The irritability and the headaches will likely come shortly after you decide that you want to quit smoking. They are withdrawal symptoms from the nicotine in the cigarettes. However, with some aspirin you can beat the headaches, and with some activity you can beat the irritation. It is tough going, but you can beat the addiction.

You will certainly get that strong desire to smoke shortly after you make that decision to quit smoking, and from time to time afterward. Whenever you are close to the narcotic or smell it in the atmosphere, you might feel the strong urge to go for it as well. As such, it is imperative that you keep away from it or you might find yourself indulging again.

It matters how long you have been smoking when you are trying to quit. The longer you have been at it, the more dependent you are likely to be on the substance and its constituents. It gets to a point at which the only thing that will work is some kind of confinement away from where you can reach the stuff. But the decision is up to the doctor treating you.

The last several years have been filled with increasing warnings about health hazards associated with smoking, yet even though people know this their addiction is hard to shake. In this wise, some kind of ban or fining might be the only way some will ever quit; but for the gentler hearts, treatment might yet do.

Nicotine causes you to indulge in pleasure seeking behavior, which only makes you smoke more; so that the absence thereof can cause you to continue seeking it; and then you cannot rest until you have it. Coupled with the withdrawal symptoms, you may not quite be able to get a grip on yourself enough to sit in on group therapy. However, group therapy for stop smoking patients is entirely critical if they hope to never return to the habit at any time. Even if they are able to break the habit, they are going to require the fortitude of psychological treatment that helps them stay smoke free.

Interestingly, group therapy is not the only type of psychological treatment necessary to help a smoker break the habit. Combined with it, there are going to have to be personal and private sessions that they are going have to sit in on with the mental health professional in which they will learn to handle their personal doubts and inadequacies. Until they are able to face up to the environmental triggers that contribute to their cravings for cigarette, they’ll never be able to successfully claim that they have stopped smoking. Chances are the before very long, they will have succumbed to the lure of tobacco and nicotine.

There are some discrete psychological stop smoking aids that some psychologists and psychiatrists use to help smokers trying to quit. Basically, a lot of smokers use nicotine replacement therapy and products to help break their addiction, most notably the nicotine patch. However, the use of a placebo can help to manage some of the quit smoking symptoms that they are bound to experience as they go along with the treatment.

The way it works is that after they have been on the patch for a while, they physically no longer require the treatment, but their minds are still telling them that they do. With the placebo, they believe that they are still getting doses of nicotine in their bloodstream when actually they are getting nothing. They get to go on like this for a while before suddenly the doctor reveals to them that they have been nicotine free for a while. The realization of that fact can either cause them to relapse immediately, or it can result in them suddenly appreciating that they can live without cigarette smoking now. In the latter instance, they have better chances of never returning to cigarette smoke for the rest of their lives.

Not every stop smoking technique works with every stop smoking patient, but it is better to at least try it out before you decide that the treatment is not for you. In any case, the best quit smoking program is the one that you believe in after you have confirmed its success rate amongst people who are trying to break their smoking habit.

But before you get to the point of taking each day as it comes though, you may want to try actually breaking your physical dependence on nicotine first. There are a lot of stop smoking techniques that focus on precisely that, as you will find when you talk with a number of therapists about it; what you want to do is determine all that you can about them, and get to using them in your own personal struggles to kick the habit.

You may not need every last smoking cessation method or nicotine replacement product under the sun as you try to break the habit on your own; and then again, you may need every last one of them. Statistics show that the highest success rates of people trying to stop smoking have been realized in patients who try as many as three quit smoking techniques all at once. In the next few lines, you will find out about the products that can help you break your addiction to nicotine – products that will finally free you from your smoking habit.

The first and the most common smoking cessation product in the United States these days is the nicotine chewing gum. This is just like any other chewing gum that you buy out on the street, except that instead of sugar or glucose, the product is laced with nicotine. Therefore, as you chew on it, traces of nicotine are released into your mouth and from there into your system and bloodstream. The amount of the substance that you are consuming in this manner is substantially less than that which you inhale by direct smoking, and this way you gradually wean yourself from the bad habit.

The nicotine patch is also commercially available in most drugstores and you can get it without a prescription. The working principle of this stop smoking treatment is similar to the previous one, but the process is a bit different. In this instance, you have to place the patch on your skin – usually on your arm – so that it continues to release traces of the substance into your bloodstream throughout the day. As you gradually become less dependent on nicotine, you will use patches with smaller and smaller doses each day until you no longer need it.

You need a prescription for the nicotine inhaler, and doctors only recommend it for the most severe cases of smokers trying to break their smoking habits. It is a small tube that looks practically the same as a stick of cigarette. Each time you feel like smoking, you can just suck on the stick and you get your dose of nicotine that way. Often, you may have to stay on the inhaler for a while but eventually if you want to really stop smoking, you will graduate to either of the other nicotine replacement products.

