The whole concept of nicotine replacement therapy is that it gives your body a low dose of nicotine to help ease the cravings. By putting a small amount into your system your withdrawal symptoms are not as severe. One of the major drawbacks for nicotine replacement therapy is that you go through nicotine withdrawals twice. The first time when you initially quit smoking and the second time when you stop the nicotine replacement therapy. On the plus side you don’t need to go to the doctor to get it.

Many people can find this very difficult, especially the second time around as that old familiar edgy feeling comes back and you basically have to go through a milder form of withdrawals for the next three days. People aren’t really prepared for that second wave of withdrawal and often have a hard time letting go of the nicotine replacement therapy. Those that can, have made a very important step to becoming smoke free and changing their lifestyle.

There are several types of nicotine replacement therapy; the most common option used is the patch. Normally you start with a higher dose and gradually work your way down over a 6 to 12 week timeframe. One of the things that should be noted, is the amount of nicotine delivered over the 24 hours is often too much for the body to handle and side effects are very common.

The feeling of nausea and breaking out in a cold sweat is one of the side effects associated with using the patch. Often, this is an indication that the dose of the patch you are wearing is too high for your system and you can either try a lower dose patch the next day or it might be wise if you to look into a different form of nicotine replacement therapy. Although many people have used this with great success, everybody’s body chemistry is different and yours may not be adapted to this form of nicotine replacement therapy.

Now there are several forms of nicotine replacement therapy, and things have come a long way from simply just being a patch. There’s nicotine gum, that I must say has improved in flavor immensely, long gone is that pepper taste it is left lingering in your mouth. Today comes in several fruit flavors that you can actually chew without feeling like you’re going to throw up. You set your own dosing schedule, which is based on your own withdrawal symptoms.

There are also the nicotine lozenge, which now comes in a variety of flavors. You let the tablet slowly dissolve in your mouth and it delivers a low dose of nicotine into your system. Again, you set your own dosing schedule, normally about 2 to 4 hours in between tablets, depending on your personal withdrawals. As with all nicotine replacement therapy you will experience some form of secondary withdrawal symptoms when you wean yourself off of them but that is a very small price to pay compared to continuing to smoke.

The nicotine inhaler is also a good method for those that need to have something in their hand, which is a common problem among smokers. Again you receive low doses of nicotine, which you inhale through this device that assists you in overcoming you’re cravings. And although I have personally not tried this I’ve spoken to several people who have found this to be really helpful.

The majority of nicotine replacement therapy options is available without prescription nowadays and can easily be picked up at your corner drugstore or supermarket. The advantage would be, not having to have the added expense of going to the doctor, but you still have to expect to pay quite a bit even over the counter. And many of the products have an online support system available along with several forums, in which you can receive support from other people who are also using the product and trying to quit.

As mentioned before, some of the side effects of nicotine replacement therapy can range from: a slight headache, insomnia, to more severe symptoms such as nausea, diarrhea or constipation. Some of the side effects tend to be temporary, if they are too much you may want to think about changing your dose or about looking into other smoking cessation options, such as non- nicotine based medication.

Most of us have seen the ad in the back of the paper, “You too can stop smoking in just 10 minutes For only $45.95!” A world-renowned master hypnotist will remove all of your cravings and after you spend half an hour and a couple of hundred dollars, at a local convention center, you will walk out of the building a nonsmoker forever. Sound too good to be true?

Hypnotherapy has come a long way and it is considered a viable treatment option in smoking cessation. I have seen it work for two people, which have now been smoke free for seven years. I, on the other hand lasted 7 minutes and smoked a cigarette, as I was reading the information that I brought home with me, after I left the convention center.

A hypnotherapy session has to be able to work at changing the behaviors of smoking, and a client needs to be in the right frame of mind to change for Hypnosis to work. Smoking is no different you still have to mentally prepare prior to making a commitment to quit. Finding a hypnotherapist that specializes specifically with smoking cessation probably would have made a big difference in my experience.

Top this to the fact, that I was sitting in a room full of 30 people; it wasn’t personalized to my individual patterns and needs. And there is no follow-up support outside of the overpriced cassette tape that you are expected to buy. It’s easy to see why I should have spent more time researching prior to handing over my $45.95.

The sessions that my two acquaintances, went to were very different and the session cost about as much as other smoking cessation products. They were individual sessions, lasting about an hour and it included a tape that they were told to listen to nightly or more often if necessary. As mentioned before this tape was their support system. They do have the option of coming for another session, which is included in the price, but neither of them said they needed it.

Basically, their therapist sat down with them and looked at their smoking patterns. They also talked about the times that they seem to smoke more or less, as well as discussed what they felt were potential triggers they would have difficulty overcoming. The hypnosis session was based on this information and individualized for their needs. Both of them walked out of that office and haven’t touched the cigarettes since that day.

