Stopping Smoking

We are told constantly how bad it is to smoke and we should give up. How many times have you heard from non smokers

“Oh that games killing you and burning a hole in your pocket you should stop”.

Now if you are like I was you probably wanted to use abusive language at these people and tell them it’s not as easy as they like to think. I sometimes used to look at them while they were telling me the “horrible things “ that smoking was doing to my body and imagine rolling them up into a nice fat rollup.

Anyway to the point. If you’re a smoker you know as well as I do that it is not easy, It took me 8 attempts over 6 years to finally kick the habit and those that claim it is easy should think again. People who want to stop smoking more than anything else need encouragement and a solid reason to give up as well as deep down wanting to give up.

The below is taken from Wikipedia on nicotine.

“Research shows that by increasing the levels of dopamine within the reward circuits in the brain, nicotine acts as a chemical with intense addictive qualities. In many studies it has been shown to be more addictive than cocaine and heroin.”

So show them that next time someone tells you it’s easy.

My problem was I did not really want to give up I enjoyed smoking, I was not naive I knew I was killing myself but really didn’t care. For me I need a real good reason to stop and one day I was playing in the lounge with my 1 year old son and it hit me

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In many instances, quitting smoking is just so much easier when you become aware of the ugly contents of the cigarette itself. Yes, I mean chemical content. Did you know that cigarette smoke contains over 4,000 chemicals, including 43 known cancer-causing (carcinogenic) compounds and 400 other toxins?? These include nicotine, tar, and carbon monoxide, as well as formaldehyde, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, arsenic, and DDT.

We know that nicotine is highly addictive and smoke containing nicotine is inhaled into the lungs, where nicotine reaches your brain in just 6 seconds. In small doses nicotine acts as a stimulant to the brain but in large doses, it’s a depressant, inhibiting the flow of signals between nerve cells. Nicotine in the bloodstream acts to make the smoker feel calm. When you smoke a cigarette, the amount of tar inhaled into the lungs increases, and the last puff contains more than twice as much tar as the first puff. Carbon monoxide makes it harder for red blood cells to carry oxygen throughout the body. Most of the chemicals inhaled in cigarette smoke stay in the lungs. The more you inhale, the better it feels—and the greater the damage to your lungs. (more…)

Smoking has its innovations, however, hardly you hear a smoker who still likes what they are doing – smoking. I bet smoking behavior has its own stages as starters may not like dagga and other strong leaves. Even when you try warning them of the dangers of smoking, they’d still want to do it. It is surprising how people behave when warned of hazards in their practices. You’ll find the obese eating chocolates and cake, the diabetics having some salty snacks, youth engaging in unprotected premarital sex, students not studying for exams, managers embezzling funds, etc. Its not surprising that despite millions spent on trying to control the HIV/Aids pandemic, people still have unprotected casual sex.

In my post ‘Beware of Some Business Marketing Tricks’, I put upfront a good but simple tool of how you can guard against participating or acquiring nicely advertised yet deadly products. Deadly in this case is more about the consequences as opposed to literal death. Smoking is one problem that not only affect the person that does it but also people around them, yet Inventors continue to bring smoking catalysts into the market. (more…)

Over the years I have noticed how everyone’s beliefs can differ in relation to whether they think that smoking is an addiction or simply a habit. This core belief has a missive impact upon how easy or how difficult you find it to stop smoking. If you think that you are addicted to smoking then you will find it more difficult than if you thought it was just a habit. Your thoughts and beliefs shape your experiences about everything in life, not just stopping smoking.

Not only will believing in the addictiveness of smoking impact upon how easy you find it to stop smoking, it can also create a justification for remaining a smoker. It becomes easy to say to yourself “I’m addicted now so I can’t stop smoking” and then not even try. Also, if you think that smoking is an addiction, it is easier to fool yourself into the belief that continuing to smoke is not your fault – that you cannot help yourself because you are the victim of an addiction. This thought pattern is anything but empowering!

To stop smoking easily you have to get your mind around this subject. It is important to ask yourself why you assume that smoking is an addiction. We know that innumerable chemicals are produced as you smoke even a single cigarette and this may lead one to believe that smoking must therefore be addictive. But we also know of many people who have decided to stop smoking and have done exactly that; they stopped smoking and didn’t get withdrawal symptoms, not a single symptom. We know others who tried to stop and didn’t manage it. We know people who got angry when they stopped or put on a lot of weight.

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Saving money and getting healthier must certainly rank in most people’s top 10 list, not only smokers’. I’m surprised more people aren’t smoking, especially with America still stuck in the quagmire of a recession, unemployment squeaking up close to 10% (an indicator of a depression), and a stimulus plan from our Administration that can only cause greater inflation and a huge tax burden for future generations. I offer this article as a light-hearted, potentially useful post to cheer up an otherwise dreary economic outlook.

