Category: Quit Smoking

When I was a smoker, I was determined to find that one best quit smoking tip. I always thought that there was one that I could rely on and use to make me quit smoking. You see, smoking is incredibly difficult to quit until you have found your own solution, i.e. the best smoking tip ever for you. When you have found that, it becomes easy to quit smoking.

So what is the best quit smoking tip ever then I hear you say. Well, the bad news for you is that I don’t know. It’s not that I don’t know a whole heap of quit smoking tips, it’s just that I don’t know which is the best quit smoking tip for you personally.

Let me clarify. When I quit smoking, one thing that really changed things for me was the realisation that I could actually enjoy life without cigarettes. For me that was the best quit smoking tip ever, but it wasn’t the only one and on its own it wasn’t that powerful. There were a whole raft of things I had to understand before I could happily quit the smokes. Now this is a strange analogy but stick with me. It is a bit like the Whitehouse, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC.

The Whitehouse is a magnificent building, but it is a magnificent building because it appears to be greater than the sum of its parts. Its parts add up to ‘x’ but the whole thing put together is worth ‘x’ plus a whole lot more.

The Whitehouse wouldn’t look very good with just the huge entrance and no building. The building itself wouldn’t look very impressive without that portico. The lamp under the portico wouldn’t look good without the portico and the portico wouldn’t look as good without the lamp. The gardens wouldn’t be set off as well as they are without the house and the house wouldn’t look as magnificent if it didn’t have the gardens.

Do you see what I mean? One thing in itself may not be that impressive but when contrasted or complimented with something else or a number of other things, it becomes greater than it really is. It is always possible for something to be greater than the sum of its parts.

There are lists and lists of quit smoking tips available – heck, look at my previous postings. You can read them all over the internet, but they tend to follow different ideas about smoking and how you can overcome its grip on your life. If you read quit smoking tips all day long you could quite easily get no nearer finding a simple way to quit smoking without the anguish and stress and normal need for willpower.

So if you are really keen to quit smoking, I suppose the best quit smoking tip I can give you is this. You are killing yourself. You know that but it doesn’t make it any easier to quit smoking. You need to find a solution, so keep looking. They do exist but it may be different for you than it was for me. Lots of people succeed with cognitive behavioural therapy, others with hypnotherapy and others with drugs, although I take a pretty dim view on drugs to help you quit!

For me, it was cognitive behavioural therapy. That sounds serious and scary but it’s not. It is a set of instructions to change the way you think about your relationship with cigarettes. Once I understood why I smoked, it was really easy for me to quit. As they say in the military, “know your enemy!”

My final piece of advice that I suppose is the other ‘best quit smoking tip’ that I can think of is always, never quit trying to quit smoking.

I know I don’t advocate using bad news about smoking as method to help you quit, but it should be used as a motivation for finding out how to quit.

Here are some of the negative health effects of smoking:

1. Smokers’ bone density declines by between 3% and 5% every year that they smoke. Why this happens is not understood but it is thought that one or more of the chemicals in the cigarette smoke binds with the bone forming cells (osteoblasts) of the body and prevents them doing their job.
2. Women’s chances of conceiving whilst smoking are drastically reduced. Although the reduction in fertility is somewhat dependent upon age, smoking whilst trying to have a baby is like doing it with one hand behind your back. (I am not suggesting that you do or don’t ‘do it’ with one hand tied behind your back – I don’t have an opinion on that!)
3. Smoking is responsible for more than 30% of all cancer deaths. In western society, the number of smokers is reducing rapidly but this doesn’t take away from the fact that over 90% of lung cancer deaths are directly attributed to smoking.
4. On average smokers live 8 years less than no smoker. Note that I said on average. Also, on average, half of smokers will die young because of cigarette smoking. This means that ‘on average’ if you are unlucky enought o be a smoker who will die young from a smoking related illness, the chances are that you will die 16 years earlier than normal.
5. Cigarette smoke has high levels of free radicals in it. As a result, cigarette smoke oxidezes the tissues of smokers. This increases the chance of cell damage which can lead to cancer.
6. Cigarette smokers are more likely to suffer from virtually all forms of cancer including mouth, throat, bladder, stomach, pancreatic and kidney.
7. The smoke from an average cigarette contains over 4,000 chemicals, of which over 40 are known to be carcinogenic (cause cancer). These cancer causing chemicals bind to the cells in the lungs (and nose and mouth and throat) and cause cell damage leading to cancer.