One of the drawbacks with hypnotherapy is a lack of continued support. If this were the option that you are choosing, it would be a good idea to look into some of the free online support groups. Even though you will probably receive a CD or cassette tape, that you will be instructed to listen to nightly, finding a good online support system or a local smoking cessation meeting, could help supplement the nightly self hypnosis tape.

Some people find that the use of hypnotherapy along with another type of smoking cessation method, such as natural remedies, has been very successful. But when you are quitting smoking, it boils down to you being ready, once and for all, to break free, no matter what method to choose or what supplements you decide to take. Taking the time to explore all of the different types of treatment options and then basing a decision on which one to use because of that research, puts you one step closer to a whole new lifestyle.

Sometimes combining two methods such as, a smoking cessation medication along with an herbal method, can greatly improved the chances of succeeding in becoming in nonsmoker. With a wide variety of herbal remedies designed especially for smoking cessation, which combines herbs that have properties known to assist with the withdrawal symptoms, there are plenty to choose from.

A quick trip to the natural food store, or to your vitamin shop, can reveal rows upon rows, of herbal smoking cessation products. One of the best ways to choose which method will be right for you is to take the time to read the ingredients listed on the product and a check with your Physician to see if it’s compatible with the medication that you are currently taking.

The majority of homeopathic products are compatible but it is always a good idea to make sure, as supplements can decrease some medications efficiency. The majority of herbal remedies that are available have herbs that will help with withdrawal symptoms, but many of them have included a formula that is designed to cleanse your body of nicotine.

Many people have found that by detoxifying their body during the beginning stages of quitting smoking has helped their initial withdrawal symptoms subside sooner. And anybody who has tried to quit smoking before knows, anything that can help you get past those first couple days is worth its weight in gold.

Having an herbal remedy along with for the medication therapy could possibly give you even more of an edge in this new lifestyle. After receiving your Physician’s approval, the only other obstacle would be the amount you wish to pay and your personal preferences.

When choosing an herbal remedy to assist you in stopping smoking, one of the ingredients it to look for is lobelia or the derivative of this plant. It is usually the main ingredient in actual smoking cessation products. There are several very good products that contain lobelia.

There has been a lot of controversy about the use of natural remedies and their effectiveness. However, more and more evidence is piling up to support these remedies and their benefits, allowing those who choose not to use a synthetic medication, finally have more treatment options.

Natural remedies often provide a safer alternative, with less potential side effects, that are associated with traditional medications, and although they will cost you some money, they are still a lot less costly than a prescription, and more than likely, less taxing on your body over the long haul.

We’ve all heard of it, it was all over the news and in the media, about how wonderful this tool is in assisting those who wish to quit smoking. This depression medication also called Wellbutrin had this side effect in some of the patients, which caused some people to lose the cravings to smoke. This medication, or rather one of the side effects of this medication, is that it decreases the desire to smoke and the pharmaceutical company quickly renewed the patent under the brand name Zyban.

One of the drawbacks to this medication is that you do need to go to a doctor in order to get a prescription. The majority of insurance companies, who cover smoking cessation products, will cover Zyban, but due to the brand name it is still a pricey medication. Although regular Wellbutrin, which is used to treat depression, is much more reasonably priced, purchasing it as Zyban does include support material to assist you with overcoming your nicotine addiction.

Generally, you take Zyban for two weeks prior to your quit day allowing it to build up into your system. One of the advantages to this is, that you do not have to give up smoking immediately when you begin to take this product like you would with the nicotine replacement therapy. The two-week timeframe also gives you an opportunity to prepare yourself and your home for your new lifestyle.

There are some side effects that people need to be aware of; one of the major ones is the potential for a seizure if the doses of medication are taken too closely together. So it is important to make sure that when you begin taking two pills a day, that you have a minimum of 8 hours between pills, and never double up that dose.

Many people who have used this, have found that during the two weeks they have begun, on their own, to slow down with their smoking. You’re just chugging along and you realize “Wow! I only smoked ½ pack and you didn’t even have to try!” This could be why it has been termed the happy pills by people who have successfully quit smoking using Zyban.

It is usually recommended that you continue with Zyban for about 12 weeks or a bit longer depending on what your doctor says. Although the physical symptoms of withdrawal are over in about three days, often people who are quitting smoking can feel signs of depression and the psychological aspects of stopping smoking can last for several months after, if not for years.

Zyban seems to help keep people on track for a lot longer, usually because you don’t feel like you’re missing cigarettes as much. Your mood is generally better and many people have found that this has helped them stick to their plan of starting a life as a nonsmoker. It is not recommended that you use nicotine replacement therapy along with this medication and generally it is not necessary as the cravings are not as intense it seems.

One of the other side effects of this medication, is the weight gain normally associated with stopping smoking, is not so much an issue while taking this medication. I have known several people who’ve actually lost weight, while taking Zyban, who have in the past had an increase in weight with other forms of smoking cessation.

