substance by fitting into receptors on some brain cells.
Nicotine attaches itself to some receptors and thus give the nerve cell having these receptors a signal. The cells getting such a signal from nicotine, will react by secreting another signal substance, dopamine that influence still other cells. Dopamine will tranquilize some brain cells and stimulate others, and the total effect of this is the pleasurable effects of smoking.
However, when nicotine steadily induces dopamine release, the brain will gradually decrease the production of dopamine when nicotine is not present, and the brain will feel a steadily greater need for nicotine to work normally and feel well.
THE SOCIAL COMPONENT
To some extend the habit of smoking is a product of socialization. Socialization is simply the tendency to repeat patterns of behaviour one sees other persons in the society exhibit. Socialisation is one major way children and young people learn social skills. Children and teenagers learn skills necessary to live and work in the society by a socialisation process. Unfortunately also bad habits and bad ways of thinking are learned the same way.
If one lives or works together with other smoking individuals, one will more or less automatic adopt these individuals’ smoking habits. If one then tries to break out of the social structure, one will feel anxiety for not being accepted any more by the social group one is a part of.
If the other individuals also make moves to threaten or freeze out an individual trying to brake this bad social standard, the difficulty of breaking out of the habit will be even greater. The threatening actions may not even be very serious to frighten a person from braking out of such a socially standardized habit, and may not even be meant as a threat.
THE NEED FOR SUCKING AND CHEWING
Every person have a need for sucking and chewing. This need is necessary in early infanthood, but it also persists into adult life to some degree. Some persons use cigarettes or other smoking devices and the smoke as a means to satisfy this need. There is a hypothesis that this need is greater by some adults then by others because this need, or some other similar basic need, has not been fully satisfied in early infanthood.
If you want to stop smoking, you can try to satisfy this need by other means, for example by always keeping something in your pocket that you can put in your mouth to chew at when the need for smoke appears.
AUTOMATIC REPEATING
When a person have done something many times and frequently enough, there will be created a pattern of automatic repetition of that particular behaviour. This is especially true if the particular action is done in a distinct recognizable situation.
The pattern of automatic repetition also have the effect of making a person feel safer in the daily life and routines.
Such a pattern of automatic repetition is always a component in the smoking habit. It you want to quit smoking, you should make an investigation to find out in which situations and which environments you usually take a cigarette.
Then try to avoid these situations or environments where you use to smoke, or to deliberately alter these situations.
NICOTINE USED AS A SELF MEDICATION
Nicotine has a tranquilizing effect upon nervous feelings. At the same time it has some anti-depressive effect, at least in the short run, and it makes a person feel more awake. A person suffering from nervousness or from depressive symptoms may feel that the smoking helps him against his mental symptoms.
However, gradually there will be a need for steadily higher doses of nicotine to give these good effects, and if there is a lack of nicotine in the body, the nervous or depressive feelings will be greater than before.
This gratification, but with the need for steadily higher doses to get the good effects is a major incentive for the smoking habit. You should consider if this anti-depressive or tranquilizing effect is a reason for your smoking. Then you should try to find other ways to achieve the same effect. Engaging in some sport or outdoor life will often make you feel less depressed. If the depressive feelings are more serious, some appropriate treatment can be necessary.
THE PLEASURE COMPONENT
There is to some degree a plain and direct pleasure connected with smoking. This pleasure is in itself a good effect. This good effect is probably in most cases too small compared to the painful effects of smoking, but will gives a temptation for an individual to continue the habit. However, also this pleasure effect will gradually be difficult to obtain without increasing the doses.
If the plain pleasure of smoking is a main reason for your habit, then you should try to find other sources of pleasure instead, for example some good food, some good music or some erotic action.
THE GENETIC COMPONENT
Not all people get equally easy dependent of nicotine. There are factors yet not fully understood that make some people more easily addicted than others. Perhaps some persons have receptors on their nerve cells that more easily get trigged by nicotine than others, or perhaps some people have more receptors with the ability to get trigged by nicotine, and this is inherited in the genetic code.
