Introduction

It is my greatest privilege to have you as a visitor to this site. I am guessing you might belong to one of the below categories.

. A smoker who is bothered about his/her attachment to the cigarette
. A smoker who is terribly addicted and looking to quit
. A non-smoker looking to get info on smoking
. A non-smoker who has a cigarette addicted husband, wife or a friend

If you are a smoker you must quit as soon as possible. Now would be the best moment of course. Delay can get fatal. You may love your life or you may hate it, but unless you are suicidal you wouldn't want to risk it. I hope you agree. So I guess we have already agreed upon something within such a short acquaintance, that's a good start.

Relax and read slowly, there is no hurry. If you are in a hurry, take a print out and read when you are relaxed. This site is built with the purpose of helping smokers quit smoking forever. It's a very important responsibility that I have taken upon myself, because I am responsible for your time and trust.

I am neither expert nor have experience in counseling, or writing motivational articles. I am not a therapist, neither am I a doctor of any sort. I am a human resource practitioner who has been a slave to cigarettes for the past 14 years of my life.

All through out this site I will talk to you assuming that you are a smoker. It's easy that way. If you are a non-smoker please don't mind my false accusation.

Quit smoking and you will gain access to life you had before you got addicted. There is no such thing as a casual smoker. There are just addicts and non-smokers. Even one cigarette per day is an addiction. You gain nothing from cigarettes. I know you will not agree, neither would I 14 years back. It's a fact though, cigarettes don't give you anything. They don't give relaxation. They don't give pleasure. They don't get rid of boredom. They don't relieve you of stress. They give you one thing though, an addiction. Addiction gives the illusion of pleasure.

I was able to quit because I saw through the illusion. I read several websites on the subject and I could figure out a pattern. Once you see through this illusion yourself then you will quit without any effort. You will never smoke again in your life. That's a blessing straight from heaven. I sincerely hope that you will quit my friend. You have no idea what a dreadful life you choose to live by getting addicted. It was not your fault though, no smoker ever wants to get addicted. Cigarettes have a different agenda though. They get you addicted, whether you like it or not.

If you are a smoker the chances are that you are unaware of several facts relating to the harm cigarettes do to your body. Cigarettes kill and there is no getting around it. It is important to understand that cigarette is a slow killer and hence its effects are deceptive. A smoker may not even realize significant negative changes in his/her health until there has been a permanent damage.

The Futility of Statutory Warnings

Let me share with you my take on the statutory warnings written on cigarette packs. It's a joke. All smokers know that cigarettes are injurious to health.

'Smoking kills', how many times have you read this on the top of your cigarette pack but does it ever make you think twice about putting the stick to your mouth and lighting the other end? I don't think it ever does. The whole point of putting a statuary warning on cigarette packs is a big joke. Cigarettes would count as the only commercially available product, beyond liquor, which blatantly states that its consumption will cause death. The manufacturers of cigarettes don't mind putting this warning in order to abide with the government rules, because they know that no smoker would ever heed to it. A statutory sign stating smoking is injurious to health can never threaten a smoker

It’s Not Just A Cancer Stick

I am sure you know that cancer is last thing you need to worry about while smoking. It's a long-term thing for most of the smokers. Smoking has other ways of killing you before you even contract cancer. Cigarettes attack your heart by working on your arteries. That's the major killer. Heart attack induced by smoking has claimed 60 times more lives than cancer. It happens fast. Within just a couple of years of heavy smoking you can afflict your arteries badly. Some people have good immunity while some don't. If you are a smoker just pray that you have a great immune system. If you don't then it won’t be long before people pray for you. I am not being funny here.

If you knew what each puff was doing to your body you would not touch the stick let alone become addicted to it. There is a lack of education among people about the actual ill effects of smoking cigarette. The only disease which most people associate with smoking is "Cancer" but the fact is most smokers die way before they contract cancer due to the other harmful effects of smoking which are not common knowledge yet.

The Purpose of This Site

To get you rid of your addiction, that's the final goal. If I get you thinking about quitting it will be a great starting point. I don't want to scare you with horror stories of what cigarette does. I do want to give you the facts about how smoking affects your health. You might already be aware of several but there is no harm in getting a clearer picture. Ignorance is not bliss, it's a fool's paradise. Learn to live in reality and nothing would ever gully you. Somewhere along the way cigarettes gulled you. It’s human to make mistakes. Stop living in a mistake though. Rectify now before it gets worse.

I was a hardcore smoker (approx. 30 sticks everyday on weekdays and close to 45 sticks everyday on weekends) and I know smokers don't quit just because someone advises them to. I used to laugh at it and I am pretty sure you do the same. The only situation where even the most addicted smokers quit is when they are faced by a life-threatening circumstances.

