At the beginning of my life, I was less than 40 years old, but I was already a heavy smoker. I learned to smoke when I was in college and have been smoking for nearly 20 years.
At the beginning of the start-up stage, I never left my hand.
After a disease of tracheitis, Lao Chu made up his mind to quit smoking! It was September 1, 2013.
At first, it was quite smooth. Encouraged by his family and colleagues and his insistence, he passed the most difficult first two weeks. Later, Lao Chu slowly lost his desire to smoke and thought he had successfully quit smoking.
Unexpectedly, at the end of that year, the company took over a big deal, worked day and night, and started smoking again at the beginning of that year.
After the Spring Festival, encouraged by his wife, Lao Chu began to quit smoking for the second time. However, it didn’t last long, because the company’s products were not produced smoothly, and he was so worried that he smoked again.
In the three years from 2013 to now, Lao Chu has quit smoking more than 10 times intermittently, but for various reasons [relapse]: worrying about the company’s business, the 20th anniversary reunion, the stock crash, and the problem of registered permanent residence…
Quitting smoking, relapsing, quitting again, relapsing again… has become the norm in old life.
I am always thinking about quitting smoking, but I don’t know if I can give up smoking in my life.
Why is smoking so difficult to quit?
Is it true that perseverance is not enough?
Last week, in an article entitled “Why Smoking Is Addictive” (click on the topic to read), the health headline said that the strong addiction of tobacco is due to nicotine.
From the analysis of addiction, nicotine in tobacco even exceeds some drugs!
In 1998, WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) also defined tobacco dependence as a highly addictive [psychiatric disorder].
It seems that it is really not easy to quit smoking.
Data from China’s Adult Tobacco Survey in 2015 show that 17.6% of smokers want to quit smoking and 31.5% have tried to quit smoking in the past year. Each smoker tries to quit smoking about 1-2 times a year, and each quitting behavior lasts for an average of 1-2 days. Half of the smokers relapse in less than a week and 80% relapse within a month.
Specific analysis of the reasons for the failure of quitting smoking: the main reason for relapse within 3 months is the painful withdrawal symptoms caused by physiological dependence, and the main reason for relapse after 3 months is the induction of heart addiction, environment and unexpected events.
Therefore, it is not easy to quit smoking successfully: quit and cherish!
Heart Addiction and Habits Can’t Be Ignored
In addition to the brain physiological addiction mentioned earlier, there are two other reasons for people’s smoking addiction that cannot be ignored:
One is heart addiction, the other is habitual smoking.
How do you understand these two reasons?
The essence of heart addiction is the memory of smoking and obtaining good feeling and pleasant experience.
The relapse after quitting smoking for more than 3 months is often due to the unbearable temptation to remember the pleasure of smoking, rather than physiological dependence-at this time, the physiological dependence of brain nerves is already very weak, and non-smoking will not have strong withdrawal symptoms.
In order to give up smoking for a long time and succeed, we must strengthen the awareness of tobacco hazards, less contact with smoking occasions and smokers, avoid touching the scene and thinking about smoking, erase the memory of smoking and forget the addiction.
[Inertial Smoking Action] refers to smokers’ unconscious hand and mouth movements of lighting, holding, containing and smoking. After smoking for many years, this series of actions are consistent and smooth in one go, which is already unconscious inertial behavior and conditioned reflex. Some friends told the health headline:
I took the cigarette to my mouth and lit it. Only then did I remember that I was quitting smoking.
If you don’t have a cigarette in your hand or a cigarette in your mouth, you feel strange and the whole person is uncomfortable.
However, this habit is easy to change. As long as the intensive training lasts for 3 months, it can be corrected.
What can heavy smokers do to get rid of smoking?
In three steps.
1. Make up your mind to quit smoking, not just show your attitude and quit on a whim.
We should make clear our purpose of quitting smoking and be fully prepared to deal with the withdrawal reaction in the early stage.
Clean up the tobacco products and smoking utensils around you-don’t stay behind.
Tell family members, friends and colleagues to be ready to quit smoking-the support of relatives and friends is very important.
Reduce the length of stay in smoking places; Avoid others smoking in front of themselves; Try to stay busy, even in leisure time-don’t create conditions for smoking.
When someone handed you a cigarette, he resolutely refused [No, I have given up smoking] [Thank you, but I have made up my mind not to smoke.]
2. Persist in passing the withdrawal reaction period.
When smoking is strong, you can drink water and eat snacks to keep your hands and mouth busy. Find some interesting things to do to distract attention from smoking addiction. Delay smoking, when you want to smoke, tell yourself to wait for 10 minutes, when you want to light a cigarette, tell yourself to wait again, at this time, smoking will become less intense; Repeated deep breathing can also relieve pressure.
In addition to these tips, you can also try smoking cessation drugs.
WHO and National Medical Smoking Cessation Guidelines recommend three kinds of smoking cessation drugs:
1. Nicotine substitutes (e.g. Nicotine patches, nicotine chewing gum, etc.) are supplementary drugs for quitting smoking, which play a slow role in reducing toxicity. The success rate of quitting smoking is twice as high as that of dry quitting.
2. Bupropion: An antidepressant, which has been found to have the effect of assisting smoking cessation in recent years and can relieve painful withdrawal symptoms.
3. Varniklan: In recent years, the newly developed special smoking cessation drug in the world, which specifically inhibits the combination of nicotine and brain nerves, is a special drug for smoking cessation.
The normal use of these three drugs is very safe, with little side effects and definite curative effect. It is the first choice for clinical first-line smoking cessation. However, it is suggested that one must take medicine under the guidance of a doctor. Choose the right product and use the right dose at the right time to give full play to the greatest effect.
3. Don’t forget to quit heart addiction
Three months later, the physical addiction to smoking is not so strong.
Quitting smoking has already been half successful, and the remaining half is to quit the habit of many years.
Abandon all smoking-related articles around you, and tell everyone not to smoke any more, stay away from smoking environment and smokers as far as possible, avoid touching the scene and thinking about smoking, and cultivate new hobbies and activities to fill in life.
The book mentioned by many friends, < < This book can make you quit smoking > >. The author is a British heavy smoker’s experience in quitting smoking. It is still very helpful for the correction of heart addiction and the establishment of a correct concept of quitting smoking.
Alternative methods can be used to gradually correct [unconscious smoking behavior inertia]. A pen between your fingers, chewing a piece of chewing gum and eating low-calorie snacks are the most common. When you want to smoke, take several deep breaths, wash your face, or change your environment immediately.
Cultivating new lifestyles and habits, hobbies of interest, sports, etc. are very effective in correcting smoking habits.
Finally, remember: under no circumstances, never smoke the first cigarette after quitting smoking!