How To Help Someone Quit Smoking

Want to help someone quit smoking? A relative, a dear friend, a sibling, a co-worker?

Many people in your shoes want to know how to help them quit smoking because you care, and you don’t want them to develop a serious illness.

Besides, it’s not as “attractive” or “sexy” as it was back in the ’40s when Humphrey Bogart stood in the fog-filled airport with Ingrid Bergman, a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

The question “how to help someone quit smoking” is easier asked than answered, because in the end, it all comes down to the smoker’s own determination to quit smoking. If he isn’t ready, if he isn’t committed, if he isn’t convinced and determined, or if he doesn’t think he has a good reason to quit, it isn’t going to happen.

The first thing to realize is that you cannot force someone to quit smoking. Success involves having the right mindset at the start. If you try to force someone to quit smoking, your efforts will be met with resistance. If you insist, you will face their wrath.

It’s quite the dilemma. You want to know how to help someone quit smoking, but he is reluctant to accept the importance of quitting. Some people think cancer happens to someone else. Others believe they can’t quit smoking anyway, so why try.

Yet others fear the “pain” and “suffering” that goes with quitting smoking… the frayed nerves, the cravings, the weight gain.

Think about it. If someone tried to get you to quit drinking soda or coffee because it’s bad for your blood sugar or your stomach, would you be so willing if you were addicted to the caffeine? You tried to quit in the past but the cravings got too much for you. You’ve decided it’s worth the risk, or that it just isn’t going to happen to you.

It’s similar with the smoker, although the dangers are far worse. For them, continuing to smoke is less painful than quitting so they’re willing to take the risk.

Do you really want to know how to help someone to quit smoking?

The key is to find out how to make quitting smoking less painful for him, but first you have to convince the individual to accept the challenge.

First, let’s take a look at the whole process of smoking.

Smoking is an emotional action. It appeases something within the individual. The simple act of putting hand to mouth and providing something for the lips to grasp goes back to the days of bottle feeding.

For people who like to eat, it’s food that pacifies their nervous energy. Smokers relate having a cigarette to filling a missing need.

As a child, it was food and the pleasure of suckling. But what makes an adult desire the same action? Do they feel unloved? Do they feel deprived in some way?

It goes back to the basic human need for fulfillment and satisfaction. A sense of self and the comfort of knowing that those needs are being met by important people in their lives.

So the first step is to realize that you can’t force them to want to quit. Either they want to or they don’t, and there’s nothing you can do about their decision. If they have made the commitment, you can help someone quit smoking by offering your full, non-judgmental support.

That means not telling them they are “foolish” or “stupid” if they don’t quit. Be conscientious about their situation. Remember, it’s an addiction that needs to be broken, much like a drug addict or an alcoholic needs to wean off their addiction.

Don’t allow other people to smoke around the person you want to help quit smoking. Don’t take him to establishments that allow smoking (which are rare these days anyway). Don’t encourage his behavior. If he begs for a cigarette, deny him, no matter how much he pleads. Try to take his mind off it instead.

Work with that person to help him identify exactly what might be missing in his life that smoking fills. What triggers him to light up? How does it make him feel? What does he experience prior to lighting up? Is he nervous? Anxious? Worried? Lonely? Bored? Upset?

Now, this might be hard to identify because at this stage, his smoking has probably become such a habit that he no longer understand why he smokes. Try to get him to think back to the early days of smoking. What was he going through in his life at that time?

Was he trying to be one of the crowd? Trying to look or act grown up? Did he start because his parents smoked? Did he just accept that first cigarette to experiment and got hooked?

Get him to think ahead to what he would like out of life. Help him to realize how smoking might interfere with those plans, whether it’s the money or loss of health. Make him realize that the reason he started smoking is no longer relevant.

Smoking is often a stress-reliever, or so the smoker thinks, when in fact smoking puts more stress on the body. One of the best cures is deep breathing, rather than breathing in nicotine, tar and other horrid and dangerous chemicals. This exercise helps to force the lungs to expel the built-up chemicals in his system.

Encourage the smoker to get out and exercise, especially those that involve deep breathing. It might be walking, cycling, swimming, running/jogging, or time at the fitness center. It all helps.

Distraction is an excellent way to help someone quit smoking. When they get the urge, give them something else to think about or do. Make suggestions of something you can do instead. Work with them in any way you can.

Remember that you are not alone. Many people want to know how to help someone quit smoking, and they all face the same struggles you will. You will be constantly on the alert for that next cigarette so you can intercept it.

Another thing you can do is make them aware of the dangers, if they aren’t already. Remind them that they are not immune. Help them to find a purpose in life that can be taken away if they don’t quit smoking.

Having a strong purpose and a determination are the basic requirements for someone to quit smoking successfully. Until those are firmly established, there will be setbacks. There will be times when the person will just decide, or convince themselves, that it’s okay to smoke and trick themselves into believing that they can quit anytime.

Help by reinforcing the truth, but don’t become a nag about it. Just offer gentle reminders. They will most likely become ill from smoking – if not from cancer, then from some life-threatening condition that affects breathing, like emphysema. Just because they’ve had a setback doesn’t necessarily mean they aren’t serious about quitting. Sometimes it takes a few tries to get it right.

This is how to help someone quit smoking. Offer support when they need it most. Offer encouragement when it seems appropriate. Seek whatever resources are proven to help someone to quit smoking.

There are some excellent and highly effective drug-free quit smoking programs around that teach the natural way to quit smoking.

