Mental Health and Addiction

Here’s How to Quit Smoking Permanently in Three Steps

Three distinct steps helped Jack stop smoking and improved his health and well-being.

The Harmful Effects of Smoking on Health and the Economy

Jack, married and raised healthy kids. But he smoked for 30 years, which affected his physical and mental health. He started smoking at the age of 10, keeping it secret from his parents and teachers.

Using a holistic approach, Jack managed to quit and never smoked again. This decision transformed his health and well-being into the desired state. I want to share his method under three categories.

Smoking cigarettes cause suffering to millions of people. For example, according to CDC:

“Over 16 million Americans are living with a disease caused by smoking. Cigarette smoking is responsible for more than 480,000 deaths per year in the United States. Furthermore, the total economic cost of smoking is more than $300 billion a year, including $225 billion in direct medical care for adults and $156 billion in lost productivity due to premature death and exposure to secondhand smoke.”

Paradoxically smokers know about the harmful effects on health and risks of smoking in their life span, but they continue and have difficulty quitting. One of the main reasons is the addictive effects of nicotine.

Breaking behavioral patterns manifesting as addictions in our lives can be challenging as repeated behaviors can create vigorous neural pathways in the brain.

Smoking is a well-known addiction. Even though smoking cigarettes are legal in many countries, they cause as much or even more harm than illegal drugs in the long term.

As addiction is a broad topic, I will not cover details in this post, aiming to share my experience and findings in another mental health article.

In this post, I aim to share three practical tips from Jack’s experience to give my readers a helpful perspective.

I won’t focus on the harmful effects of tobacco smoking as they are well-documented in the body of knowledge accessible publicly. Instead, I outline three strategies Jack used to stop tobacco smoking successfully.

1 — Learned to Deal with Urges and Cravings

Jack was referred to community service supporting smokers to quit using various methods. One of the key concepts he learned during these sessions was dealing with urges and cravings.

Jack understood that fluctuations of nicotine in the bloodstream were the root cause of his impulses and strong desires. He usually felt the urge when he couldn’t smoke for several hours at work or woke up in the morning.

However, Jack learned to recognize his emotions and documented his feelings and thoughts when yearnings and cravings emerged. He understood that the brain created such perception forcing him to take action.

The support team confirmed that the urges would reduce when nicotine was cleared from the body. The most challenging part was dealing with the withdrawal symptoms.

They taught him the 4-D technique, summarized as “delay action, deep breath, drink water, and do something else.”

So, for Jack, the coping mechanism to address the withdrawal symptoms included sipping water, chewing sugar-free gums, listening to uplifting music, talking with his friends, and walking with his partner and friend on the beach.

After a few weeks, his urge to smoke significantly reduced, and his cravings diminished. However, he desired to smoke sometimes. He felt a psychological void, “some sort of emptiness,” in his words.

2 — Resolve Childhood Traumas with Psychotherapy

Jack’s addictive and compulsive behavior was believed to happen due to some childhood traumas he did not know.

A psychologist in the center Jack consulted suggested he see a psychotherapist. His private health insurance covered a few sponsored sessions paying 80% of the cost.

During these sessions, unresolved childhood memories surfaced. Moreover, after each session, Jack felt a significant load disappearing from his shoulders. His anxiety turned into joy. He started enjoying his food, social interactions, and work more.

However, now and then, especially when experiencing emotional stress, he still wanted to smoke just one. He had conflicting thoughts.

One part of his brain said he shouldn’t; the other provoked him to try once. But he resisted not trying with willpower. He wanted to get rid of conflicting thoughts in his mind. He feared starting it again.

3 — Leveraged the Power of Hypnotherapy and Meditation

One of Jack’s friends who successfully quit smoking years ago mentioned that he used the service of an experienced hypnotherapist who helped him with recurring thoughts. Hypnotherapy was the final piece of the solution puzzle for Jack. He was cynical about it, but his beliefs changed.

The hypnotherapist helped him reduce the occurrence of unwanted and recurring thoughts. Moreover, he introduced him to meditation practice. This practice was new to Jack.

After this introduction, Jack gained an interest in meditation. He decided to take a ten-week part-time course for residents in the community education center. The entire program cost him only $50.

The course and his interactions with community members helped Jack learn various mindfulness techniques and encouraged him to meditate consistently.

As a result, he became aware of his thoughts and emotions by observing and embracing them. Consequently, regular meditation reduced his anxiety and improved his focus, attention, creativity, and productivity.

I explained the benefits of meditation and hypnotherapy in previous articles.

Conclusions and Takeaways

I acknowledge it is tricky, difficult, and complicated to quit smoking for some people, especially those addicted to it for a long time. Therefore, I have empathy and compassion for friends like Jack, who suffered from this addiction for many years.

I smoked in my younger years, as mentioned in a story titled Tricking Brain To Stop Smoking. It reflects my personal story of how I quit smoking 40 years ago and never smoked again.

Like many friends, I also gained noticeable benefits after I quit smoking. The immediate benefits were improving my skin health, breathing better, and improved taste of food and beverages.

In the longer term, as Jack also noticed, the stress and inflammation markers in the body significantly improved, preventing the risks of associated health conditions.

Being aware of the harmful effects of cigarette smoke, however, I experimented with pure nicotine occasionally to understand its cognitive benefits, as I discussed in this story titled One Mg Pure Nicotine Helped Me Write 10,000 Words Once.

I’d like to summarize the eight takeaway points of my story, hoping they might provide valuable perspectives.

1 — Understand the addictive nature of nicotine and the harmful effects of smoking and consider quitting.

2 — Join a support group to learn about proven strategies and methods.

3 — Recognize urges and cravings by observing thoughts and feelings.

4 — Understand that these feelings are withdrawal symptoms, and they will pass.

5 — Use coping mechanisms like delaying it with pleasurable activities.

6 — Consider cognitive-behavioral therapies to address unresolved mental and emotional issues.

7 — Consider guided or self-hypnotherapy to break mental patterns.

8 — Consider learning and practicing mindfulness techniques like meditation.

The biggest reason for the difficulty of quitting smoking is its addictive effect on the brain and the body. Breaking addictive patterns might take time and effort, but it is worth the investment. Addictive behaviors are so powerful that they can affect our health, fitness, longevity, and overall success in life. However, recovering from addictions is possible with holistic approaches like Jack successfully used.

You may also check the experience of Mike Broadly - Healthier Lifestyle in the attached short story.

I would like to share hobbies enriching my life for many years.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

In addition to health and mental health topics, I also write about my independent reviews of well-researched supplements and molecules for metabolic and cognitive health. Here are the links:

Boron, Urolithin, taurine, citrulline malate, biotin, lithium orotate, alpha-lipoic acid, n-acetyl-cysteine, acetyl-l-carnitine, CoQ10, PQQ, NADH, TMG, creatine, choline, digestive enzymes, magnesium, hydrolyzed collagen, nootropics, pure nicotine, activated charcoal, Vitamin B12, Vitamin B1, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Omega-3 Fatty Acids, and other nutrients that might help to improve metabolism and mental health.

Disclaimer: Please note that this post does not include health or professional advice. I conveyed my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only for information. If you have disease symptoms, please consult your healthcare professionals. Health is the responsibility of individuals.

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