There is still considerable controversy, even medically, about how much LLLT can help people who are trying to break their smoking habits because its functionability is not immediately apparent. However, there have been more than a few patients who claim that after their laser therapies, they felt so much better and at ease that they no longer desired the relief offered by nicotine in tobacco anymore.

The argument for laser light therapy is a simple one. The light beam is used to target specific nerve endings on your skin, such as your back and arms, your face, head, and ears, causing a stimulation that releases endorphins into your system. The endorphins simulate the pleasure that you receive from actually smoking a cigarette. Interestingly, although laser therapy may seem rather expensive, it is often a one-time treatment that its proponents say is sufficient to carry you through the worst of nicotine withdrawal.

Since quitting permanently is also an issue, there is no immediate response to how LLLT can guarantee that. Suffice that you are able to get through the distressing first forty-eight hours of withdrawal from the substance. The Freedom Laser Therapy Inc, which has been largely selling this stop smoking product claims that further advancements are being made all the time, and it appears true. Although only a few states in America actually have a functioning LLLT unit, there are plans also to move the product out nationally and even globally so that every smoker in the world has a chance to finally stop smoking with less pain.

There are a number of other stop smoking options you can explore, but experts in the field will assure you that you are best of stopping smoking by combining various methods that are all known to work. So even as you are undergoing the laser treatment, you may also want to consider some other nerve stimulating drugs or processes that will further guarantee that you never return to smoking again.

In that wise, your nicotine spray, patch, and gum are still very viable, as are the pills, and possible hypnotism to help you stop smoking. You do have to be careful not to overdose on anything so that you can live to tell the story. Get online and join a support group and share you smoking cessation escapades with someone who may know better or who has had a whole set of different experiences. Together, you are sure to be able to stay away from tobacco.

And who would blame them? The severe withdrawal symptoms from tobacco smoking can do most people in within twenty four hours of abstinence from it; those who are stronger tend to last up to forty eight hours of the nausea, headaches, irritability and anxiety that come when you are trying to quit. You need to understand that addiction is not just psychological, but also a physiological dependence on a substance; you are either unwilling to stop it, or you are unable. The ill effects that you suffer when you go without nicotine for that long can leave you wasted.

There are actually a lot of efforts and programs to help people stop smoking; and they all work. Except that people respond to these stop smoking treatments in various ways and sometimes doctors and physicians are forced to prescribe medications that help to manage the withdrawal symptoms.

Most of the prescription drugs for quitting smoking double up as antidepressants because of their effects on moods and the mood-causing chemicals in your body. Most are orally administered while some others are intravenously administered to produce the best calming effects. One reason why people are addicted to the nicotine in tobacco is because it binds with the red bloods cells and cells in your brain and promotes the reuptake of neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine, which cause you to seek pleasure, bring you back time and again to the cigarette. This is what is responsible for the craving that most addicts allude to during treatment.

Chintax is one such prescription drug and Zyban is another. In the United States, they actually have been used for a long time in this capacity. For people who have trouble with the pills, they may have to settle for SMART. SMART is the Scopolamine Medicated Anticholinergic Receptor Treatment, approved by the FDA and used alongside Atarax to cure conditions like motions sickness and deal with allergies. Combined the drug helps you relax in the face of withdrawal from nicotine.

One reason why physicians and psychologists are reluctant to prescribe drugs for smoking cessation is that they all have side effects that can be potentially harmful if not closely monitored. Some of them cause dizziness in patients, while others result in all kinds of harmful consequences to your liver and kidney.

As a result, save for the drugs you can get over the counter on your own, you should not be too eager to go for the stop smoking pills. Unless you have tried everything and you keep coming back to the cigarette, you should steer clear of the prescription drugs. In any case, no drugstore pharmacist in town will sell anything to you without the doctor’s recommendation.

You can quit smoking too, but your technique may just be a little different than mine. I know of doctors who believe and enforce that the best way to stop smoking is to abstain suddenly and totally. I think it works but with only a limited number of people; sooner than later, a good number of smoking addicts return to the custom before they are three months into the program. Many people chew nicotine gum to gradually wean them off of the cigarettes, while others use the nicotine patch. Well, I’m no hater and I think all of these smoking cessation plans actually work, but I wonder if you have heard of laser treatment to help people stop smoking.

The reason why so many people are so addicted to smoking is that tobacco smoking actually is addictive. Smoke from an average cigarette – I wonder what that is – contains on the upside of four thousand chemicals. Combine that with nicotine that is both poisonous and highly addictive, and you may still not understand how come something so deadly can yet be so pleasurable.

Added to the effect of nicotine on your nerve and brain, there is an unknown component of tobacco that kills the important brain enzyme MAO B, or monoamine oxidase B, that is central for breaking down excess dopamine in your system. Dopamine helps you feel pleasure, and when there is a lot of it, you just want more. What this chemical does is that it causes dopamine to build up to excess amounts so that you want more and more cigarettes to keep up the ‘pleasure’. That’s where the craving comes from.

