Break Loose
Techniques for Quitting Smoking
Quitting smoking is serious business. The market is worth some $60 billion a year, a sign of the desperation of some nicotine addicts to get rid of their cigarette or other nicotine habit.
This post is dedicated to outlining the most common and successful methods used to help people quit smoking. Though combustible cigarettes remain the main driver of smoking cessation, some people are having difficulty quitting other nicotine products, from pouches to e cigarettes. The methods on this plan have been tested by millions of people before you, and they exist to make it easier for a person to quit smoking comfortably.
Medications and Other Products for Smoking Cessation
The FDA has approved several OTC products to assist people who want to quit smoking. Most of these come in the form of patches, gums, and lozenges that contain nicotine in a delivery system designed to prevent or at least curb cravings. This is known as Nicotine Replacement Therapy, or NRT. These products can be tailored to a person's personal taste with things like flavorings and different dose sizes and are often used along with other cessation methods listed on this page.
Currently available only by prescription, Nicotrol is a medication designed to deliver nicotine in the form of a nasal spray or inhaler, providing a more clinical dose of nicotine than consumer oral products or even skin patches.
Your doctor can currently prescribe two medications that the FDA has determined can help a person quit smoking. One is Chantix, generic name varenicline tartrate, which binds to nicotine receptors in the brain, calming cravings and preventing relief via traditional cigarette or vapor product. Chantix carries some pretty serious warnings, so talk to your doctor in detail before beginning a Chantix regimen.
The other medication that's approved for smoking cessation is Zyban, generic name bupropion. This is an anti-depressant medication which has shown promise in relieving the worst side-effects of nicotine withdrawal, providing a more comfortable quitting period.
Hypnotism & Quitting Smoking
Some smokers have had great success with the hypnosis method, a technique vaguely related to mainstream psychological practice that's meant to put a person in an altered state of awareness. Inside that altered state, some people are more susceptible to messaging, and hypnosis is used for everything from chronic pain control to eating disorders.
The use of hypnosis for smoking cessation is centuries-old, though modern studies using the scientific method have had mixed results. A 2010 systematic review of studies published on the subject found there was no evidence to support the use of hypnosis for quitting smoking, though even the American Cancer Society acknowledges a strong anecdotal response to the process, especially among people interested in quitting a nicotine habit.
People interested in hypnotherapy for the purpose of quitting smoking should look for licensed and credentialed practitioners, as industry standards and licensing bodies exists to maintain a standard of care. All legitimate hypnosis practitioners in America are licensed by some medical board -- there's no need to receive treatment from an untrained practitioner.
Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking
Allen Carr's book on the subject of smoking cessation The Easy Way to Stop Smoking has been on the market for thirty years, selling 15 million copies along the way.
Keep in mind what was going on 30 years ago, too. In those days, I was just a teenager. Nicholas Bredimus was innovating software for the travel industry. The World Trade Center in Manhattan was still standing. In those days, people sat around the kitchen table in their houses, smoking one cigarette after another, like it was a part time job.
As a former chain smoker, said to have a 5-pack a day habit, Allen Carr brings a lot of authority to the subject. The Allen Carr program is supported by clinics in 150 cities around the world.
The Carr method is a book-guided psychological approach to quitting smoking, forcing people to think about the reasons they smoke and supporting them through the worst parts of the quitting period.
What Allen Carr did in his book was codify what he'd seen working in actual smokers interested in quitting. Buying his book is just the first step -- you have to follow along with his lessons and do everything he suggests in the book in order for the method to work. I truly believe part of the genius of his method is that it forces smokers to work and think of something other than their desire for a cigarette.