There are lot of sites, which advocate counseling, hypno therapy and some advocate using nicotine patches. If it helps you quit it’s great. If this site acts as a starting point for you to consider options of quitting, I will feel very happy. You can quit completely just by understanding each article I have written. You wouldn't need anything else beyond this source to quit. I consider this site as a final portal to quitting. More importantly these articles will give you deep insight into your addiction. You will never fall prey to addiction after quitting. You will not make the mistake of a relapse. So I urge you to read all the articles on this site. Read them slowly, try to understand what I am trying to convey.

Maybe you have no intention of quitting presently. I am not asking you to quit. You can even smoke while reading these articles at your own pace. I just want you to relax and read with an open mind. I ask for nothing else. There is no use quitting without being clear about why you should quit. Quitting through sheer force does not work. You will have a relapse sooner or later. By reading these articles you will slowly understand the various behaviors of an addict. You will be able to see those aspects in you. It will slowly negate certain delusions you had about smoking. It gradually cut at the strings of addiction. Finally it will get you clear about why you need to quit. With that I will leave you on your own because you will not need any more assistance from me. If you understood the crux of these articles you will quit. You will not need the assistance of therapy or nicotine patches. Cure the mind and the rest is taken care of. I always believe that your internal state determines your external conditions. So don't depend on external aids completely. You have the power to take control of your addiction. It's your life at stake here. I am just here to help you clear your mind. An addict's mind is a slave to the drug. It's important to get rid of this slavery by denting the mind patterns that aid addiction.

Like I said before, I feel very responsible for your time and trust. I will not let you down. I need your assistance though, I want you to keep an open mind while reading. Also it’s important to read slowly and reflect upon certain points.

Do Smokers Choose to Smoke?

No more than a cocaine addict chooses to take cocaine. The first time a youngster tries flirting with a drug it is a conscious choice. After that each intake is a desire instigated by the drug and is no more conscious than saying "I am hungry". In retrospection, as an addicted smoker, if you look back upon your life, did you ever want to feel this way? Was it a conscious choice on your part to get addicted to a substance, which creates a craving every time you have to do without it? No person dwelling in sanity would have ever made such a choice.

Any smoker would obviously justify his/her habit by saying that it’s his/her personal choice. But a smoker really has not more choice than a cocaine or heroin addict. Its time to face the hard reality, without the sugar coating it, smoking cigarettes or in other words being addicted to tobacco is no less severe than being addicted to heroin, marijuana, cocaine, or any other narcotic drug known to mankind. Tobacco is a drug and a smoker is a drug addict, he/she is as helpless as any other substance addicts when it comes to the choice of whether he/she should smoke? He/she has to smoke because nicotine makes him/her smoke.

Smokers never really realizes the power that nicotine wields on them and hence think that they are, and always will be, in conscious control. Any average smoker will have you believe that they are smoking for the enjoyment of it, the truth is far from it and every smoker inherently knows this. Does smoking really give you pleasure? Or did it create the craving in the first place and each smoke just causes the craving to subside for sometime, before triggering it again in a while? Smokers are just fulfilling a craving and the craving was not generated consciously, the craving got generated after the first few cigarettes that they tried, after that each cigarette was just to "scratch that irritating itch" which develops due to nicotine addiction.

A smoker feels that a cigarette is his/her reward and feels that a non-smoker lives a drab life devoid of any such rewards. But the fact of the matter is that a non-smoker does not feel the need for such a reward. A non-smoker does not feel the craving for a cigarette whereas a smoker does. A smoker is obviously not in the privileged position of having access to a tool of reward, which non-smokers don’t have, but it’s the other way round. The smoker has gotten himself/herself addicted to a craving which a non-smoker does not have and he/she just disillusions himself/herself by believing that every time he/she fulfills the craving it’s a reward. Can you really enjoy a craving, something which you have no conscious control over?

Digging The Smoker’s Pit

A smoker once has gotten addicted is comparable to someone who is made to live their lives in a pit or a jail as a prisoner, who is let out to enjoy the open world every few minutes or hours later. Let me explain this more clearly. Let’s say there is this one person who was living a free life, enjoying his/her freedom doing what he/she pleased. One day this person decides to dig a pit for himself/herself and chains himself/herself to the bottom of the pit. After every few minutes or after an hour or so this person would unchain himself/herself and get out of the pit. He/she enjoys the freedom outside the pit for 5 to 10 minutes and then returns back to the pit. He/she then chains himself/herself to the bottom of the pit and waits agonizingly for another hour before he/she can get out. After sometime his/her life pattern becomes something like this