I’m going to stop here and let you think about that. There are a million good reasons to quit smoking so never stop trying to quit.

When you decide to have another try at forgoing the evil weed, you can always benefit from some quit smoking tips. Wouldn’t life be wonderful if you could quit smoking whenever you pleased? Well, unfortunately, life isn’t that easy but in the mean time, here are some pearls of wisdom that may help you quit smoking.

Quit smoking tip #1: Write a list of all the reason why you want to smoke. It will be short. Write a list of all the reasons you want to quit smoking. It will be long. Keep both lists with you all times.

Quit smoking tip #2: For every reason you think of you want to quit, write it on a piece of paper about 3 inches long (the length of a cigarette). Roll it up and put it in an empty packet of the cigarettes you like to smoke. You should be able to get about 15 in the packet easily. Every time you want a cigarette, read a reason instead.

Quit smoking tip #3: Talk yourself into believing the next cigarette you smoke will be the one that gives you lung cancer. It won’t seem so attractive!

Quit smoking tip #4: Consider buying products to help you quit smoking. There are many on the market and if they come with a money-back guarantee, you have nothing to lose except the smokes!

Quit smoking tip #5: You will suffer from nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Don’t let these symptoms cloud your judgement as to why you chose to quit smoking.

Quit smoking tip #6: Never use nicotine replacement therapy. There is no way that you can overcome the addiction to nicotine by getting it in another delivery system.

Quit smoking tip #7: Understand that you will not be able to quit until you actually genuinely want to quit. It is no good trying to quit smoking just because you know you ‘should’ quit because it is bad for you.

Quit smoking tip #8: Watch what you eat. You may start eating between meals when you used to smoke. You will get fat if you continue to do this. Drink plenty of fruit juice for the first three days and then plenty of water – stay off the sugary drinks thereafter.

Quit smoking tip #9: Don’t think about smoking. If you thin you are missing out on something you will just be torturing yourself.

Quit smoking tip #10: Never doubt your reasons for quitting nor doubt your ability to quit.

There are a plethora of products available to help people quit smoking. Some commentators cynically suggest that they are all useless. I believe that there is no one ‘fix-all’ cure for smoking. Some people will benefit from drug programs such as Chantix or Zyban, others from cognitive behavioural therapy and others from hypnosis.

My argument is that people should try any and every method they can because the benefits of quitting smoking make it worthwhile. But whatever you do, never stop trying to quit.

It is difficult for people to quit smoking (or so we are told) and until you actually realise it can be easy you could benefit from some quit smoking tips. You will need help to keep you off the smokes as long as you have this negative attitude to quitting. The following is a list of widely accepted tricks to help you get through the process of quitting.

Quit smoking tip #1: Rid your entire life of cigarettes and all the paraphernalia of smoking such as lighters, matches, ashtrays etc. Never carry cigarettes with you.

Quit smoking tip #2: Accept that you are never going to have another cigarette as long as you live. Understand that the only reason you could possibly need any smoking paraphernalia is because you plan on smoking again.

Quit smoking tip #3: Don’t kid yourself that you will let your friends smoke in your house. You must ban smoking from every aspect of your life. Your house, your car, your back yard.

Quit smoking tip #4: Never doubt your decision to quit smoking. It was the right decision.

Quit smoking tip #5: Every time you crave a cigarette, feel proud that you have gone this long without one and you can manage even longer.

Quit smoking tip #6: Drink plenty of water and drink plenty of citric fruit juices for the first couple of days. Stop drinking sugary drinks after day 3 or you will put on weight.

Quit smoking tip #7: If you are worried about getting fat, start using the stairs at work or whenever you can. If you have to go somewhere within a mile, walk instead of cycle or taking the car.

Quit smoking tip #8: Start eating healthy food. Stay off the pastries, sweets, potato chips and chocolates. Eat raw vegetables and plenty of fruit. Without smoking, these things start tasting even better than normal.

Quit smoking tip #9: Set aside a jar to put all your cigarette money in. You will be saving over $30 a week if you are a normal smoker. Use this money to spend on something extravagant for your self after the first week and then after the first month.

