Why is it so difficult to stop smoking?
For many people it is difficult to stop smoking since they must face a physical dependence (nicotine) and a psychological dependence.
To what does the smoker become dependent?
Nicotine is a drug that is found naturally in tobacco and is as addictive as heroin or cocaine. Over time, the person becomes physically and emotionally dependent on nicotine.
This physical dependence causes unpleasant withdrawal symptoms when a person tries to quit smoking.
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On the other hand, emotional and mental dependence (addiction) makes it difficult to stay away from nicotine once you stop smoking.
In some studies it has been shown that smokers have to deal with both physical and psychological dependence to quit and stay smoke-free (American Cancer Society, 2014a).
How do smokers become addicted to nicotine?
Nicotine causes a pleasurable sensation and distracts the smoker from unpleasant sensations. This causes the smoker to want to smoke again.
Nicotine interferes with the communication of nerve cells, producing a depressive effect.
When the nervous system adapts to nicotine, the smoker wants to consume more cigarettes. This increases the nicotine in the blood.
The smoker develops tolerance to nicotine, which means that it requires more nicotine to obtain the same effect of pleasant sensation. This allows the smoker to increase his smoking habit.
The smoker continues to smoke the same amount to maintain the nicotine level pleasant.
Every time the smoker finishes his cigarette, the nicotine diminishes of his body, in the same way that his pleasant sensation, motivating him to continue smoking.
When the smoker postpones smoking a cigarette he may feel irritated and tense. If you smoke again you will feel pleasure.
Nicotine withdrawal symptoms may cause former smokers to return to smoking
When smokers try to decrease the amount of cigarettes or quit smoking, the absence of nicotine causes withdrawal symptoms, both physical and psychological.
Physically, the body reacts to the absence of nicotine.
Mentally, the smoker faces having to quit, which requires a major change in behavior. Emotionally, the smoker may feel that he has lost his best friend.
It is important to address all these factors in order to obtain good results from the process of quitting smoking.
Who smoked a few weeks or more may have withdrawal symptoms if you quit smoking drastically or if you significantly reduce the number of cigarettes.
This symptom of withdrawal can be very strong during the first 2 or 3 days, since most nicotine and its derivatives are not found in the body. With the passage of days or even weeks the person will be relieved.
Withdrawal symptoms can include any of the following:
- Dizziness (may last one to two days after quitting)
- Depression
- Feel frustration, impatience and anger
- Anxiety
- Irritability
- Sleep disorders, including difficulty sleeping, to keep sleep and dream unpleasant things or even nightmares
- Difficulty concentrating
- Restlessness or boredom
- Headaches
- Fatigue
- Increase in appetite
- Weight gain
- Constipation and gas
- Cough, dry mouth, sore throat and runny nose
- Pressure in the chest
- Slower heart rhythm
These symptoms can cause the person to start smoking again to raise nicotine levels in the blood until symptoms disappear (American Cancer Society, 2014a).
How to manage withdrawal symptoms?
Nicotine withdrawal symptoms are of two types: physical and mental.
Physical symptoms cause discomfort, but they do not represent a risk to life. Even so, if the person is not prepared to face these symptoms, he can go back to smoking.
Most smokers consider psychological symptoms to be the greatest challenge when trying to quit.
When smoking a lot of time, the act of smoking has been linked with activities of daily life: waking up in the morning, eating, reading, watching television drinking coffee among other things, which can take time to unlink them.
The erroneous justifications are opportunistic
When abstinence occurs, the justifications to continue smoking appear. Justifications that are wrong thoughts that seem to make sense at that time, but that are not based on reality.
Some of the justifications presented are:
- "I'm just going to smoke a cigarette to handle this difficult situation."
- "Today is not a good day. I'll quit smoking tomorrow. "
- "This is my only vice."
- "Really, how harmful is smoking? Uncle Juan smoked all his life and lived more than 90 years. "
- "Probably, environmental pollution is as bad as smoking."
- "Something has to die for."
- "Life is not fun without smoking."
Benefits you have when you stop smoking
Once it has been understood how tobacco use affects and why it is so difficult to quit, it is important to remember the benefits that this action can have in different areas of daily life.
BENEFITS OF LEAVING SMOKING IN DIFFERENT AREAS
Health
- · Tired less and stop coughing
- · Live longer and live better
- · Reduces the risk of suffering a heart attack, stroke, stroke (explain what it is) or some type of cancer
- · Respects the right to health of the people with whom he lives, especially: children, the elderly or people with health problems
- · Lowers the risk of some types of cancer
- · Reduces the risk of suffering emphysema (lung disease), chronic bronchitis and cataracts
- · Breathe better
- Health of pregnant women
- · Increase the chance of having a healthy baby
- · Reduces complications during pregnancy and delivery
- · Avoid serious health risks in the baby
- Social and family: Self-esteem and concern for their loved ones
- · Avoid exposing family and friends to secondhand smoke
- · It has less wrinkles
- · Smells better hair, breath and clothes
- · Prevents premature aging of the skin
- · The face regains the aspect of age that really has
- · Encourages the couple's relationship Prevents your family from falling into tobacco use
- Quality of life
- · Increase energy level
- · Enjoy a cooler and cleaner home environment
- · Fewer clothes and things damaged by cigarette burns
- · Recovery of a clean white denture
- · Investment of money in more rewarding things: music, perfumes, books, movies, theater, games, trips, vacations, etc.
