by admin on December 7, 2009
As you are going through the denial-binge cycle and denying yourself from smoking, you stress level will continue to rise as you keep thinking about lighting up a cigarette over and over again.
Denial-Binge Cycle May Cause Depression
This may continue so much so that you may even develop or fall into depression. Take for example the chocolate illustration. When you decide not to eat chocolates at night, you may fall into temptation and eat even more chocolates at night.
Because of this, there is a pitfall of going back to the bad habit of eating chocolates at night and the entire process and cycle is repeated which also can make you feel like a failure.
Chances are this may already sound familiar to you. Also, the chances for this denial-binge cycle are more likely to happen if you just suddenly, at the spur of the moment decide to quit smoking without having to be prepared.
Being more prepared will lead to a high probability in succeeding to quit smoking.
The Early Stages Of Relapses
During the whole quitting process, there are certain periods of time that you will be more likely to succumb to relapses. This is more so during the early weeks and months as your body slowly adjusts to becoming a nonsmoker.
People who experience relapses are more likely to experience it during the first two months. During these months, your plan, determination and willpower will be greatly tested. Also, if relapses happen, you will also need time to learn and educate yourself on the type of situations that have caused you to smoke again.
You will also be able to gauge the situations you can handle and recognize the situations in which the temptation to smoke is just too much to bear.
Relapses Can Happen Even After A Few Years
Although relapses happen to smokers more in the early months, there is also a possibility of smoking again even years after you’ve given up the cigarettes. During your life, there may be some even that took place that can put you under extraordinary stress, ie: the death of a love one.
Before you realize it, your old methods of handling stress occur again and you will find yourself smoking again. Besides, all it takes is just one cigarettes for you to get hooked back into the habit.
When you continue on your journey, you will be better prepared to handle possible situations of relapses. You will learn what works and what doesn’t and will slowly form your own strategies to quit. The whole journey can be educational and you will be better equipped to quit smoking in the end.
by admin on December 3, 2009
A relapse is what happens when you smoke again after a period of time of not smoking. The question is how to you actually perceive a relapse? I personally believe almost all smokers will experience a relapse and it should also be viewed as a learning experience.
It is also an opportunity to find more about why did you pick up the cigarette again during that time. For example, you can learn about what are the triggers you should be watchful for or how to better position and have better preparation with your next attempt.
Actually, unless a relapse happens, it’s harder to gauge the real reason for you to smoke. The relapses play a part as stepping stones to the pathway of being smoke-free.
Now, a relapse does not mean that you have failed. The moment you have failed is the moment you decide that you don’t want to ever try to quit.
Relapse Causes
At time, you are able to predict that when you are about to smoke again. You may find yourself unusually thinking about smoking more often than normal.
The level of anxiety and irritation may also increase, so much so that the people around you may notice these changes and provide a feedback to you.
When you are able to recognize that a relapse is going to happen, you can often block the process.
Quit smoking studies have shown that smokers who have tried to quit experienced relapsed five or six times before entirely giving up smoking altogether.
There are some reasons for you to have a relapse.
1. Situation of stress
2. Unbearable cravings to smoke
3. Going through depression
4. Conditioned to smoke when you were in a situation, and you are in that situation again
5. Not prepared with a plan when facing stress.
The Denial-Binge Cycle
There is also another reason or cause of relapse happening. It’s called the denial-binge cycle. This starts when you suddenly changing your patterns of usage towards something or that when you deny yourself of having something.
Let’s say you want to stop eating chocolates at night to lose weight. The moment you decide so, the next phase of the cycle takes place by you developing extreme cravings for the chocolate that you have denied yourself.
As your cravings grow, you tend to think about consuming it more and more often.
by admin on December 3, 2009
If you went searching on how to quit smoking online, you will already have come across plenty of resources on ways and methods to quit smoking. Most of them actually states ways that actually are effective to quit smoking but it’s not universal.
This means that one method may work for one but may not work for another. It is also important to assess the methods that didn’t work. Not only that, you must also know what has made you to smoke again, in each situation and each circumstances.
Your Peers
One of the most stated reasons for failing to quit is the lack of support. Through hard time, you’ll find it extremely challenging if you don’t have family or friends to see you through.
Start by telling those peers in advance that you want to quit smoking. In this way, people are more conscious about your efforts and it will help to quit smoking easier.
Also, look at your peers around you before you attempted to quit smoking. Did any of your peers offered cigarettes to you?
If there’s anyone also told you don’t bother or express any doubts about your effort to quit smoking, please avoid them immediately. They could a factor as to why you failed to quit smoking.