Quit smoking tip #10: Tell everyone you know that you are quitting smoking. Ask them for their encouragement – they will give it. Smokers and non-smokers and ex-smokers especially, will all be 100% behind you. No-one likes seeing friends or family killing themselves.

There are many support methods out there to help smokers quit. You can use nicotine replacement therapy (which I seriously don’t recommend), zyban or chantix with 16% and 22% apparent success rates. There are also other methods that do not use drugs or pharmacological interventions such as hypnotherapy or cognitive behavioural therapy. These methods generally boast better long term results than drugs do.

My advice to anyone trying to quit smoking is to be prepared to try any and every method you can. Invest money (particularly if it comes with a money back guarantee) because it is money well spent. No-one can tell you which method will work best for you so you can only find out by trying all the methods.

As always, never stop trying to quit smoking.

There is a burning desire in all smokers to find out how to easily quit smoking. The reason for this is quite simple. Every time smokers try to quit smoking they find that is difficult and inevitably 19 out of 20 fail to kick the habit. However, it is true that you can easily quit smoking so let me explain.

Now this may sound a bit weird but my personal view on this is that quitting smoking is only difficult because smokers don’t know how to easily quit smoking.

Let me clarify. Driving a car is difficult the first time you do it. That is because you do not know how to drive a car. Once you have spent some time learning ‘how’ to drive a car, it becomes easier. In fact, most people don’t even think about how to drive a car and they do it every day. It becomes second nature.

Let’s look at another example. Most people think that building and publishing a website is difficult. Before I started working full time on the internet I felt the same. Then, as time passed and I took time to learn how to write webpages, publish articles, write blogs and manage a website, I realised that it wasn’t difficult. It was just that before, I didn’t know how to do it and that made it seem difficult.

To this day I haven’t the faintest idea how to weld, but I am certain I could learn!

And so it is with smoking. I know how to easily quit smoking because I learned how to and have done it. That doesn’t mean I start and stop as I please. As a smoker, I spent 20 years of my life wanting to stop smoking. The problem was, I didn’t know how to easily stop smoking and so every attempt over 20 years (and there must have been 20 or 30 attempts) ended in failure. That was until I discovered how to easily quit smoking. I don’t want to be a smoker – that’s why I found out how to quit.

Now obviously, I cannot write a 500 word article that is going to explain in full how to easily quit smoking. I explain how to easily quit smoking in my book but I want ot give you a few pointers here in this article.

The first and foremost issue that smokers absolutely must overcome in order to easily quit smoking is to change their outlook on cigarettes and how that fits in with the rest of their lives. What I mean by this is that most smokers subconsciously or not, believe that cigarettes form a part of their persona. A non-smoker picks up their keys and wallet when they leave the house. A smoker picks up their keys and wallet and cigarettes and lighter. It forms an integral part of their every day life.

Smokers will pretty much always know how many cigarettes they have on their person. They know this like they know how many fingers anyone knows they have on their left hand.

Smoking and cigarettes (or whatever your ‘pleasure’) are an integral part of a smokers life. They feel that cigarettes provide enjoyment and pleasure. They are difficult to live without because of the pleasure they bring. Right?

Wrong!
In order to even start on discovering how to easily quit smoking, smokers must learn to comprehend that they can spend the rest of their lives without cigarettes. It is not a matter of thinking I will quit smoking, then have a cigarette once a month because I enjoy them so much. A smoker who is trying to quit must understand that they can enjoy the rest of their lives without cigarettes. Let me explain why.

Roughly speaking 25% of the population smoke. Another 25% of the population used to smoke but have quit. Yet another 25% of the population tried to smoke at some point but couldn’t so they didn’t bother. Finally, 25% of the population have never had a cigarette or any tobacco smoke enter their lungs.

As a smoker you are only make up 1 in 4 of the population and the other three quarters seem to get on with their lives ok. They don’t need cigarettes and if you are a smoker, you don’t either. Once you understand this point, you have taken your first step on how to easily quit smoking.

