Stopped Smoking Cold Turkey
February 7th, 2010 | by zoe |For any smoker, heavy or light the complete and sudden withdrawal from smoking or stop smoking cold turkey would probably be the hardest thing to achieve. Most often the
withdrawal symptoms prove to be too hard to overcome and the individual draws back to the habit. Nevertheless, it is stated that stop smoking cold turkey is the method used by 80% to 90% of individuals who manage to quit the habit successfully.
Cigarettes contain nicotine, a chemical that is highly addictive. Once a smoker quits the habit, nicotine cravings kick in and they prove to be very difficult to overcome. Furthermore,apart from the nicotine cravings, symptoms of stop smoking cold turkey including irritability, insomnia,headaches and fatigue kick in and may continue profoundly during the first few days. Certain methods such as Nicotine Replacement Therapy may be able to ease the symptoms and cravings by providing the body with a dose of nicotine through products such as nicotine gums, patches and sprays.
However,it encourages nicotine addiction in one’s body, even though this is a successful way of dealing with the withdrawal symptoms. Although the body is given a lower dose of nicotine to reduce merely the stop smoking cold turkey symptoms, the body demands the old level of nicotine. Hence, this creates a new level of required nicotine in the body. Therefore, it should be noted that using these products will only place an individual in a chronic state of drug withdrawal.
There are only two methods available to get off this state and they are either to completely stop administering nicotine into the body or to start smoking again.It should be remembered that the withdrawal symptoms would heavily persist only during the first two weeks and it would normally decline subsequently.Therefore, stop smoking cold turkey is probably the best and effective way to quit the habit.
Finding support and guidance would help an individual immensely to stop smoking cold turkey; friends and family members would be ideal for this task and would help one to overcome the habit successfully. In addition, joining a support group or undergoing therapy and counseling sessions would also be helpful to an individual who wants to stop smoking cold turkey.
One should remember that quitting the habit, especially to how to stop smoking cigarettes cold turkey is not at all an easy task. It takes pure determination and a whole lot of will power.