Natural remedies to help you quit smoking

How to quit smoking immediately with Willpower or Cold Turkey

Treatment: This is the method most commonly used by smokers in their attempts to quit. The aim is that by stopping smoking, without any support, and utilising sheer willpower they will overcome their nicotine addiction and be free. 

Side Effects: Mood; aggression; anxiety; depression and irritability; weight gain & substitution.

Who can use it: Anyone can try to quit smoking using willpower.

Comment: The big issue with this method is that the smoker is left with a feeling that they have lost or given something up. Over time this normally leads to a yearning and longing desire to return to smoking. It’s caused by a feeling of sacrifice which is based on the belief that smoking provided a pleasure and some benefits. The yearning often leads to substitution (eating or drinking instead of smoking) which in turn, leads to weight gain. The former smoker feels constantly deprived and whenever they think about cigarettes or experience a moment when they might normally smoke, they feel miserable. This is often a recipe for failure.

Not being able to quit smoking by willpower is not an indication that you’re weak-willed. It just means that you chose the wrong method. Ironically, very strong-willed people can find the willpower method particularly difficult. After all, which child will scream longest and loudest when you take away their favourite toy at dinner time, the strong-willed one or the weak-willed one? In fact, succeeding on the willpower method can be very difficult indeed¹.

Acupuncture for quitting smoking

Treatment: This is a traditional Chinese therapy in which certain acupunctural points are stimulated by inserting needles into the patient’s body. The aim is to mitigate withdrawal symptoms and hence make it easier to quit.

Side Effects: None

Who can use it: Anyone can try to quit smoking using acupuncture

Comment: There is no scientific proof that the meridians or acupuncture points exist, and it is hard to prove that they either do or do not. It’s quite possible that some conditions might be helped using acupuncture, but acupuncture doesn’t claim to cure smoking – it merely claims to help with feelings of withdrawal. Nicotine withdrawal is actually very mild and as long as the correct method is used to quit smoking, acupuncture is therefore neither helpful nor necessary¹.

Hypnosis – light relaxation for smoking

Treatment: The smoker is put into a relaxed, altered state of awareness, and suggestions designed to amplify the downsides of smoking, and encourage the enjoyment of freedom, effectively attempt to bolster willpower.

Side Effects: None

Who can use it: Anyone can try to quit using hypnosis

Comment: Although hypnosis can be a very enjoyable and relaxing thing to experience, unless the suggestions made during the process are useful, it doesn’t really add much in terms of re-enforcing the smoker’s efforts. For example, using hypnosis in an attempt to bolster a smoker’s willpower is simply reinforcing an attempt to quit smoking using an inefficient, uncomfortable, and quite unsuccessful method¹¹.

How to quit smoking naturally – 8 tips

It’s easy to quit smoking on your own – you just need to know how. Time has proven that nicotine patches, gum, and e-cigarettes just prolong the addiction and don’t tackle the important psychological aspects of smoking. Most smokers don’t realise that the problem with nicotine addiction is 1% physical and 99% mental.

Here’s how to quit smoking naturally

1. Nicotine addiction is actually weak;

   it’s an extremely mild, slightly insecure feeling.

2. The unpleasant symptoms people describe as “nicotine withdrawal” are nothing of the sort;

   the empty insecure feeling of nicotine withdrawal triggers a thought process. It’s the result of that thought process which leads to the unpleasant physical feelings.

3. It’s like a tantru;

   The discomfort a smoker feels when they attempt to quit using willpower is similar to that displayed by a child when their favourite toy is taken from them. They are powerful physical feelings – but they have no physical cause.

4. To ensure success focus on the 99% mental aspects of addiction;

   Understanding why you smoke is essential. Most smokers mistakenly believe that they do it because they enjoy it or because it gives them some kind of benefit or support. It’s the addiction that convinces them of this.

5. The next cigarette is the continuation of a problem not the solution;

   Understand a cigarette simply momentarily relieves the discomfort caused by the previous one. That’s how addiction works. The more you experience the effect the more convinced you believe the cigarette is solving the problem rather than causing it.

6. Realise that there’s nothing to quit;

   Understanding that there are no benefits or advantages to smoking is key. Understand that and your inclination to smoke will disappear. Allen Carr’s Easyway method is the most effective way of quitting smoking naturally without the hindrance of nicotine products.

7. It’s great to have support;

   You don’t have to quit smoking on your own – there is lots of help. Choosing a method that understands the psychology of addiction is key to success.

8. Reach out for help;

   You can always find out different ways to stopping smoking using Allen Carr’s Easyway to Quit Smoking method

Allen Carr’s Easyway has been described as ‘a real smoker’s way to quit’. You carry on smoking until you’re ready to stub out your final cigarette. Easyway doesn’t focus on the downsides of smoking – smokers know all about those already. Instead the method answers the question ‘What’s so great about being a smoker?’ Understanding that is the key to being set free.
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