Just as with all forms of smoking cessation, having a plan, support, and most importantly the desire to stop smoking can help you begin a new life as a nonsmoker. Your success is entirely up to you and this medication can assist you on that journey.

The typical individual who has at least some desire to stop smoking likely has already tried at least one and possibly more approaches to smoking cessation. Because such a person is still looking for an effective means of ending their habit, prior attempts at smoking cessation have obviously failed.

With this in mind, it is important to understand that thousands of people can be found each and every day looking for different approaches to smoking cessation. As a result, alternative stop smoking methods have started to look more and more attractive to many a smoker around the world.

One smoking cessation option that increasingly steady numbers of smokers find themselves considering, is acupuncture. Of course, many people have heard of acupuncture being utilized as a means of pain control. However, many of these same men and women simply have not heard of acupuncture as a alternative way of stopping smoking.

At its essence, acupuncture is a medical technique that is derived from ancient China. The theory behind acupuncture is that needles can be placed at specific spots in the skin at different locations across the human body in order to treat or control pain and even disease. Some practitioners have taken this ancient art a step further and maintain that they can utilize acupuncture in order to treat addiction to nicotine – an addiction that is at the root of smoking for most individuals.

Even many acupuncture specialists concede that the proverbial jury is still out when it comes to the overall effectiveness of acupuncture as an aid in smoking cessation. The actual results of acupuncture as a means of smoking cessation have been mixed. (In fairness to those people who do espouse acupuncture as a viable means for aiding a person in stopping smoking, other methods and regimens have produced equally mixed results over time.)

The fact is that although acupuncture literally has been around for thousands of years, the use of this practice in smoking cessation is of a very new (and accidental) origin. In the 1970s, an opium addict underwent acupuncture for pain management in regard to a medical condition not directly related to his addiction. The opium addict reported that his cravings and other side effects disappeared following the acupuncture treatment.

Not long after this “accidental discovery”, the use of acupuncture broadened to treat other addictions as well. This included the treatment of addictions to other types of drugs, including alcohol and ultimately nicotine.

Perhaps in the final analysis, a trip to the acupuncturist might be worthwhile if other types of smoking cessation plans, regimens and programs have failed. Once again, although it appears that acupuncture has been effective in some instances when it comes to smoking cessation, there is no guarantee that it will be effective for every smoker.

Increasingly over the course of the past twenty-five years a significant number of people have turned to nicotine patches as a means of stopping smoking. Nicotine patches have worked for some, but certainly not all people who have wanted to quit smoking once and for all.

If you’ve reached a point in your life at which you are interested in taking serious steps towards quitting smoking, you may be debating whether or not the nicotine patch is the best option for you. At the outset, it must be emphasized that the use of a nicotine patch is not a foolproof avenue towards smoking cessation. In order to successfully make the break from smoking, you will still need the willpower to stop smoking as even with a nicotine patch, the urge to smoke can remain strong.

Nicotine patches primarily are designed to help ease some of the more severe withdrawal symptoms that are associated with quitting smoking. Some of these symptoms that nicotine patches are designed to moderate include:

The functioning of the nicotine patch is simple to understand. Cigarettes contain varying levels of nicotine. Nicotine has been demonstrated to be an addictive substance; an addictive drug. Cigarette manufacturers continue to debate these issues pertaining to the presence and addictive qualities of nicotine. However, when it comes to the scientific community, the jury has been back for a long time in the regard to these issues. Nicotine is present in cigarettes to a significant degree. Nicotine is an addictive drug. Enough said.

In theory by using the nicotine patch, a person desiring to stop smoking will gradually be weaned off the nicotine itself. In this way, a person wanting to cease smoking will not experience all of the severe withdrawal symptoms mentioned a moment ago that do crop up when a person elects to quit cold turkey or without the aid of some sort of replacement therapy.

As noted previously, the nicotine patch is not 100% effective. A person is still going to have to exercise a high level of self restraint and use his or her willpower to break the smoking grip even when using the nicotine patch. A growing number of experts are now coming to agree that the nicotine patch can be most effective when it is one tool in a full arsenal utilized by a person who is serious about quitting smoking – for good. The typical smoker that wants to quit has a greater chance of success when he or she incorporates different products and strategies into his or her overall stop smoking plan.

Tools.

If you are in need of repairing your roof, you assemble all of the tools you need before you climb the ladder. The simple fact is that you do not want to end up on your roof, ready to go to work making repairs, and find that you have failed to bring all of the necessary tools along.

On many levels, this scenario has a direct implication to the task of eliminating smoking from your life. Truly, when it comes to the decision to stop smoking, you are making a decision to repair your life on a number of levels. You are making a decision to repair your health, your appearance – even your breath if the truth be told. Therefore, in order to make all of these desired repairs, you really do need to have all of the tools that will helpful to you on hand.

