Quitting smoking is not easy. Even patients with heart disease still smoke a lot. The main factor that makes quitting smoking difficult is “nicotine”, which makes you feel happy when smoking. Whenever you stop smoking, your body lacks nicotine, causing symptoms such as restlessness, drowsiness, or irritability, leading to failure in quitting smoking. But if you are someone who wants to successfully quit smoking, here are 5 techniques that can help you!
Techniques to quit smoking… without medication
- Create motivation
Humans, when wanting to succeed, often create motivation for themselves. Quitting smoking is the same. You might write down your motivation and post it at home or in your car to remind yourself why you want to quit smoking, whether it is for your family, for good health, or to reduce daily expenses. - Change your environment
Many times quitting smoking fails because you are still surrounded by the same environment. It is best to avoid socializing with people who smoke or taking breaks during work with friends who smoke. Once you decide, you should throw away all cigarettes and ashtrays into the trash. - Reward yourself
Giving yourself small rewards is a good way to encourage yourself. So after reducing smoking for a while, you might reward yourself by eating your favorite delicious food or buying a pair of exercise shoes to keep you motivated to succeed in quitting smoking. - Whenever you feel discouraged… remember your goal
If quitting smoking were easy, no one would quit halfway. Withdrawal symptoms from lack of nicotine and seeing others smoke may make you want to give up. Therefore, whenever you feel discouraged, it is recommended to go back to point 1 to motivate yourself to keep fighting. - Find aids to reduce cravings
Stopping something you have used for a long time naturally causes irritability from cravings. Drinking plenty of water or eating sour fruits can help reduce nicotine cravings. Try to distract yourself with alternative activities such as exercising, shopping, watching movies, or eating with friends, as these can at least temporarily divert your attention from thinking about cigarettes.
Misconceptions about “quitting smoking”
- Quitting smoking… causes deathQuitting smoking does not harm the body. There are only symptoms that occur after sudden nicotine withdrawal, such as restlessness and irritability. These symptoms usually last about the first 2 weeks and then gradually subside.
- Quitting smoking immediately eliminates the risk of heart diseaseCigarettes contain not only nicotine but over 4,000 chemicals, with 200-300 of them being toxic. Therefore, to eliminate the risk of heart disease, you must have quit smoking permanently for more than 2 years.
Because quitting smoking without medication is not easy, medical science has developed methods to quit smoking using medication, such as nicotine medication, nicotine gum, or nicotine patches. These methods must be under the supervision of a specialist doctor only.