- · Avoid painting the house due to the deterioration suffered by tobacco smoke
·
Every minute is a benefit to your health
BENEFITS OF LEAVING SMOKING IN TIME
20 minutes
blood pressure and heart rate (pulse) normalized.
Improves the temperature and circulation of the hands and feet.
8 hours
Significantly lowers the nicotine in the blood.
Attention that abstinence appears!
12 hours
Increase oxygen levels and lower the concentration of toxic gas, carbon monoxide reaching normal values, in the blood.
At dawn you will feel dull and during the day that tiredness will disappear.
24 hours
It improves the functioning of veins throughout the body.
Attention! Appearances of anxiety appear. These should normalize in two weeks.
48 hours
Smell and taste begin to normalize.
The maximum peak of feelings of anger and irritability is presented.
72 hours
Improves the sensation of shortness of breath and the functioning of the bronchi.
Nicotine is 100% purified, 90% is eliminated by urine.
The peak of the symptoms of chemical dependence such as restlessness is presented.
or beware! It is the moment of greater appearance of desire to smoke by environmental triggers.
5 - 8 days
Some present cough and expectoration that manifests vitality recovered by the defenses of the lungs that perform a deep bronchial cleansing.
You may suffer about three episodes per day of desire to smoke.
o The most frequent is that the episodes last less than 3 minutes.
10 days
to 2 weeks
Circulation in the gums and teeth is normalized. Irritation of the gums begins to reduce, the risk of decay and loss of teeth decreases.
Dependence symptoms decrease
2 to 4 weeks
Lower cholesterol levels.
They continue to revitalize the arteries and decrease the risk of coronary heart disease.
Platelets and coagulation work well again.
They disappear anger, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, insomnia, restlessness and depression associated with cessation.
2 weeks
3 months
It decreases the risk of suffering a heart infarction.
Improves the function of the lungs.
3 weeks
3 months
Continuously and increasingly deep improvement of circulation.
Increase the ability to walk longer and at a better pace.
Noticeably improves or chronic cough disappears.
1 to 9 months
Decreases the feeling of nasal congestion.
Reduces fatigue and increases body energy.
It decreases the risk of respiratory infections.
Significantly improves the function of arteries throughout the body.
Significantly decrease the values of the stress scales.
1 year
Halves the risk of coronary heart disease, acute myocardial infarction, and stroke.
5 to 10 years
The risk of stroke is comparable to that of a non-smoker.
10 years
It decreases the risk of lung cancer between 30% and 50% compared to those who continued smoking.
The risk of death from lung cancer decreases by 50% compared to a smoker of 20 cig / day. The risk of pancreatic cancer decreases to the level of a non-smoker and decreases the risk of cancer of the mouth, throat and esophagus.
15 years
The risk of coronary heart disease is comparable to that of a person who never smoked.
20 years
The increased risk of dying from causes linked to smoking, including lung disease and cancer, is equated to a level as if it had never smoked.
Source: Ministry of Public Health of Argentina, 2014 and Ministry of Public Health of Argentina.
Tips to quit smoking
I'm thinking about quitting
- Know the reasons why you use tobacco (Annex 1)
- You know the intensity of addiction you have (Annex 2)
- Make a personalized plan to stop smoking (Annex 3)
- Discover the skills you have and prepare to exercise them (Annex 4)
- Identify supports for this process and use them:
- It is necessary the help of the close people to be able to carry out any type of activity that is difficult, especially the emotional support. Identify who are the people you trust and would contact in bad times; talk with them to talk about the action they are going to take (stop smoking) and the need to be a support in this process.
- It is important to enjoy the achievements. When quitting smoking are not all difficulties, you should value the positive changes that are experienced (greater vitality, greater economy, less anxiety, among others). Enjoying these achievements means, for example, buying something to benefit their quality of life, with the money saved.
What should I do to stop smoking?
Prepare to quit! Take the following steps (video) into account:
- Make a list of your personal reasons to quit smoking. Put this list where you see every day.
- Select a date to quit smoking. Make sure it is a time in life when you are calm and do not have a lot of stress.
- Talk to your family and friends about the plan to stop smoking. Ask for support and understanding.
- Ask a smoking friend to consider quitting at the same time.
What strategies exist to stop smoking?
There are different ways to quit smoking, which can be combined :
- Talk to a health professional about what would be best for the person. You can also get free advice by phone, by calling line 171 option 2.
- Stop smoking at once. Throw your cigarettes, matches, lighters and ashtrays.
- Go leaving little by little. Smoking less and less for several weeks until you stop.
- Ask a health professional if it would be useful to attend sessions of psychotherapy, acupuncture or hypnosis.
- Take a class on how to stop smoking or join a support group.