Don’t lose patience with would-be non-smokers. Learning how to quit smoking is just that… a learning path. For some, it can happen quickly the first time they try. For others, however, it will be more difficult. That’s when it’s important to remind them of their goal and that you are there to help them quit smoking in whatever way you can.

Finally, find ways to make not smoking less painful. How do you do that? By discovering exactly what works. Substitutes for the hand/mouth movement are needed. The best is a glass of water. A simple solution but it works. Whenever a craving strikes, a sip of water will ease that craving. This is another way to flush those ugly chemicals out of the body.

In more severe cases, however, they might require a mild relaxant to ease the tension. This will require a visit to the physician, but it’s best to avoid patches, gums and other drug-related cures because they do have side effects.

Keep them focused on their goal. Focus not on the negatives of smoking, but on the positives of quitting. Remind them of how good they’ll feel – they will breathe easier, their cough will go away, they will smell much sweeter, they’ll feel more alive and fit, they will have more energy, their minds will become unfogged and crystal clear, they will save a ton of money, and they can even get a discount on their insurance as a non-smoker.

Perhaps one of the best things you can remind them of, is that the worst part of quitting is the first 14 days. Tell them to take it an hour at a time, rather than for eternity. The delay tactic is amazingly effective. By waiting another hour to light up, they will give themselves time to get busy. Before long, they will realize several hours have passed and they haven’t even thought about smoking.

How do you help someone to quit smoking? Offer non-judgmental support. Trick the mind with distraction, safe non-drug substitutes, exercise, and an alternative focus and before you know it, they will have quit smoking.

Sylvia Dickens is an ex-smoker who has been smoke-free for 32 years. Today,

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Top Ten Reasons Why We Should Practice Self-Hypnosis

Self-hypnosis is considered the most precious self-development tool in the whole world for the enrichment of our lives. Self-hypnosis is a technique in which you focus yourself to attain desired goals or any belief by putting positive suggestions into your subconscious mind, through relaxation. In this technique you can add those qualities or habits that you think you don’t have, similarly you can change anything about yourself that you don’t like. It allows you to reprogram your subconscious mind to eliminate those negative thoughts polluting your mind and to achieve greatest success in your life. It also allows detoxifying the mind, body and spirit.

Here is the Top Ten Reasons Why We Should Practice Self-Hypnosis:

1. Self-hypnosis may be used in Releasing Pain
Pain medicine may cause serious side-effects like gastric ulcers, drowsiness, addiction etc. By using self-hypnosis, we can alleviate chronic pain from different medical conditions. Self-hypnosis can be used in chronic pain in cancer patients. The proposed mechanism is that the natural pain killers in our body such as endorphins are released from our brain when we do self-hypnosis.

2. Self-Hypnosis may be used to Quit Smoking
To quit smoking is the most difficult among all vices. It is much easier to stop drinking alcohol than to quit smoking. This is due to the hundred of addictive chemicals in tobacco that causes withdrawal syndromes whenever a smoker starts quitting. Self-hypnosis will reprogram the mind and through continuous sessions will eventually make a smoker quit easier.

3. Self-hypnosis may be used to Lose Weight
With obesity reaching the epidemic state in US and in the future the whole world, the danger of its complications to one’s health is very alarming. By using self-hypnosis, the cravings for fatty and sweet foods will be lessened. It will also accelerate the will to do exercise and other physical activities. The same mechanism of targeting release of neurochemicals from the brain is the accepted mechanism.

4. Self-hypnosis may be used to Improve the Memory
Purifying the subconscious mind from impurities will improve the memory. Self-hypnosis can calm and organize the mind so that it can retain previous information thus improving memory.

5. Self-hypnosis can Heal our Body and Mind
As stated, self-hypnosis can calm the mind and spirit. This will relax our body and mind and is very effective in dealing with stress. Stress when taken out of our body could improve our immune system and accelerate healing.

6. Self-hypnosis may be used in Dealing with Fears and Phobias
Fears and phobias are human limitations that must be dealt. Self-hypnosis encouraging self confidence could change our attitude towards our fears and phobias. The reprogramming of the mind is the key concept on the effectiveness of self-hypnosis in dealing with fears and phobias.

7. Self-hypnosis may be used in Enhancing Sex Life
Impotence and erectile dysfunction are examples of sexual disorders improved by self-hypnosis. Sex therapists use the technique of self-hypnosis to treat such disorders. This has something to do with mind control over sexual stimulation that is neuronal in nature.

8. Self-hypnosis may improve Sleep Disorders
More and more people suffer from insomnia. Aside from medications, self-hypnosis is effective in inducing sleep. The calming effect of the self-hypnosis technique can improve insomnia.

9. Self-hypnosis may be used to Relieve Anxiety and Depression
People suffering from anxiety disorders such as stage fright may benefit from self-hypnosis. Hypnotherapists treat patients with acute anxiety and depression by conducting sessions that will improve their confidence and self-control.

10. Self-hypnosis may be used to Manage Stress
Stress according to studies from Harvard University can cause different diseases such as increase blood sugar and blood pressure. Managing stress effectively with good rest and self-hypnosis will also improve one’s health. Self-hypnosis can calm the internal organs like the heart which will decrease the heart rate and blood pressure.

In our restless world where stress and different diseases are being experienced by almost all walks of life, it is very practical to spend a few minutes for self-hypnosis to improve one’s health. Self-hypnosis is inexpensive yet very effective. It improves every aspect of our health- physical, mental, and emotional. Start learning self-hypnosis and you will see the difference in your well-being.

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