Time To Quit Smoking

Anyone who started smoking from an early age and has smoked for years knows just how addictive the weed is and how consumed you become with the habit. As part of our culture and society for many years smoking has been accepted as a normal part of everyday life.
As an addict you are on a journey and in the early years when you are fit and strong you smoke to your hearts content and there is no way you can imagine it is going to do you any harm. Twenty years later your still puffing away and if you do not stop it will in all likelihood contribute to your downfall.
Smoking tobacco beyond the age of 30 years could reduce your life expectancy by 10 years. It is possibly the commonest cause of drug related deaths and is in some estimates responsible for up to half of all hospital illness.
Though tobacco is not presently classified in the governments misuse of drugs act recent studies indicate that tobacco is in fact possibly as harmful physically and results in psychological and physical dependence on a par with a number of classified substances it is by far the most addictive commonly used drug.
In terms of stopping smoking, breaking the dependence and addiction there are a number of products on the market that claim to be able to help you. The main treatment being nicotine replacement therapy which comes in different forms as patches, gum and inhalers with the intention of rather than smoking you continue to take nicotine as a drug in ever decreasing smaller doses to assist break your addiction.
There are also anti depressants which change your brain’s response to nicotine and makes smoking less pleasurable and therefore reduces craving and there are the alternative therapies including acupuncture, hypnotherapy and easy way.
Evidence suggests that commercially available forms of nicotine replacement therapy, anti depressants and alternative therapies can assist smokers who are motivated to quit. With the huge demand for the various branded drug and alternative therapies to help you stop smoking a world wide multi million pound industry has developed feeding the market of smokers trying to break the habit.
There maybe a flaw in the strategy of using nicotine and other drugs to help relieve people of their addiction to tobacco. The last thing you would give to an alcoholic kicking his habit is alcohol and recent studies have further revealed that heroin addicts being treated with methadone as a heroin replacement are less likely to kick their habit.
It is estimated there are around 1.1 billion smokers on the planet today and it is forecast the numbers will increase over the next 10-20 years to over 1.5 billion. So what is the true worth of nicotine replacement therapy because with an expected increase of 400 million smokers worldwide this would suggest that nicotine might not be as effective as previously thought.
There are always going to be further risks associated with taking drugs to try and relieve withdrawal symptoms as a number of the drugs used in therapy can produce adverse side affects as well as potential benefits.
There has never been a better time to quit what with the smoking ban in public places smoking really does smell anti social. With all the treatments and advice available now is a good time to bring an end to that old disgusting habit and make a healthy change.
The only guaranteed safe method of stopping smoking is to go cold turkey but to get through and maintain it you must want to stop. When you consider that the worst you will feel is equivalent to a common cold then you haven’t got too much worry about have you and afterwards the benefits, well give up and you will see and feel them for yourself.