Truth and Legends about Smoking - Part 1

Mark Twain said:

Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world.

But then he added:

I know because I've done it thousands of times.

Can one give up the bad habit for ever or the writer was right and smokers are doomed to have a romance with a cigarette? Substance abuse professionals believe that everything depends on how serious the addition is.

Only in 5% of cases cigarette playing may be called a harmless habit. If you are in this happy minimum, you can give up smoking without any help, and you can do it easily without any unpleasant symptoms. The other tobacco addicts represent bigger difficulties.

In 95 % of cases smoking is not a habit, but a disease classified in medicine as a psychic and behavioral disorder caused by psychoactive substance abuse. It is not easy to cure it once and for ever. Years of smoking form the so called smoking behavior which is expressed in an extremely compulsive craving to bring a "magic" wand to the lips. If there is no such wand, a smoker feels uneasy. Also vegetovascular dependence emerges: a bas smoker starts trembling all over without tobacco, salivation increases or in the contrary a person has a dry moth, a headache may appear. Besides, smoking quitters feels strong psychological stress. A person becomes irritated, it becomes difficult for him/her to focus on something, because all of his thoughts are occupied with one wish - I want to smoke! But you should not feel despaired - tobacco addiction can be cured.

Five Methods
The contemporary medicine has a lot of methods to help a person not only quit smoking, but also release unpleasant symptoms during this hard period.

The portion of nicotine. When a smoker is trying to drop cigarettes, he may often have nicotine chuck habit. To avoid this, one can use medicines supplying minimum amount of nicotine to the organism. This therapy is called nicotine substitution. It includes well-proven special plasters. They are stuck to the skin of a smoker, through which the nicotine goes to the blood. Its doses may differ and depend on how long a person smoked and how soon he or she wants to give up this bad habit. Plasters are attached for a day or 12 hours, the treatment takes 2 to 3 months.

The same principle is used in inhalers, but nicotine goes in this case to the lungs through respiratory tract and a smoke quitter looks the same as a smoker. Nicotine concentration in case of using and inhaler-holder increases slower than in case of smoking, and its maximal level is three times lower as compared to the cigarette's.

There is a special chewing gum, which after chewing starts delivering nicotine and gets a bitter taste. Such treatment lasts about six months. And you have to observe several rules: you should not eat anything 15 minutes before and after chewing such gum and it is flatly prohibited to smoke cigarettes in the same way as with any other nicotine addiction treatment methods. Otherwise you can get poisoned with nicotine.

All medicines are sold in drug stores and are easily accessible, however, they should be prescribed by a physician, since a non-professional may mistake in choosing the correct nicotine dosing.

Truth and Legends about Smoking - Part 2