The Cold Turkey Remedy

“You can do it, if you believe you can.” Napoleon Hill You have tried to quit a few times. Or maybe many times. It does not matter. What is important is that it hasn’t worked. Even more important is that you are reading these words now, which means that you haven’t lost faith. Deep in your heart you know you can do it. You may not know how, but millions of people have successfully done it before. So can you. You really can cease smoking at once and remain a happy non-smoker the remainder of your life. You just need to realize it. Looking at the abundance of advertised aids for stopping smoking, you may think that they are the ones that are leading the way in the effective statistics. Pills, tablets, nicotine gums, inhalers, nasal sprays, patches, acupuncture, laser therapy, hypnosis…you name it! The list is too numerous to be objectively presented in this confined space. No wonder as the Nicotine Replacement Therapy industry alone is valued at more than $1 billion, and growing. However, an American Cancer Institute report of 2003 states that 91% of ex-smokers quit through unassisted method of withdrawing from smoking either abruptly or gradually in a self-administered non-drug manner. That’s quite good for a success rate in anything, I must admit. rnThere are some specialists advocating the so-called taper method, when you gradually diminish the intake of nicotine by daily reducing the amount of cigarettes smoked. You may try and torture yourself. Maybe it will help you. My father has been quitting like this… for the past 25 years. To me it’s as effective as helping an alcoholic to stop drinking by reducing the amount of drinks they consume daily. You will just prolong the agony of withdrawal. You may want to read what the leading expert on quitting smoking Allen Carr says regarding this. rnThe cold turkey method is by far the most successful means for saying goodbye to the cigarettes. “Good bye” rather than “see you.” It’s easy. Actually, it is hard in the beginning, but easy all the way through. You just need to pass the critical first several days or weeks while your body struggles on the chemical level. After that you may enjoy the ride. The other way is the hard way. It is quite popular lately, and is in the form of a nicotine replacement therapy. It deceives by being easy in the beginning – since you don’t actually have withdrawal symptoms—but turns out to be hard in the end—as after several weeks or months of treatment you are no more prepared to be without nicotine than you were when you started. Remember, you want to say farewell to tobacco once and forever rather than have your farewell party continue indefinitely. You choose how you want to run your marathon of ceasing smoking: fast and easy in the beginning but exhausted and stumbling at the end, or slow and challenged on the start and swift and confident on the finish. The remedy is not in the poison. It cannot be. You may change the form but the substance will remain. The medicine is inside you, not with somebody else. Once you make a definite decision not to smoke, nothing in the world can make you light up again. The cure is between your ears not under your breast. If you want to stop smoking effectively, you have to do it with your mind, not with your heart. See, your heart understands that smoking is not good for you and tells you that you can quit, but in your mind you have to realize that you don’t need smoking, and then you can easily live your life without it. This is the cure discovered by millions of people who successfully joined the no-smoking club. I did too. So can you.