Being as I’m heavily involved with the barter industry and saving my clients thousands of dollars via my Merchants Barter Exchange companies, I’m always on the lookout for helpful tips and suggestions for people to become more efficient and save money. I’ve read many money-saving tips online, some ranging from very useful, all the way to the ridiculous. I’ll let you decide which are which! (more…)

This notorious white powder that cocaine is, has its origins in leaves derived from the South American coca plant. Leaves that were being freely used by the Mayans for their stimulating qualities became known to Europe following Spain’s conquest of that continent.

Described as a stimulant, cocaine can be ingested in many ways, be it smoking, injection into the veins, or what is called snorting via the nose. No matter how it is consumed, its effects of this highly addictive drug are the same. However, it is known that no fewer than 90 percent of the people who use it do so occasionally; it is only the remaining 10 percent that are known to be addicts, or those who use it at a frequency that is equal to or exceeds once a week.

Effects of cocaine addiction: In the short run, the effects a cocaine addict feels on the body are unreasonable irritability, excitability to the extreme, uncontrollable restlessness and difficulty in sleeping. In the next state, the cocaine addict experiences fretfulness, anxiety even when there is no reason for it and importantly, delusions in the sensory perceptions and a feeling that insects crawl on the surface of the skin.

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Why do smokers find it hard to quit smoking? This is because the habit is really addictive. Those who have tried to quit before find it irritable when they don’t have a cigarette to puff. This is because of the nicotine in the cigarette. Smoking is not just a habit but and addiction.

Nicotine withdrawal is what causing the anxiety and irritability when unable to have a smoke. Nicotine instantly goes to the brain when smoking. While the nicotine is filling the brain it sends out a chemical dopamine giving a feeling of enjoyment and tranquility. This feeling is irresistible to the body. When the dopamine level drops this is the start of nicotine withdrawal that will make you get bad-tempered. The nicotine makes your body to crave for more of it and will make you to keep smoking. (more…)

If you are thinking about quitting, then you are on the right track. Smoking is injurious to ones health is there is a statutory warning that is written on every pack of cigarettes. Still smoking is the most common habit among people worldwide.

Why to quit smoking?
It’s very important you evaluate all the pros of quit smoking and cons of smoking before deciding about the quit smoking date. Just list the health benefits that you will get after quitting smoking. Not only health benefits think about the financial benefits as well.

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Smoking is a common yet bad habit that contains many health risks. You might be aware about health risks of first hand smoke and second hand smoke. But now, another hand is added to smoke known as third hand smoke, which can affect anyone who comes to a place where a smoker has smoked a cigarette. Third hand smoke is in the form of all the residual toxins that are left in the air after a cigarette has been extinguished.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has already issued warnings that Smoking is injurious to health. This statement is also imprinted on every pack of cigarettes. However, paying no heed to these warnings, the majority of people go on smoking for many years.

Effects of Smoking
Do you know that one or two cigarettes a day are enough to cause lung cancer? Smoking has become the leading cause of preventable deaths among people worldwide. It is associated to many serious diseases that are preventable.

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If you pull aside any person in their 50s, and ask them about the 1960s and 1970s, they will often remark about how different things were. Upon further questioning, you’ll often find that many people who grew up in the 1970s as teenagers and people in their 20s will seldom hide the fact that they used to smoke Marijuana. Back then, especially during the hippie days of the 60s, drugs were a huge deal in the fact that they really weren’t. What do I mean by this? You could smoke cigarettes pretty much anywhere you wanted. There were no non-smoking sections in restaurants. In fact, at one point, smoking was seen as good for your health! Regarding Marijuana use, it almost seemed unusual to find someone in the 1970s who hadn’t yet smoked or tried Marijuana. Oh, how times have changed.

Not that long ago, when I was a police officer, I remember charging a young couple for smoking Marijuana in a hotel room. I was with several other police officers and we had been spending the majority of the night looking for a robber suspect when we received a tip that he might be staying in a specific hotel room at a specific hotel room. When I went up to the door and knocked, I immediately smelled what I identified as Marijuana. Sure enough, when the door to the room opened up, it opened up with a cloud of smoke that was rich with the smell of Marijuana. Inside, I was surprised to find a young couple who looked no older than 16 and 17 years old. They had unsuccessfully tried to hide the evidence but had very obviously failed to do so. According to the law, as police officers, if we smelled Marijuana, that was probable cause to search the premises. Additionally, within plain sight, I immediately saw a bong and Marijuana in baggies.

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