I know that if you are looking to quit smoking you will be shown a vast array of products to choose from, including nicotine replacement therapy, chantix, zyban, herbal solutions, books and hypnosis. Whilst I believe in the cognitive behavioural approach as being the best way to quit smoking, it is not perfect for everyone. So I recommend that you try anything or everything you can to quit smoking. There will be at least one effective approach to quitting smoking that will work for you. I only wish I could tell you which!

Whatever you do, never quit trying to quit.

Why do people try to quit smoking before they know how to quit smoking? Pete Howells is the author of the EasyQuit System available only online at http://easyquitsystem.com. He also blogs, post articles and videos at http://easyquitsystem.com/blog and at http://quit-smoking-motivator.blogspot.com

I found this article about my book on the internet the other day. What a pleasant suprise!

With all the quitting smoking system scams flooding in the internet and outside the internet, it can be difficult to find an easy and truly way to really stop smoking. And so when I came across this new e-book by Peter Howells, I wasn’t expecting anything truly as I have been tried, scammed and disappointed so many times before.

But the EasyQuit System seemed to be more down to earth than most. So I promptly picked up a copy and figured that if nothing else, it would be a decent e-book that would give me the opportunity to finally quit smoking.

But from the opening pages of the EasyQuit System, I must admit I was taken a bit off guard with the exceptional method and overall of the system. The method was very well organized, easy to embrace and I found Peter writing style refreshing in a comparison of other e-books or methods I was trying before.

Learn more about it here

The EasyQuit System starts with explaining why I become a smoker and how I can overcome this bad habit. This is followed by a series of powerful truths about the psychology of smoking that work surprisingly well. The intention is not to frighten you, but to emphasize truths about the psychology of smoking and how to deal with them.

Before I bought EasyQuit System I have never thought it can be easy to stop smoking, I knew it is possible, but certainly not easy. I simply didn’t know how. But Peter shows how even a heavy smoker like myself can easily quit smoking.

There is also very detailed information of how not becoming a smoker again and without any needs of using substitutes. Later on in the e-book you also discover a very surprising, and important fact about the nicotine. Never before have I seen, read or experienced quit smoking method that goes into the level of details that EasyQuit System does.

Learn more about it here

Everything is clearly explained and demonstrated with examples. You will feel like the e-book is written especially for your need, stop smoking easily. Peter shows exactly how to stop smoking and how to remain a non smoker without any side affects.

One thing that is missing in EasyQuit System is the frighten tactics, but from my own experience you will not quit smoking if someone frightening you or you will never be a happy non smoker. The techniques in EasyQuit System are much more effective.

The EasyQuit System is also provides a full 60 days money back guarantee if you purchased the e-book and you are not satisfied, meaning you are not a happy non smoker. Therefore there is no risk buying this e-book and trying the method.

A command problem with a lot of other quitting smoking systems is that after experienced the method you will generally found yourself left on your own to figure out things. But this is certainly not the case with EasyQuit System. Peter offers exceptional e-mail support and for the few times I have had question he was responded very quickly.

Overall the EasyQuit System is exceptional method that has taught me how to quit smoking easily and becoming a happy non smoker.

Learn more about it here

Yours, Shuri

This article is free for republishing
Source: http://www.articlealley.com/article_185994_17.html

Why do people try to quit smoking before they know how to quit smoking? Pete Howells is the author of the EasyQuit System available only online at http://easyquitsystem.com. He also blogs, post articles and videos at http://easyquitsystem.com/blog and at http://quit-smoking-motivator.blogspot.com

There are many different quit smoking symptoms that appear in smokers who are trying to quit. The range of symptoms is quite wide but luckily, most smokers will not suffer all of the symptoms, only one or two. Nevertheless, some of the symptoms can be quite uncomfortable and can motivate smokers to start up and abandon quitting.

In alphabetical order, the most common quit smoking symptoms are:

Quit smoking symptom #1: Anger: When you quit smoking, your brain chemistry isn’t able to work normally because you haven’t any nicotine in your system. As a result, smokers who have been off the smokes for a day or too can get a bit cranky. They tend to be pretty unpleasant company and are liable to fly off the handle pretty easily.

Quit smoking symptom #2: Bad Breath or halitosis: This is one of the more anti-social of quit smoking symptoms. Many people recommend chewing gum as this not only gives your mouth something to do but also covers up the bad odour. What most smokers don’t realise is that they had bad breath anyway. It is only because they quit smoking that they actually came to notice it!