Of course, there are a number of different products, plans and programs on the market today that are proving useful to a person who is interested in stopping smoking. This includes everything from herbal remedies to nicotine patches and a wide range of other products (and services) in between. Many experts have come to conclude that the combined approach of utilizing more than one tool in an effort to stop smoking will enhance a person’s chance of succeeding with smoking cessation.

In this regard, if you are preparing your own tool set to begin the process of quitting smoking, you will want to consider adding journaling into the toolbox. The fact is that there are many benefits that can be realized by maintaining a journal as part of your overall stop smoking program.

First, stopping smoking actually can prove to be an emotional experience. In fact, when you are going through the process of stopping smoking, you can experience a wide range of emotions, including anger, frustration, anxiousness and others. The journaling process gives you an outlet through which you can relieve and release some of these intense emotions that are associated with quitting smoking.

Second, keeping a journal in and of itself can be used as a healthy alternative to the very act of smoking. When you would historically be puffing on a cigarette, you can take a few minutes to jot some thoughts into your journal.

Third, a journal can also help you track and monitor your progress with your stop smoking efforts. For example, the journaling process can help you identify those times of day in which you need to better focus your efforts at staying away from cigarettes.

In the end, there are many other valuable and important benefits that go along with keeping a journal. Odds are strong that you will be happy that you included journaling as one of your tools when you commence the smoking cessation process.

Over the course of several generations, instructors who teach life saving techniques commonly used a catchphrase when it came to providing direction to students in regard to mouth to mouth resuscitation:

“In with the good air … out with the bad.”

This directive actually can be rather helpful when it comes to designing a program to be used for smoking cessation. Of course, when it comes to a stop smoking initiative in your own life, you really are quite literally replacing the bad air of cigarette smoke with “good air.” However, this life saving mouth to mouth resuscitation is useful and informative on another front as well.

Many experts now agree that a multi-faceted approach to smoking cessation gives you the greatest chance of successfully “breaking the habit.” In other words, those people who have enjoyed long term success away from smoking all seem to have one factor in common: These people did not rely on only tool in their smoking cessation plan. For example, they did not just use nicotine patches alone. They used another tool or tools – another product, plan or program – along with the nicotine patch to stop smoking.

The reality is that one step everyone interested in stopping smoking should take is what might be called “the good habit exchange.” The fact is that a typical smoker, on any given day, spends what really does amount to a significant amount of time, puffing. In this day and age of extensive no-smoking zones, the smoker actually has to devote a good deal of time just getting to a smoking area, never mind smoking, time and time again throughout the course of any given day.

Research has demonstrated that those smokers who consciously select a “healthy habit” to replace the time they’ve spent smoking have an enhanced chance of stop smoking success. Moreover, by adopting a healthy habit to replace smoking, they are bettering and enhancing their lives on whole new additional levels.

The healthy habit alternative to smoking does not have to be anything complicated. For example, rather than smoke a cigarette at the designated smoking area at work, take a brisk walk around the block. Rather than smoking, resurrect the age-old art of letter writing and send a true piece of written correspondence (on paper!) to a friend or family member. The list of healthy alternatives and healthy substitutes to smoking is literally endless. And again, accompanied with other smoking cessation tools, the good habit exchange really will increase your chances of ultimate stop smoking success.

Exchange Your Bad Habit for a Good One

One of the catchphrases to describe mouth-to-mouth rescusitation used by life-saving instruction from the past has been:

“In with the good air … out with the bad.”

This thought can also be used when considering a stop smoking initiative to help you quit. It goes without saying that when it comes to quitting smoking, you are quite literally getting rid of the ‘bad air’ and replacing it with good. But you can use this information elsewhere as well.

A lot of medical professionals now agree that perhaps the best chances of quitting smoking comes from using more than one method at a time. What this means is that for those who have enjoyed being smoke-free for a long time did not just rely on one cessation aid in their plans. An example may be that they used nicotine gum along with something else - perhaps they used Zyban with it as well.

Replacing the bad habit with the good should be relatively easy. This is simply because a smoker not only has to deal with the habit, but due to the widespread social issues surrounding them, smokers must spend more and more time just trying to find a place in which to have a cigarette throughout their day.

Those smokers who replace their bad habit with a good one consistently achieve higher levels of success as opposed to those who do not. In addition, these people also enjoy life more as they enhance their well-being on entirely different levels.

Breaking the habit and replacing it with a healthy habit need not be anything complicated. Instead of having a cigarette, commit yourself to going for a walk instead. Or spend the time sending an email to someone you have neglected. With the time you save not smoking, there are so many little things that we would have like to have done in the past that we now have time for. Replace the bad habit with the good. This, along with an effective stop smoking program, will give the tools you need to quit forever.