. Gets out of the pit for 5 minutes ( compared to having a smoke)
. Get back into the pit and chains him/her up and waits desperately to get out (compared to the period when he/she is not smoking and waiting to smoke)
. Get out the pit again after a small period (a period which keeps getting smaller and smaller with time) and start again from step 1

If you are a smoker then this is your way of life. I am sure you agree because if you don’t you are just disillusioning yourself. You live like an addict because you are addicted to a substance called tobacco, nicotine present in the tobacco to be more specific. A smoker who says that he/she enjoys his/her cigarette is actually stating that he/she was banging his/her head against a stone wall for sometime and feels relieved when he/she can stop for a few minutes. Why did you start banging your head against the wall in the first place (withdrawal symptoms is what banging your head equals to)? Non-smoker live their lives without banging their head against a stone wall and you as a smoker live the same life for a few minute and return to the head banging routine. Do you still think you are more privileged than a non-smoker because you have the 5 minute break from your head banging? Don’t all smokers actually look at non-smokers in pity thinking about how difficult their life must be without the pleasure of a cigarette? The fact is your life, as a smoker, has become miserable because of your addiction and all you are doing is giving vent to an addiction, non-smokers don’t have that bane in their lives. Don’t feel any pity for the non-smoker, that’s ridiculous! A non-smoker never knows what it means to enjoy a smoke because he/she is not addicted to it and hence is not feeding a craving.

Accept Your Reality As A Smoker

If you are a smoker accept the reality that you are an addict. Whether you are smoking 40 cigarettes per day or 5 cigarettes per day it’s the same. You are an addict! Smokers who smoke 5 cigarettes a day and feel good about their low intake ought to realize that they are living in the same pit as the smoker who smokes 40 cigarettes. It’s just that the period spent in the pit varies. The smoker who smokes 5 cigarettes per day is no more strong willed than a smoker who smokes 40-50 cigarettes, it’s just that he/she is either not able to afford it or is scared to death about the health problems associated with smoking. There is also a possibility of their bodies not being able to take more than 5 cigarettes’ poison. Each person has a different smoking capacity. At any moment the 5 per day smoker can change into a 10 per day smoker because there is no difference.

Addiction, once it sets in, stays put. After every cigarette you smoke you can only look forward to the next. How quickly you have your next depends on your excuses. If you are worried about your health then the fear would cause you to delay the next cigarette for a few hours, but during those few hours you will mostly be feeling out of sorts waiting for the time when you can put a cigarette to your lips and light it. Like staying in a pit, you are just waiting to get outside for a while. It’s not a life of a free person but a caged life of an addict.

See this for yourself in your pattern of living, if you are smoker. Isn’t this how you live your life, day in and day out? There are instances when a smoker (male) would rather get the love making done with as soon as possible so that he can have a relaxed smoke (a smoker starts despising the prospect of having sex after a few years of addiction, soft erections, impotence, lack of stamina, lack of sexual drive and feeling of lethargy due to lack of oxygen in the most vital organs). Do you really want to feel this way? Everything in your life stops having meaning beyond the next moment that you can light up, is it not so? For a smoker his/her next cigarette is the only hope towards living a good life. He/she wants believe that he/she is enjoying his/her life thanks to cigarettes but that’s a totally delusional viewpoint. He/she is not enjoying life but has made cigarettes the meaning of their lives and this is not a conscious decision.

The nicotine addiction started by the cigarette smoking spree takes decision in your life from here on. You are a slave to nicotine, to put it in a nutshell. If you don’t realize it right now and are basking in the glory of thinking that you are in control, it won’t be long before the harsh reality dawns upon you. You don’t enjoy cigarettes but just fulfill a craving generated by the last cigarette.

Does Smoking Ease Stress?

This is a classic. Smokers are usually seen to head for their smoking pits in a state of agitation or stress, usually in the office. A non-smoker might think that a smoker is able to relieve stress by smoking because of the obvious body language depicted by the smoker. There’s a deep inhalation proceeded by a release of a cloud of smoke with the smoker’s eyes glazing in contentment. Anyone would believe that smoking is a huge stress reliever. In fact most smokers find it scary to quit smoking due to this very reason, they are fearful of how they will manage stress situations without their trusted companion alongside. This whole thing about stress relief and smoking is one big illusion. Smokers don’t see it for what it is, a drug addiction, for obvious reasons and the non-smokers obviously have no reference to know because they have never smoked.

