Nicotine Withdrawal and Beyond
By Terry Martin, About.com Guide to Smoking Cessation
Quitting tobacco takes strategy, effort and plenty of patience. While smoking cessation is not an easy task, at least initially, you can make the process less painful and set yourself up for long-term success through education and preparation. Remember: the discomforts you experience as you heal from nicotine addiction are all temporary, but the freedom you're working to achieve will last you a lifetime. Smoking cessation is worth every bit of work it takes. Your life is worth the work.
Nicotine Withdrawal
Symptoms of nicotine withdrawal can and do include just about every irritation you can think of. While this is an intense stage of recovery that every ex-smoker must weather, there are measures that can be taken to minimize the discomforts.
- All About Nicotine Withdrawal
- 10 Things to Avoid When You Quit Smoking
- 5-Minute Craving Busters
- 101 Things to Do Instead of Smoking
Stress Management
As smokers, we thought we needed our cigarettes to calm us. The truth is, however, that smoking created more stress than it ever dispelled. Learning how to cope with the ups and downs of life without a cigarette is difficult when we first quit smoking, but with a few tools and some practice, we can all overcome the obstacles.
Healing the Mind
True freedom is a state of mind, and as we begin the journey to break the chains of nicotine addiction once and for all, we must do the work to heal both body and mind. Use the resources below to help you learn how to decipher smoking urges and reprogram them with new, healthier choices.
- 4 Steps to Defeat the Urge to Smoke
- Will I Miss Smoking Forever?
- Fostering the Mindset for Success
- Don't Settle for Less in Your Life
- Nicotine Addiction: Myths vs. Facts
Relapse Prevention
When we quit smoking, most of us go through a fair amount of junkie thinking - the internal battle that goes on between our will to quit and the addiction we're tied to. It is a common facet of recovery, but one that can easily trip us up, leading back to full-time smoking. Having the ability to recognize faulty thought patterns and redirect them is critical to moving through this phase of smoking cessation successfully. Use this section to help you do that.