Quit smoking symptom #3: Constipation: It is not known specifically why, but many smokers complain of constipation when they quit smoking. The intestinal tract tends to slow down but it is normally only temporary. The only recommended remedies are to drink plenty of water and eat plenty of high fibre foods such as wholemeal and fruits.

Quit smoking symptom #4: Cough: When you quit smoking, the lungs finally get a moment to start cleaning themselves the way they are supposed to. This process doesn’t work normally when smoking every hour or so. The body is simply expelling the mucus that has accumulated over the years. This wet cough should only last a week or two and it is your body naturally cleaning itself from the inside.

Quit smoking symptom #5: Cravings: When you quit smoking, you stop taking in a regular supply of nicotine. After only 3 days there is none left in your body. As such, because your brain is so used to nicotine it ‘wonders’ where it is and asks for more by giving you cravings to smoke. Your best course of action is to distract yourself for a while. The average craving only lasts a minute or two and they become fewer and farther between over time.

Quit smoking symptom #6: Dizziness: When you quit smoking, your body starts fixing the red blood cells that have been handicapped with carbon monoxide. After a couple of days, the 15% of a smoker’s blood that was dysfunctional becomes proper working blood again. The dizziness is a side effect of the extra oxygen your blood is delivering to your brain!

Quit smoking symptom #7: Headaches: Your body has been used to nicotine within the system whilst you were a smoker. Now that the nicotine has subsided, your brain chemistry is trying to reset itself. Sometimes this manifests in headaches. To deal with this, your best bet is to avoid caffeinated drinks such as coffee or cola and drink plenty of water. Take some painkillers when required.

Quit smoking symptom #8: Hunger: Craving for cigarettes can be confused with hunger. You have been used to having a cigarette (or something) in your mouth about once every hour for the last few years. That is now gone. Try sucking a straw, eating low-calorie raw vegetables or chewing gum. Don’t turn to chocolate or potato chips – you will get fat!

Quit smoking symptom #9: Insomnia: Because the nicotine your brain was used to is no longer there, the brain isn’t working the way it is used to. As a result, it may keep you in a bit of a nervous panic that stops you being able to sleep. Have a hot bath and a hot drink and see if you can’t nod off like normal.

Quit smoking symptom #10: Sore throat: Your body has been used to secreting plenty of mucus in your airways whilst you were a smoker to deal with the irritation of the smoke. When you quit, it stops producing this mucus and leaves you with a dry throat that becomes sore. Drink plenty of water to try and alleviate the symptoms. If they get really bad, try an over-the-counter anaesthetic spray.

All of these quit smoking symptoms will conspire against you. They will irritate and annoy you when you try to quit smoking. But remember, they are just symptoms and they will all pass in time. As irritating and annoying as they all are, none of them are as tedious as an early death from cigarettes!

Whatever you do when you are trying to quit smoking, my advice is to never stop trying to quit.

Pete Howells has written the EasyQuit System that will help any smoker quit tobacco. He also blogs quit smoking advice at http://quit-smoking-motivator.blogspot.com Visit http://easyquitsystem.com/ to find out more about his incredible process for quitting smoking that boasts 96% customer satisfaction.

Many people have heard of the cold turkey quit smoking method but where does the phrase ‘cold turkey’ actually come from? Well, it is thought to be a description of the withdrawal effects that heroine addicts must endure when they stop using. One of these withdrawal symptoms is a cold sweat leading to goose pimples on a clammy skin. It’s about the same a cold turkey before it goes in the oven at thanksgiving (without the butter of course!).

The origins of the phrase cold turkey also underline the extreme physical pain associated with heroine withdrawal. It is such a powerful drug (hence all the social problems it causes) that it leaves addicts with severe physical side effects when not taken. This extreme is erroneously transferred into the smokers’ mind when using the cold turkey quit smoking method. Quitting smoking is nowhere near as painful!

Personally, I define the cold turkey quit smoking method as any method that does not employ the use of drugs or physical aids or ‘crutches’ to support the smoker. By this I mean the likes of nicotine replacement therapy (patches, gum, lozenges, spray etc.), chantix, zyban or any herbal treatment, fake cigarettes or aversion therapies.