Truth Behind The Illusion

If you go by medical evidence it just increases stress by causing a huge spike in your blood pressure. But I will not be quoting medical evidences here. Let’s just go by your own experience as a smoker and I have the authority to talk about smoking experiences, having been a smoker for 14 years. I am talking to smokers here, do you feel that you get relief from stress after you have a smoke? Be honest about it. Let’s say you are in a stressful situation at the office. You head for the pantry/staircase and light up a cigarette, take a few deep drags and feel good about it. You return back to the same stress again after you are done with the cigarette, in fact you even feel a bit lousy and fogged. But you did feel good for that 5 minutes while you were smoking, so obviously the cigarette helped you beat stress correct? You are wrong, because it’s just your illusion speaking.

The reality is that you are suffering from two kinds of stress here

. stress at the office due to a situation which needs your attention
. stress within yourself because of the nicotine craving (which increases during stress, I will explain why)

So when you go for a smoke this is your mental state

Mental state = stressed = stress because of office work + stress because of nicotine craving

When you are having a smoke
Mental state = stressed = stress because of office work

This is why you feel relieved of stress because when you are smoking you take care of the stress caused by nicotine craving and hence feel a reduction in your stress levels. You need not have felt this stress if you were a non-smoker in the first place and hence its ridiculous to claim the smoking relieved your stress.

After you have finished smoking
Mental state = stressed = stress because of office work + stress because of nicotine craving + stress due feelings of negativity owing to your smoking habit + stress due to health consequences of your smoking habit.

Back to square one as soon as your finish your cigarette. In fact now you have a couple of stress factors added to your previous list, not a very useful stress buster now is it?

Fears That Plague, A Quitter

If you are a smoker inadvertently you would have tried to quit smoking at least once. The fact that you are still a smoker just validates that point that you are actually no where close to being in control of your habit. People who tend to quit depend on their will power to help them get through the phase of withdrawal pangs. Unfortunately the whole mentality of "I am sacrificing a thing of pleasure" only fuels the desire to get back to cigarettes and detest life for putting you in position where you have to decide between the two. Every smoker secretly hates life for creating the dilemma between health and smoking. If only cigarettes where good for your health what a utopia it would be, every smoker dreams of such a utopia. Nature works on the principle of survival of the fittest and wants health for you. Indulgence in anything that harms your health will put in a position of misery so that you finally quit, you can’t really beat this natural way of things. Coming back to the topic at hand which is "fears that plague, a cigarette quitter", I believe the below points will well encompass most of the major ones.

Fear of Leading A Boring Life After Quitting

Most of the smokers live in the percept that smoking gives enjoyment to life. Life per se is boring if cigarettes are removed from the picture, for any smoker. As a non-smoker it would be impossible for you to believe that such a state can exist in anyone, but this is the truth. A smoker is an addict who believes that his/her addiction makes his/her life beautiful. A quitter would usually spend a lot of time delving into the future and imagine living through his/her entire life without smoking again. For most of them this thought is unbearable, almost dreadful, and hence they get back to smoking. Just remember that there is no truth to this thought. You were living a normal life before you started smoking, you did not consider your life boring. It’s just that after you start smoking your addiction makes you think that life is boring without the substance that feeds the addiction. Just shows how badly nicotine gets you hooked.

Fear of Not Being Able to Enjoy A Party

A smoker usually enjoys his/her evening out with lots of cigarettes and booze, or if he/she is not an alcohol consumer then smoking is the single point of having fun while partying. A smoker tends to believe that a party is incomplete without relaxing to a smoke. Just think about it, did you feel the same way before you started smoking? Does smoking really give you a lot of enjoyment during a party or it is just something you have started doing unconsciously as a habit? Some smokers don’t know how they would deal with social situations without their friend, the cigarette, to give them refuge. If you were socially awkward before you started smoking, it’s a given fact that you will be social awkward even when you smoke. What has smoking got to do with feeling comfortable socially? If you are not socially comfortable maybe you are a person who likes his/her personal space more, being an introvert is not a bad thing at all its just a way of life similar to being a extrovert. Smoking will not make you an extrovert by any means. Just the opposite is true, now you will have to avoid non-smokers at the party or the other way round.

Fear of Not Being Macho (Male)

It’s ridiculous but true. Smokers, several of them, derive their sense of masculinity from their smoking habit. I found it extremely macho to drift smoke through my nostrils and make smoke rings out of my mouth. The acts of inhaling and letting out smoke like a factory chimney made me feel macho. The fact of the matter is that being macho is just an attribute, some people are macho while some are not. People who are macho would never need something external to validate the point and people who are not macho would not become so by smoking. Lot of kids took smoking just to show that they have matured or grown up. It’s mostly the movies and peer influence. Kids can be excused for not being mature enough to understand what maturity really means. An adult would behave childishly by believing that smoking gives him a sense of machismo is deluding himself. You can be macho by building the strength of character not by becoming addicted to a substance. If you did not feel macho before you started smoking, do you really think smoking fixed the problem for you? Be honest. Smoking is no panacea for character building.

