Smoking can cause a slow and painful death

Smoking is risky and detrimental to a person’s health and is one of the leading causes of heart disease. Nicotine and other agents in cigarettes are highly addictive. This paper reviews various programs that help people to quit smoking. These techniques have all been implemented in a group setting not only because it is cost efficient, but it has other therapeutic benefits. The techniques reviewed include support group oriented therapies, psycho-educational groups, nicotine replacements, cold turkey quitting, gradual cigarette reductions, nicotine fading, aversive conditioning, cognitive techniques, work-site interventions, incentives, self-help manuals, media interventions, rational-emotive therapy, and lastly multi-component techniques.

Stop Smoking

Is there anyone who does not know someone who smokes? Everyone has a family member, friend, or co-worker who smokes. They have chosen to smoke, but by just being around them you are also smoking; only you have not made that choice. Before you choose to take this risk you should think about what may happen to your body. There are many factors that you should take very seriously; smoking is a hazardous habit because it leads to addiction, disease, and high-risk pregnancy.

Every year thousands of people die because of lung cancer or other tobacco related illnesses. Everyone in the world comes in contact with smoke from a cigarette at least once in their lifetime, whether it is at a restaurant or at work. Millions of people are addicted to smoking, and thousands more become addicted every year. Cigarettes and other tobacco products are everywhere. Most of the addicted smokers started when they were young (Roberts 18).

The reason why people get addicted to any type of tobacco product is because all tobacco products have nicotine in them, which is the addictive ingredient (American Thoracic Society 22). Every time a person smokes a cigarette or chews tobacco, that person ingests nicotine. I believe that the tobacco companies should be liable for every tobacco-related death each year. On the other hand, some people believe that everyone has a right to make their own judgment about their life. The hazardous of smoking lead to many fatal diseases and should convince people to quit their habit. Tobacco contains over 4,000 chemicals most of which are harmful to the body. First of all the main problem with smoking is how it harms you physically. Smoking physically harms the main organs and organ systems of your body. The most important organ of all affected is the brain, the more you smoke the more likely you are to have a stroke or a tumor may form in your brain from the chemicals in the tobacco.

An important reason for people to stop smoking is the risk of getting emphysema. This is also a deadly disease that affects their lungs and their whole respiratory system. These several reasons should prove to the smokers that this habit puts their health in danger, and causes many diseases that lead to death. There are multiple methods of smoking cessation, and smokers that do not succeed to stop on their own can always make use of different approaches such as self-help groups, hypnosis and aversion therapy. The use of pharmacological intervention, especially nicotine replacement therapy, has also been shown to be of great benefits for certain smokers. Doctors and other health care professionals are in great position to help their patients quit smoking, and their involvement in the quitting attempt will increase a smoker's chances of success. Lastly, multiple smoking cessation trials have shown that smokers using multiple quitting methods at the same time have a greater chance of success.

Nicotine replacement therapy has proven to be a useful tool in smoking cessation. This especially true for patients that are highly addicted to nicotine. Withdrawal symptoms associated with the rapid discontinuation of nicotine is one of the main reason associated with relapse after quitting. Nicotine replacement therapy prevents the physical withdrawal by providing an alternative source of nicotine until psychological withdrawal can be managed with behavior modification in three to six months. While nicotine replacement therapy can be of great help in smoking cessation it should be prescribed appropriately. First, nicotine replacement therapy does not substitute smoking cessation advice. The rate of cessation for smokers on nicotine replacement therapy alone is not usually effective.

Transdermal Nicotine Patch is another technique to stop smoking. The patch provides relatively constant concentrations of nicotine are more expensive than the nicotine gum. Nonetheless, this method is usually preferred over the gum because of fewer compliance problems and less need for instruction for appropriate use. Patches should be worn for 16 to 24 hours per day. The site of application should be changed everyday to minimize skin irritation. Side effects usually include insomnia, vivid dreams and stomach upset, as well, as persistent urticarial eruptions after chronic use secondary to an allergy to the patch's adhesive.

Over the past few years, society had taken a very negative view of smokers in general and smoking in public in particular. Due to the increase of these negative views plus the health consequences, many smokers are searching for help though methods such as Freshstart in order to quit. Boasting a success rate above 94% and immediate online access, this method is a process that affects positive changes in your mental attitude. This article will discuss the possible benefits of the Freshstart stop smoking method in comparison to some other available products.

The Freshstart quit smoking method claims a success rate of 94% and offers a 100% money back guarantee. This is a very high number when compared to many of the other programs available for smokers who want to quit. Some of the other methods for quitting include but are not limited to do it yourself methods such as cold turkey, nicotine replacements such as gums and patches, drugs to relieve the cravings, acupuncture, and other professional programs that you can sign up for. The costs for these types of programs can range from nothing for trying it cold turkey up to hundreds of dollars for some of the advanced programs. Unfortunately, most of these methods have a success rate of fewer than 50% and many of those who do quit will end up relapsing in the future. Freshstart claims that its success rate is so high because it changes your mental attitude toward smoking.

The Freshstart quit smoking method was designed and is promoted by Matt Godson who is a professional hypnotherapist. He claims to use a hypnotherapeutic technique that will literally change your mental attitude about smoking, in essence, making you a non-smoker. It is said that the Freshstart method is a process instead of a product. While other methods will do things such as replace the nicotine from a different source, use drugs to relieve the cravings, or use punishment techniques to make you stop smoking, Freshstart claims that this will simply make you an ex-smoker instead of a non-smoker and the cravings may remain long after the physical addiction is gone. Matt claims that his Freshstart process works so well because it will change the attitude of a smoker into a non-smoker so there are no longer any cravings to fight with. This being said, you may well be wondering about the aspect of hypnosis and the bad rap and misunderstanding that it has sometimes had in the past. Matt claims that hypnosis is not the spectacle that you may have seen or heard about in sideshows at the circus or magic shows. Those acts are just that, acts where both the performer and the subject are going through a pre-staged show. While true hypnosis is a state that virtually any intelligent human being can obtain, it is not a state where somebody can make you do anything that you don’t want to do. Instead, it is a state of complete relaxation where your mind is open to positive and safe suggestions. Unlike the sideshow acts, a person who is hypnotized has full control of their actions and will not do anything that is unsafe or makes them feel uncomfortable.

Smoking in essence is not good for anybody at anytime or for any one who is around the smoker. It harms people physically, mentally, and socially which are the three groups which define someone’s health which are all brought down by smoking. Cigarettes and cigars are dangerous and harmful to people’s health and the best way to stop smoking is to never start.