For example, you might start by giving up specific cigarette habits, like your morning commute cigarette or your after-dinner cigarette.
TIPS TO QUIT SMOKING TRIAL
There are many ways to taper off your smoking gradually, and it may take some trial and error to find what works for you.
"Once I stopped completely, I would remind myself of all the effort I had already put in over 10 weeks. "I was smoking half a pack a day at the time and was able to slowly transition to becoming a non-smoker," she says. When McGarry decided to quit in 2009, she cut back by one cigarette daily. However, this approach doesn't work for everyone in the long run - in fact, it's estimated that only three in every 100 smokers are able to permanently stop smoking this way.Ībruptly and completely eliminating cigarettes may not be realistic, particularly if you are a heavy smoker or have been smoking for a long time. Some research has suggested that people who give up cigarettes "cold turkey" are more successful in refraining from smoking again than those who gradually reduce their smoking. Laura McGarry, MD, an internal medicine physician at Montefiore Medical Group, and Wolfram Schwarz, MD, an internal medicine physician at a private practice in Germany and cofounder of Meduni, are both former smokers who have successfully given up cigarettes.īelow, McGarry and Schwarz share the strategies they found most helpful in finally quitting smoking for good. When you stop smoking, those receptors no longer receive the same pleasure response, and you experience unpleasant symptoms of withdrawal like anxiety, irritability, depressed mood, and difficulty focusing and sleeping, which can motivate you to reach for another cigarette to feel better.ĭespite all this, it is possible to quit. Nicotine activates receptors in the brain that release the feel-good chemical dopamine. However, it can be challenging to quit because nicotine, a chemical compound in cigarettes, is highly addictive. Quitting smoking can add years to your life by lowering your risk of related diseases.
Smoking can damage nearly every organ in the body, and as such, smokers are more likely to develop heart disease, lung cancer, and stroke. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death, disease, and disability in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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