Fear of Deprivation

The withdrawal pain is dreadful, it’s horrible and I won’t be able to tolerate it. That’s what a smoker believes. It’s just the nicotine talking, nothing else. Your addiction is controlling you and of course like any addiction it has the power to control your thoughts. The fact of the matter is that withdrawal is not painful. It’s not even close to being as painful as feeling acute hunger. I quit smoking cold turkey, I did not feel any withdrawal pangs except a few moments when there was a craving for a smoke generated by the nicotine addiction. You have tolerated worse pains in your life than the pain of nicotine craving, believe me. Nicotine craving is nothing if you don’t keep thinking about it day in and day out. The actual craving does not last for more than a couple of weeks after you quit smoking, even in the case of the worst smoker. After that it’s just your mind conditioning that acts up. If you feel you have sacrificed a pleasure and keep feeling bad about it then it won’t be long before you find yourself opening a cigarette pack. It’s simple, when you quit knowing that the addiction served no purpose except centering your life around feeding the addiction, or in other words when you understand the futility of living a life of feeding an addiction, it’s a cinch that you would not give into the nicotine craving which would exist for while. In either case the craving in itself is not painful, dreadful or anything close. The mind of course is dominated by the addiction and continuously keeps thinking about it, to overcome this compulsive thinking it important remind yourself why you quit in the first place. That’s why it’s important to be free of all illusions of smoking before quitting. That’s what this series serves to do.

Fear of A Relapse

The once a smoker always a smoker syndrome. Most smokers find it futile to trying quitting when they know that at some point in the lives they will get back to it. It’s like, why should I stop smoking now and spend a few days in misery when I know I will get back to smoking later? Quitting for a lifetime would seem like an enormous task, an almost impossible feat. Nicotine’s talking of course. The truth of the matter is that quitting is simple and once you quit for the reason of not wanting to be an addict, to stop exhibiting the behaviors of an addict day in and day out, you will never want to get back to smoking. There is no fear of relapse because you are clear about your purpose of quitting, which is not test your will power or anything but just a simple need to stop being an addict. If you quit to prove a point to yourself or under the duress of fear of health, there is a possibility of relapse. When you quit knowing that cigarettes don’t make life enjoyable, but work towards the contrary, it’s a cinch that you won’t smoke again. Quitting for a week or so is all that it takes to get over the nicotine pangs, which again is not at all tough, as discussed above. After that life just becomes normal, you will not be living each moment of your life craving a smoke. Just quit for the right reason after understanding what it is that you are quitting. You are quitting an addiction that has started to control your life and health.

Fear of Personality Change

A smoker derives his/her identity from the habit after sometime. He/she cannot imagine a situation devoid of a cigarette. While having coffee, while taking a walk, while hanging out with friends, after making love, after having lunch or dinner or breakfast, after getting up from the bed, while taking a dump, while reading a newspaper, while drinking beer, while driving your car etc. You get the picture. Smoking has claimed invasion into every aspect of the smoker’s life, or so the smoker believes. If you face the reality, smoking has nothing to do with the way your life is. It’s your constant need to feed your addiction. Think about it this way, you personality is as it is but now you are living with an added burden of performing a substance addiction activity along with your normal chores. Once you quit smoking you will still be the same person doing the same things (in a more energetic manner) just that you are now free of addiction. If being an addict is a figment of your personality its something you can do without, don’t you agree? You become an addict and for goodness sake it has nothing to do with personality.

Fear That You Won’t Be Able To Handle Pressure

A smoker starts depending on his/her cigarette to get him/her through pressured situations. Think about how you dealt with pressure when you were not smoking? Were you incapable and needy when you were not a smoker, with respect to handling stress and pressure? I don’t think so. In fact you did a better job at it than without a foggy mind which is strewn with nicotine craving. Smoking does not relieve stress. You have added an extra burden, of relieving your addiction craving, on top of the usual stress and pressure of day to day living. You will do just fine with dealing with pressure situations without the added baggage of addiction. I remember dealing with office politics by puffing on cigarettes for hours to get over my anger and frustration. Obviously it did not make me cool or solve any situation. In fact in most cases I felt I was not clear headed and hence was not able to express myself properly when needed. After smoking a lot, my brain got too tired and body too exhausted of oxygen lack to care about anything. If that’s a stress buster for you then I don’t think there will be many takers.