I do consider things like cognitive behavioural therapy and hypnotherapy to fall into the cold turkey quit smoking method because they do not condone the use of drugs to try and assist the smoker. They condone the power of the mind to overcome the problem of nicotine addiction.

In the case of acupuncture and laser therapy, there is little evidence that these methods work and they both require physical interference. Anecdotally of course, there are many ex-smokers that used these methods but studies have shown no improvement in quit rates when compared to cold ‘turkeyers’.

Hypnotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy are both cold turkey quit smoking methods that are known to be effective. Cognitive behavioural therapy is a means of changing your thinking (cognition) and behaviour to a specific event, habit or aspect of life.

Unlike the classic cold turkey “lock-yourself-in-a-room-and-suffer” method of quitting smoking, hypnotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy work by dealing with smokers’ mental perceptions of smoking.

In the case of hypnotherapy as a cold turkey quit smoking method, the smoker may be ‘taught’ to respond to cravings for cigarettes by thinking about a pleasant time in their life to get over the craving. The smoker may also be ‘taught’ to dislike smoking. Many people successfully quit smoking using hypnosis but many fail too.

In the case of cognitive behavioural therapy, smokers are presented with a whole new view on smoking. It is a system by which the hugely complicated psychological trap of smoking, is broken down into bite-size pieces. Each piece of the trap is then dismantled, leaving smokers with little choice but to quit of their own free will.

Unlike the classic cold turkey quit smoking method, smokers who quit using cognitive behavioural therapy often report knowing that they have quit and that they will never smoke again. It is not the same with hypnotherapy or acupuncture or laser therapy.

I am of course a proponent of cognitive behavioural therapy. When I stopped smoking using this method, it was an epiphany. It was like my eyes had been opened after years in the darkness. The moment I stopped I knew I would never have another cigarette and it was a hugely liberating experience. However, it is not the same for everyone and there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ method for quitting smoking.

Generally, my advice to all smokers is to try any and every method to find the one that works for them. There are many ways to get off cigarettes and the cold turkey quit smoking method is just one of them.

Spending money on money-back guaranteed systems first is the best approach because if that system doesn’t work, you can get your cash back and move onto the next. If it does work, it will be money well spent. But my final and most important piece of advice to any would be quitter is to never give up trying to quit, no matter how soul destroying the process seems.

To quit smoking cold turkey, i.e. without the aid of pills or false cigarettes or herbal remedies, is often thought to be the most difficult ways to quit smoking. However, there is one specific reason why to quit smoking cold turkey is far and away the best type of method to use. The reason is simply long term success.

There are a vast number of options available to quit smoking on the internet and through health service providers. To name just a few, you can quit smoking using hypnosis, or nicotine replacement therapy or using zyban (wellbutrin or bupropion) or chantix (champix or varenicline).

These methods are all thought to improve your chances of quitting smoking in the first instance. Indeed there is a wealth of studies that show when you use these methods, your chances of quitting improve significantly. However, it is only when we look at the longer term that we find the initial success rates fall off and the long term success becomes poorer than the quit smoking cold turkey method.

The point is that initially, people who try to quit smoking using these pharmaceutical methods or even hypnosis, bio resonance or acupuncture may indeed be more successful than those who quit smoking cold turkey. In the long term though, these quitters have a lower success rate. It is much like the hare and the tortoise.

The tortoise is the quit smoking cold turkey type who has a very low success rate initially, but those who successfully quit using this method, rarely turn back. On the other hand, the hares rush off successfully stopping and then later, they struggle with their quit. But why is this?

Well, anecdotally, I know of people who have both succeeded and failed using hypnosis. I know few who have even tried to quit smoking using zyban or chantix. I also know (and was one) of many who have succeeded then failed with nicotine replacement therapy gum, patches, lozenges an inhalators.

With NRT and Zyban and Chantix, there is no ‘understanding’ of smoking. It is just ‘magic’! Well, actually it is not magic but the people who try this method live in the vain hope that this medicine will solve all their smoking problems. It won’t because their heads are not ‘straight’. Because they haven’t addressed their emotional relationship with smoking and nicotine, they struggle in the long term to overcome their reliance upon tobacco. Hence they resort to smoking at a later time.