At times, you may get quite moody and irritable that no one can stand being around you. If you have experienced that, you will be able to tell that these irritable moments are due to withdrawal symptoms.
Lack of Plan
One of the ways to combat the above is to plan ahead. Just suddenly deciding to entirely quit smoking may not be the smartest idea. This leaves you unprepared for challenges. The spur of the moment decision to quit may also result in higher chances for relapses.
Also, trying to quit when you are dealing with more than usual stress is a bad idea. For example, there may be some crisis such as a divorce, death of a family member, breakups, or getting laid off your job may be a bad timing to quit smoking.
The process of quitting smoking requires you to use a lot of energy. If you are using energy for these unusual stress, it’ll be better to hold on and wait for things to settle down to give up the cigarettes.
No Purpose
On top of that, the reasons and purposes to quit smoking are equally important. For example, if you had an unsuccessful attempt to quit, did you quit smoking for others? Or was it a personal decision for yourself upon a self realization?
The truth is nobody can quit smoking for you, only you can do it for yourself. If you have a strong purpose, it will hold as foundation to your willpower as challenges come.
by admin on December 2, 2009
Looking back at your attempts and let’s analyze what has seemed to work for you. At times, your attempts may have been just a short while, perhaps for months, weeks, days or even hours.
Just because you didn’t manage to quit permanently doesn’t mean that you have entirely failed or that you have wasted your time.
You can look what attempts that cause you to maintain smoke-free the longest and from there shape up a plan to quit smoking.
Your Support Groups
When you were trying to quit, did you have any support groups or friends that are willing to give their fill encouragement to you? This will be a great deal of help especially when things are tough and challenges get in the way.
Take for example, a friend may bear or have more little patience with you when they know you are more irritable when you are trying to quit smoking. But be careful as this may only work for a short while.
Your family is also another precious support group because they are the people you see every single day!
Their belief in your efforts to quit smoking may directly affect whether you succeed or not. In fact, their support is more important any of your friends or peers because you are most emotionally connected to them.
It would be great to get a partner and a friend to quit smoking with you. There are many people who want to quit smoking and chances are, it won’t be very hard to find them.
All you have to do is ask. Also, no one would understand better than someone who is trying to quit and going through the same challenges as you are.
The Methods You Tried
During the course of trying to quit smoking, did you try to use nicotine replacement products over the counter such as the nicotine patch of gums? Or have you tried medication like Bupropion?
If you did, how did these work out for you? Were they effective?
Have you tried to quit smoking via hypnosis? Were you able to not think about smoking anymore after your sessions?
Did you also try alternative methods such as herbs, acupuncture or any natural remedy?
Now what you can do is to look at what methods has helped you to go on not smoking the most time, you can then focus on the method most that helped you.
But the rule is that you start by focusing on only one method first, and then slowly move on to the others.
by admin on November 30, 2009
Most smokers who try to quit smoking will at least attempt a few tries before they are able to kick away the habit forever. Some of you may succeed in days and weeks, but some of you may only succeed after a few months and even sometimes, a few years.
I truly believe that smokers who make these quit smoking attempts for many times and not succeeded yet, are not prepared to quit smoking. They have not done any research on what it truly takes to quit smoking and are not well positioned both physically and mentally.
Of course, even the most successful ex-smokers will experiences relapses before quitting forever. But with proper preparation, when relapses happen, it will give you a good indication and help you to discover where you went wrong and to rethink your strategy for quitting.
Keep in mind even if relapses happen, you did not do anything wrong or that you’ve failed. It just means you’re not entirely ready at that point of time to quit. Besides just like anything in life, it’s hard to succeed during the first try.
There are a few questions below you can ask yourself during the course of quitting smoking.
How many times have you tried to quit smoking?
My guess is if you’re like any smoker, the number of times you’ve tried to quit is at least 3 times.
The good news is that if you’ve noticed the amount of time you go on without smoking, the period of time that you go on without smoking becomes longer. This indicates that your body is slowly adapting for it to be without cigarettes.
However, the amount of times you’ve quit is more important that the time you’ve remained smoke-free. Why is that so?
It is because each attempt creates an opportunity to bring you a step closer for you to quit smoking and achieve your goal.
Here are other questions that can help you to further reflect on your number of attempts to quit.
What is the longest time you can go on without having a cigarette?
Each time you attempt to quit, do you clearly know why you want to quit?
I hope you will ask these questions each time you attempt to quit smoking.