Fear of Not Being Able to Concentrate on Work

Some smoking addicts relate their work efficiency to their cigarette power. It doesn’t work that way, as I mentioned before smoking adds extra baggage. It disrupts your focus and concentration by plaguing you with addiction symptoms every time you lay off smoking and sit to work. Smokers are known to be less efficient than their non-smoking counterparts for most cases. The smoking breaks you take not only disrupt work flow but leave you more tired and oxygen deprived than you were before. How can that benefit your concentration? As a student I used to study for hours at a stretch, I had the power of suppressing restlessness. After I was a smoking addict I couldn’t work for 30 minutes without fighting the unconscious urge to light up again. Problem solving was a pain because it involved focus, for an addict focus can never shift completely from his addiction.

Cigarettes cure none of these fears. You have to deal with all of these fears only because of your addiction to smoking. Nicotine has claimed a stake on your life and it pretends to provide you with solutions to the problem it has created. Stop kidding yourself that your life is better with cigarettes in it. All of these fears are baseless and are the outcome of your addiction talk, there is no reality to it. Quitting smoking or getting rid of the nicotine addiction is not tough by any means, it’s only too easy when you know that you are living like an addict and want to stop doing so. But I am sure you as a smoker don’t believe me right now, in fact my saying that quitting is easy might take away your last excuse for not quitting. It’s all that there is, it’s an excuse generated by addiction. You can hate me for saying this but that is the truth, quitting is just too easy if you believe it’s easy. It can be a death wrath if you believe quitting smoking is dreadful.

If you have to quit (under force of natural reaction, like a heart attack or stroke) then you will quit and not feel any problems with it. Addiction is simple to overcome, your mind plays games with you which you need to be careful of. Overcome your addicted mind by being clear about why you want to quit and the rest is easy. You will find that these articles will clear your disillusion by showing you the truth behind the illusion created by your addiction. It is easy to quit, trust me on that, I’ve been a smoker who has quit without problems, I will help you do the same purely by discarding the illusions created by your addiction and that of other smokers around you.

How Do Youngsters Get Hooked to Smoking?

Their first cigarette is of course the anchor for the hooking to take place. This is a no brainer of course but it’s important to understand that youngsters try a cigarette knowing that one cigarette cannot harm them. As a parent if you think you can scare your kid into not smoking, by telling him/her that a single puff of cigarette can cause cancer, then forget it. In fact the possibility that they detest their first smoking experience is pretty high, and then they see people all around them enjoying their smokes and what comes to their mind? They feel the need to reach a point where they can also start enjoying a cigarette because many people seem to be doing so including their parents. I did not have this problem with cigarettes, for some reason I did not even have a coughing bout when I inhaled the smoke deep into my lungs. I did not find the scent of tobacco repulsive, on contrary I liked it.

In fact I remember my first experiment with drinking whiskey. I poured a generous amount of water to a 90ml glass of whiskey and drank it down. I nearly puked on the floor. This was at the age of 16, but then I had seen men drink whiskey like water and I wanted to be like one of them. I fought my revulsion to taste of whiskey and I practice drinking it daily. It was not long before I acquire a taste for it. I even started drinking whiskey neat without water or soda. I had my problems with drinking which I was able to manage with age. The point I am making here is that even when a youngster has a bad experience with his/her first smoke, it’s a cinch that they would try again and again till the art is perfected. Stubborn and resolute kids even try their best to become a smoking artist by learning to puff out smoke rings and learn to inhale longer than normal. Extremely dangerous practices but then when you are kid you don’t think too much about danger. Asking a kid to not smoke is like asking him to stop riding his car or bike at break neck speed. Kids don’t learn through advice, if you are a parent with an addicted kid you know what I am talking about.

If a youngster decides to give smoking a try it’s a given that he/she will become a habituated smoker with time. He/she might grow up to be mature enough to know that he/she is creating a hell for himself/herself through the addiction and go through the process of quitting later in case he/she is lucky.

How Do You Stop Youngsters From Smoking?

Not by scaring them of cancer, that’s for sure. Of course educate them about the afflictions caused by smoking but don’t depend on it to ensure that he/she will not give smoking a try. Risk taking and the belief that no harm can befall me is an essential ingredient in most of the youngsters. The only way a youngster would avoid smoking is through a value system. A value system is not built instantly but is a work of patience. Good parents rear kids with good values. A kid with good values usually grows mature enough to know what’s good and what’s bad for his/her being and for people around him/her. Lack of love and respect from parents is usually one main driving force towards losing respect for oneself. Identity is then gained through a pseudo source like cigarette addiction.

Most of the youngsters are abused in subtle or blatant ways in today’s society. It is difficult to find families who inculcate a sound value system into their children. Character is built from childhood. A youngster who lacks the strength of discipline and character can easily be tempted towards an addictive substance as he/she believes it to be a panacea for the pain inside. Teach your children to deal with life circumstances by depending on their inner source of strength rather than an external source like cigarettes, cannabis or alcohol. Unfortunately, damage once done cannot be rectified. If you failed to provide a good value system to your kids then you cannot expect them to behave in a responsible manner once they grow into their teen years or post teen years. A youngster brought up with a lack of good value system would end up living a life that reflects the same, adding on vices becomes their identity. Alcohol addiction, drug abuse (which includes cigarette smoking) and careless money spending would be a part of their lifestyle.