With respect to hypnosis, the most common approach is to use hypnosis to re-align your emotional response to cigarettes. This is done through the subconscious mind and again fails to address the emotional relationship between the smoker and their cigarettes.

When people attempt to quit smoking cold turkey, they have to deal with the emotional strain of quitting smoking. There are no supports or props to keep their mental fortitude in shape. These quitters have to take on the emotional roller coaster of the quit, head on.

By doing this, they become incredibly strong and durable to the challenge of quitting smoking. The challenge of beating their addiction to nicotine strengthens their resolve. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I cannot say how each individual quitter quits successfully when they quit smoking cold turkey. Everyone is different and so whether it is coping with cravings, realising they don’t enjoy smoking or just turning their backs on cigarettes, it is different for each and everyone.

What I can say though is that most people who quit smoking cold turkey are happier than those who resort to other methods to help them. I can also tell you that most smokers who quit smoking cold turkey will have found one or two or up to 30 key things that they understand about smoking that they did not understand when they were a smoker. It is these ‘secrets’ that make quitting smoking for them possible. In some respects it makes them easy.

When I quit smoking, I did so full in the knowledge that I would never smoke again because I too had discovered the secrets. I knew how to quit smoking so it was a straightforward process.

So my advice to you is that if you must, quit smoking using any and every chemical aid you can. Try them all. If they work, you will be a non-smoker and that is something to celebrate. But beware; statistically, you are more likely to fall back into the trap of smoking. However, if you want to quit smoking and be at one with yourself, without the stress, consider the cold turkey methods available to you that require no chemicals or nicotine at all. But most of all, what ever you do, never stop trying to quit.

Chantix is the US trading name for the drug varenicline, developed by Pfizer and released for general use in 2006. It has received some exceptional media attention due to its (claimed) success rates. Pfizer’s own website claims a 44% success rate which makes for a very interesting and potentially profitable drug. The more commonly accepted ‘success rate’ is only 22% however.

As with Zyban, the other well-known aid for smoking cessation, there are a number of side effects to be taken into consideration with Chantix.

Chantix side effects are known to include most seriously, severe nausea with up to 30% of people trying to quit smoking using Chantix, having to stop the treatment due to this side effect being so strong. Disturbances of the gut such as constipation, diarrhoea, abdominal discomfort, excessive indigestion and excessive flatulence have all been mentioned as well as vomiting.

Other Chantix side effects are known to include headaches, difficulty sleeping (insomnia), abnormal dreams including nightmares, sleepiness and dizziness.

People have reported other Chantix side effects including a change in their sense of taste (no – not fashion or the opposite sex!), a dry mouth and changes in appetite both for food and for sex! They have also reported increased incidences of airway infections, mood swings, tremor and restlessness.

Some people also notice an increased need for the bathroom, chest pains, palpitations, and skin reactions such as rashes or itchiness.

Having listed all of these potential side effects however, it is important to note that not all side effects happen in every person. Admittedly, many people suffer too much from the nausea to continue with the treatment but many of the other side effects are quite mild and potentially a small price to pay for quitting smoking.

It is also important to note that many of these Chantix side effects show up when people quit smoking anyway and they are commonly attributed to nicotine withdrawal. Of note, dry mouth, increased airway infections, mood swings and anxiety, tremor and chest pains are all attributed to nicotine withdrawal too.

It is also important to mention, despite its short-term claim for 44% success rates, Chantix’s longer-term success rates are similar to that of Zyban. Zyban is made more effective by using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and Chantix is more effective if subjects take NRT after finishing the 12-week course. You can read my views on nicotine replacement therapy at The nicotine replacement therapy scam

Both Zyban and Chantix are used in combination with support counselling for smokers as well as NRT. The drugs themselves cannot stand up on their own and certainly do not come with money back guarantees and that is on top of the Chantix side effects listed here.

Notwithstanding all this, if you want to quit smoking, no matter how many times you don’t achieve it, just keep on trying. Never stop trying to quit!

Why do people try to quit smoking before they know how to quit smoking? Pete Howells is the author of the EasyQuit System available only online at http://easyquitsystem.com . He also blogs and post articles and videos at http://easyquitsystem.com/blog and at http://quit-smoking-motivator.blogspot.com

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