There are many techniques that smokers have used over the years to quit smoking, including cold turkey, nicotine replacement therapy, medication and acupuncture.

So does this mean that stopping smoking is going to be difficult, because so many techniques exist - or does this really mean that stopping smoking is going to be easy because almost any technique is going to work !

The best approach to help people to break their 'addiction' to nicotine is for them to first understand that smoking, or vaping, is not an addiction.

Before stopping smoking first prepare yourself by reading:

• The facts about nicotine addiction - to realise and understand that smoking is not an addiction - it's a habit - and habits are easy to break !
• The most common triggers to smoke - and how to beat them

Smoking, or vaping, is a habit (not an addiction), and the easiest way to stop smoking or vaping is as follows:

• Set a date for when you are going to quit, and then smoke normally for a couple of weeks before your ‘quit date’.
• With every cigarette you smoke or 'vape' in the run up to you quitting smoking just notice, and pay particular attention to, the taste and physical sensations that you experience when smoking each cigarette - and think about what it does for you and what you get out of it.
• At the end of that 2 weeks you definitely will want to stop smoking on your ‘quit date’. So just get on with it - there's no time to waste here - stop smoking and throw your tobacco and e-cigarettes away.
• Always remember that inhaling nicotine is, in truth, a habit - not an addiction. And if you're like most people you will have had a few bad habits at certain times in your life, and you will know yourself that you have now put those bad habits behind you and you don't do them any more ! - So you know that you can break a bad habit - and you also know that you are the only one who can do it - no one can quit smoking for you !
• After just a few days any initial 'discomfort' will go, and your body can get back to recovering from maybe 20 or 30 years of the continual abuse and stress that you have subjected it to through smoking for all that time.
• Don't think about smoking or vaping ever again. Don't ever take even so much as just one puff. Just enjoy the rest of your life !

Easy. - Well done !

Ok. You've stopped smoking. That great. And you haven't switched to vaping e-cigarettes either. Even better!

Note that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends yearly lung cancer screening with LDCT (Low Dose Computed Tomography) for people who were heavy smokers. Find out more about Continuing Health Care for Former Smokers.

Should you try the above method (The Best Way To Stop Smoking), and still find that you still simply cannot stop yourself from smoking then it may be that you are a 'psychologically dependent' smoker - in which case you will probably need a short course of therapy first to reduce your stress and/or anxiety levels prior to stopping smoking. This is because, in general, smokers who find it difficult to stop smoking fall into one of two categories:

• The 'habitual smoker'. Smoking, and nicotine use, is a habit. The habitual smoker can stop smoking any time they want. Except that they don't know that, because the 'nicotine industry' has encouraged them to believe that they are addicted to the nicotine in cigarettes and tobacco products - and so they don't try that hard to quit tobacco or nicotine use and, when they try to quit, they soon resume smoking again. The habitual smoker could probably easily quit 'cold turkey' (as described above), if they knew it. Instead, they persist with their smoking habit because they believe that they have an addiction and (because they have an addiction) quitting smoking will be too difficult for them to do.
• The 'psychologically dependent smoker'. These are people who, although they might appear calm, are easily stressed or have a high level of anxiety. They smoke to 'self-medicate', and calm themselves down and use smoking as a crutch to help them to cope with the numerous stressful incidents that happen daily in normal day to day life. Typically they started smoking very young and have relied on smoking to get them through things - and therefore haven't developed the psychological coping skills that a non-smoker has been forced to develop when faced with the challenges that life brings. They truly have a 'psychological dependency' - which may be a symptom of an underlying Anxiety Disorder.

Here at the Surrey Hypnotherapy Clinic we know that there is nothing better to build self-confidence and self-esteem of a smoker like them being able to stop smoking, by themselves, without any help.

Therefore, the essentials that a smoker needs to quit smoking, using the 'cold turkey' method, which is ideal for habitual smokers, is detailed in the above article: The Best Way To Stop Smoking.

Should you try the above method, and still find that you still simply cannot stop yourself from smoking then it may be that you are a 'psychologically dependent' smoker - in which case you will probably need a short course of therapy first to reduce your stress and/or anxiety levels prior to stopping smoking. This will give you the confidence to deal with stressful situations that might occur - those situations where you would have previously coped by having a cigarette.

For 'psychologically dependent' smokers the best thing to do is to e-mail Peter to arrange a consultation for a course of smoking cessation therapy to reduce your stress and anxiety levels and boost your will power before making your final, determined, and successful, attempt to stop smoking for good.

YOUR NEXT STEP...

If you have tried, and been unsuccesful, at quitting smoking or vaping using the techniques detailed in the above article: The Best Way To Stop Smoking, then

Contact Peter to make an appointment for a free initial consultation for a course of smoking cessation therapy.

The Surrey Hypnotherapy Clinic TM

For professional, caring and confidential help, adviice, therapy or treatment for, or about, any of the above issues or topics, or similar, just contact Peter, preferably by e-mail, to arrange an appointment for your free initial consultation.

Or maybe instead read Peter's Website Welcome Letter, or go to the home page and view The Surrey Hypnotherapy Clinic's Smoking Cessation Video Girls and their Website Welcome Video.