THE NERVOUS MECHANISMS WORKING BY ADDICTION
The normal brain has signal substances with a tranquilizing effect, and substances with a stimulating effect upon nerve cells. Like most narcotic substances, nicotine act like a signal substance by fitting into receptors on some brain cells.
Nicotine attaches itself to some receptors and thus give the nerve cell having these receptors a signal. The cells getting such a signal from nicotine, will react by secreting another signal substance, dopamine that influence still other cells. Dopamine will tranquilize some brain cells and stimulate others, and the total effect of this is the pleasurable effects of smoking.
However, when nicotine steadily induces dopamine release, the brain will gradually decrease the production of dopamine when nicotine is not present, and the brain will feel a steadily greater need for nicotine to work normally and feel well.
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
4 Tips For Smoking Cessation
Tip 1: Rise above the cravings
Imagine the cigarettes as crutches. You’ve always had these crutches to lean on and soon, it becomes impossible to walk without them. The important thing to learn is that as soon as you walk on your feet again, they’ll quickly regain strength. It may be a little known fact, but about half of what a smoker inhales from his cigarette is pure air. The next time you’re hit with a craving, take some deep breaths and relax. You will soon be able to rise above the craving, feel refreshed, and move on.
Tip 2: All the reasons to quit
Why do you want to quit? Do you have children? Do you want to live to see your grandchildren? Are you sick of the smell? Whatever your reasons are, write them down. Keep a daily journal of how you feel and in the very first entry list in bold letters every reason you have for quitting. List things like health reasons, expense, inconvenience, bad breath, or other reasons and make the list as long as possible. Also be sure to list how you WILL feel when you’ve kicked the habit.
Tip 3: The good, the bad and the ugly
After you complete your lists of reasons you want to quit and how you’ll feel after you’ve quit, make a list of the consequences of not quitting. Have other smokers in your family gotten cancer? Have they died? Do they have to speak through a hole in their neck? Will you be unable to pay off debt because you’re always buying cigarettes? Whatever you consequences, be sure to list all of them. As above, be sure to list the consequences (good consequences, of course) of quitting. Keep them to look forward to.
Tip 4: Break time!
Most smokers agree: a cigarette is a break. When quitting, give yourself breaks, but do something. Go for walk, eat a piece of fruit or drink some juice. This is critical because the body will be going through changes expelling all the accumulated poisons. The fruit will aid this process in many ways.
Good luck!
Imagine the cigarettes as crutches. You’ve always had these crutches to lean on and soon, it becomes impossible to walk without them. The important thing to learn is that as soon as you walk on your feet again, they’ll quickly regain strength. It may be a little known fact, but about half of what a smoker inhales from his cigarette is pure air. The next time you’re hit with a craving, take some deep breaths and relax. You will soon be able to rise above the craving, feel refreshed, and move on.
Tip 2: All the reasons to quit
Why do you want to quit? Do you have children? Do you want to live to see your grandchildren? Are you sick of the smell? Whatever your reasons are, write them down. Keep a daily journal of how you feel and in the very first entry list in bold letters every reason you have for quitting. List things like health reasons, expense, inconvenience, bad breath, or other reasons and make the list as long as possible. Also be sure to list how you WILL feel when you’ve kicked the habit.
Tip 3: The good, the bad and the ugly
After you complete your lists of reasons you want to quit and how you’ll feel after you’ve quit, make a list of the consequences of not quitting. Have other smokers in your family gotten cancer? Have they died? Do they have to speak through a hole in their neck? Will you be unable to pay off debt because you’re always buying cigarettes? Whatever you consequences, be sure to list all of them. As above, be sure to list the consequences (good consequences, of course) of quitting. Keep them to look forward to.
Tip 4: Break time!
Most smokers agree: a cigarette is a break. When quitting, give yourself breaks, but do something. Go for walk, eat a piece of fruit or drink some juice. This is critical because the body will be going through changes expelling all the accumulated poisons. The fruit will aid this process in many ways.
Good luck!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)