Do ‘Smoking Horror’ Commercials Worked?

As a smoker you can answer this for yourself. When you started out smoking as a youngster were you not aware that it leads to different forms of cancer, with lung cancer being the primary one? I am sure you did and in no uncertain terms either. You would have seen commercials on TV talking about how smoking causes death through cancer. Maybe you were not aware of the more obvious consequences like heart disease, impotence, nasal problems, throat congestion, asthma attacks, stomach and mouth ulcers, limb amputation (serious cases) and strokes. Cancer in itself should have been a deterrent but was it? Were you really scared of acquiring cancer when you lit up your first cigarette? It’s a far chance. Once you became addicted you, of course, felt worried about the prospect of acquiring cancer but by then were too powerless to control your addiction, in most cases, and the fear in itself seemed to push you to smoke more.

You cannot scare people into quitting. Most of the articles I wrote from the medical perspective was to provide you with factual information knowing that it won’t make you quit but will act as one element in this process. Getting your facts right about the health disasters of smoking will help you stop being so complacent about lighting up a cigarette. To quit is a completely different ball game especially once you are hooked. Your mind is dominating you and the addiction is dominating your mind. Horror commercials, which depend on scare value, have little power over addicted smokers except giving them added fear which try to suppress through smoking. Youngsters are too reckless to fall for horror commercials. A good population of youngsters’ die on road everyday due to rash driving and drunken driving, recklessness is in-built in most of them. No amount of advice or commercials will make them stop.

A Good Value System

The bottom line is that if you want to ensure your kids don’t end up trying on addiction or indulge in a behavior which is considered irresponsible towards their well being, then rear them with love, respect and a good value system.

Are There Physical Pains During Withdrawal?

None at all. I can give that to you in written that you will not face any physical withdrawal pains. I am sure you have seen movies in which drug addicts are shown writing in pain during rehabilitation. Don’t worry, nothing of that sort is gonna happen to you. Even for the drug addicts in rehabilitation the pain is more mind-induced than physical. Mind-induced fear during withdrawal is your addiction talking. Nicotine has a strong hold over your brain and it will take time to free your brain from it, maybe a couple weeks maximum. There are no physical pains to deal with here. You will be completely functional as long as you don’t keep dwelling upon how pleasurable it was to smoke. Quitting through sheer will power without a foundation of a value system or in other words without really knowing why you want to quit, is going to be a failure in most cases. Will power based quitting is about beating yourself down, it does not help. Your mind will make you feel undignified for being rude to yourself and will come up with an excuse to help you have a smoke, as a small reward for all the pain you have gone through. Get your reasons right, be ware of all the illusions meted by your addiction and quitting is a cinch because your mind loses its excuses.

Are There Headaches to Deal With?

Nicotine addiction withdrawal will manifest as a headache if you keep thinking about it. You don’t need to worry about it, the headaches caused during addiction withdrawal have more to do with your mind working up situations to get you to smoke. It won’t be a throbbing mind numbing migraine based headache but a casual one which you would have felt even while smoking. A dose of aspirin would take care of it in a moment.

Will I Start Feeling Restless?

For a couple of weeks you will face some small nicotine addiction withdrawal symptoms like mild restlessness or the need to sleep more. Follow your body, if it wants to sleep more then sleep more. If you don’t feel like talking much then don’t. If you don’t feel like working much then do some light work without exerting yourself. All this is only for a couple of week under the worst case scenario. Human body is highly intelligent and learns to cope with change instantly. Within a week you might not even feel the mild feeling of craving of nicotine kicking in. Most of the problem is just in the mind. The mind keeps talking about how uncomfortable you are, but physically you won’t feel any discomfort. You would not see things like your body shaking or nerves twitching or anything of that sort. Small withdrawal symptoms like mild restlessness are a given but only for a few days. Rest, relax and avoid undue stress during this period and you will be just fine.

Will I Feel Constipated?

Most smokers develop the habit of having a smoke before indulging in a bout of bowel movement on the pot. Majority of them smoke while sitting on the pot. They swear that smoking helps in bowel movement. It’s just a mind thing, a habit which has developed. Some people drink coffee or tea before taking a dump. There is no concrete evidence that there is any help provided to the bowel by these activities. On contrary there has been evidence against it, but I am not getting into medical studies here. After you quit it might feel a bit odd to be inside the bathroom without your cigarette friend. It takes a little getting used to, I agree. You will not feel constipated or anything because of not smoking but just the habit of taking a dump while smoking would make you feel a bit odd about just sitting on the pot with nothing to puff onto. You developed a bad habit and within a few days you will replace it back to its original state. You did not need a cigarette to take a dump when you were a non-smoker right?

Quitting Through Willpower Does Not Work

I am sure a lot of smokers would chide at this statement. Will power was always the excuse you laid back on stating "I can quit when I want, that’s the kinda will power I possess". Here I am stating that will power will not help you quit. The reason is simple, it is impossible to maintain a constant level of will power unless you are inhuman. All humans have varying moods, varying emotions and situations. Let’s say you are extremely superior in will power wielding, as compared to the entire human race, and still there is a possibility that you would fall back to smoking when you are mightily drunk or faced with a highly depressing situation. You need will power to swim across the Pacific, because it’s very painful. There are few that possess such will power and most of them are professionally trained. Normal humans without superior and professional training would find it impossible to wield such a will power.

It is possible to quit smoking when you are put in a prison for a year while depriving you of cigarettes. You will stay without smoking for a year, nicotine would have completely lost control over your mind with a few weeks, so here you are in a prison for a year without smoking and you survived it. Great willpower? Not really, just those circumstances were such that you did not have a choice. Now let say you come out of the prison, what is the first thing you would want to do? If are being honest you would say go to the nearest tobacco selling shop and get me a pack of cigarettes. Go outside the shop and smoke at least ten of them in one shot. That’s what will power quitting does for you. It will help you imprison yourself and torture you into not smoking but there will come a moment when you feel a little liberated and will head right back to smoking.

Why Does Willpower Fail to Help Quit?

Its quite simple, you are trying to beat yourself up to quit based on a reason like "smoking is injurious to my health". So you are quitting against your desire to smoke. You desperately want to smoke but you avoid it through sheer will power. You are fighting your own mind by numbing it through force. When the force is slightly lifted, and it’s bound to happen sooner or later, it won’t be long before you find yourself smoking. Even if you stay quit for a year or more under will power it’s a given that you would end up smoking the moment you let your guard down. If you quit under a severe fear like the fear of acquiring a heart disease, lung cancer or living with impotence for the rest of your life, then there is a possibility of staying quit forever.

Force of Fear

Fear is a strong force in some people. The fear of becoming impotent can make the most blatant smoker quit when he realizes it to be true for himself. Imagine a smoker who starts getting soft erections and is unable to pleasure himself or his wife/girlfriend, if he wants to regain his potency he has to quit and stay quit. Sometimes the damage is permanent. Knowing this to be a fact is a strong reason to quit. Fear based quitting can lead to a relapse though. Lets say you decide to become celibate and hence the fear of impotence no longer plays a role in your life, now that’s an extremely example but I am just giving you a scenario where fear based quitting can fail. When the fear is lifted the quitting goes for a toss. Will power based quitting can be for health reasons or because you promised your son/daughter. It won’t last in most cases as addiction transcends relationships.

Willpower Entails Sacrifice

Remember the last time you decided to quit and stayed quit for a few days. What was your mind state? Weren’t you continuously bragging about this feat you were performing? Every friend and relative got to know that you had taken the supreme step of self-sacrifice by quitting. Humans are inherently selfish, and it’s not in a negative connotation that I use the word. Selfishness is the reason why we survive, we hold our lives and our needs to be very dear to us and that’s the reason for our evolution. Sacrifice is always a selfless behavior if done for others. At times we sacrifice things for our own good. In either case sacrifice is about leaving a good thing and living with it. It works for sometime but the moment you see that your sacrifice is not being acknowledged any further, you will go back to what you sacrificed because it does not seem to be worth the effort. At the crux all I am saying is that it’s impossible to force or beat you mind into quitting.

Quitting Through Fear As Opposed to Willpower

Fear of death is a strong motivator as is the fear of disease. This fear is ingrained in each of us since out most important priority is to survive. Quitting through fear will work in most cases. You will go through a lot of anger and frustration, you will feel that life is extremely unfair and detest life for being this way. A smoker who starts becoming impotent and desperately quits to regain his erectile functions would hate every part of his life. It is seems unfair that something which was giving so much pleasure had to be sacrificed for the sake of health or relationship. But it works, you will stay quit as long as the fear lives and eats into your mind. You won’t be a very happy person but you will stay quit. Will power or forced quitting based on a promise you made, or a resolution you took up without a concrete base, is very short lived. You would have broken umpteen promises to yourself and to your close ones in the bid to continue smoking. You will power does not have a chance since your mind becomes your enemy.