Laser treatment as a smoking cessation treatment is a wild success because of the way it works. The technique applies the principle of concentrated light on nerve endings so that you feel the pleasure you would have felt had you smoked a cigarette. Your hands and face, and ears, and really almost every part of your head will need to receive that soft ‘caress’ of light so that your body is stimulated to release endorphins. So, when you have to go through the withdrawal phase of your quit smoking exercise, the pleasure from your endorphins can sail you through. This way, you have a better chance of successfully completing the program without relapsing.

Before you decide that this method for breaking your smoking habit does not work for you, at least do what you can to give it a shot first. What have you got to lose besides a habit that is killing you already? The laser treatment does cost a bit in various areas of the United States, ranging from about $250 to something closer to $500 in some states. However, compared to how much you already spend a week on cigarettes, you have got to admit that you are getting off rather cheap here. The Freedom Laser Treatment Center will be happy to oblige.

Below, you will find various conventional and unconventional techniques that can be used to stop smoking. Many of them actually have been used to resounding success in times past. The best advice I can give you is to find your own personal niche within these tips, and apply you heart to it. You can quit smoking too, you just don’t know how yet. Perhaps if you paid attention, you will find how you can stop smoking today within these lines.

· Hypnotism – This technique has been in practice for so many centuries that it is a wonder it has not gained more widespread use. The reason is obvious though; many physicians do not understand how hypnotism works so they don’t bother. Those who do have difficulty sharing, so the balance is maintained. Hypnosis is the artificially induced condition in which you can respond to questions and suggestions that can be used to treat a variety of medical and psychological problems. Because it works better than the placebo, everyone is forced to admit that it is for real. You should too; it just might be how you finally get to overcome your craving for nicotine.

· Acupuncture – Is an ancient Chinese treatment with needles that is even older than hypnotism. These needles are pushed into your skin at nerve centers where energy flow is thought to be blocked by meridians, thus empowering your body to cleanse itself. In its application as a stop smoking treatment, it helps in the release of endorphins into your system that you may only have gotten otherwise by succumbing to your nicotine craving.

· Conventional Medicine – Western medicine is full of medications and programs that can help you stop smoking in various ways. Your doctor will perhaps run you through these smoking cessation programs before telling you about alternative medicine. There are pills you can take to help you manage withdrawal from nicotine, and there are support groups that you can be a part of. Nicotine replacement products are also part of conventional Western efforts to help break the smoking habit that have been shown to be very effective in almost every patient that has tried them. Before you conclude that it does not work, you should at least give it a shot first.

All in all, you may have to try more than one smoking cessation technique before you are finally about to break free of smoking and stay that way. I will assure again that it is quite a climb to never have to yield to the ‘thirst’ for nicotine again, but it is a climb that many people have taken before you, and one that you can survive too. Sure you can stop smoking today; you only need to put your back into it.

You will agree with me that that is not a good sign. But you can stop smoking yet, and it does not have to be by questionable hypnotism or controversial acupuncture. You don’t even have to pay a million dollars to some doctor who claims to have the guaranteed and dependable cure for nicotine addiction because nobody does. What you need are just three steps that you already know about and that you only need to apply in the right way. You will be surprised at the results if you will just pay attention.

There are a lot of smoking cessation methods and products that you must have heard of, books, ebooks, and downloadable material from the Internet, but you should not ditch your nicotine replacement products too soon. When your system continues to receive nicotine even while you are not smoking, you will agree with me that you don’t need to take drags from a cigarette or cigar anymore.

With a nicotine patch, that is precisely what you get. You can put the patch on your arm and keep it there all day. On a busy day, you may even forget about it entirely and by night you suddenly realize you have gone an entire day without smoking. Gradually as the days wear on, you will need patches with smaller and smaller doses of nicotine until you are totally weaned off the stuff.

Your nicotine chewing gum works in specifically the same way, except that you have to remember to keep popping the gum in your mouth all the time. As for the nicotine spray, for that you need a prescription. Just squirt a small quantity each time the craving comes and you will be fine enough to go on for a while. Gradually, you need to reduce the quantities of it that you are using. The same goes for the nicotine inhaler that looks pretty much like a cigarette itself.

Secondly, you should think about using the antidepressant drug bupropion. In the United States, bupropion is sold as Zyban, which I’m pretty sure you have heard of. Bupropion helps to control your desire for nicotine because it stops the chemicals that make you desire it from secreting in your body. As long as you stay with the drug, your pleasure-seeking behavior will be in check and you get to save yourself some extra cash instead of buying cigarettes.

Thirdly, you should get some group help to help with your stop smoking efforts. Support groups are all over the United States, on the Internet and in hospitals or rehabilitation centers. You get to meet people just like yourself who are struggling to quit smoking, and those who are not doing quite as well as you are. And then you have a number of people who have actually tried and succeeded offering their sorties, and a physician overseeing the rehabilitation. You may be amazed at how well it works for you.

Now here’s the catch; by combining the three abovementioned smoking cessation therapies, you are not only guaranteeing that you will stop smoking, but you are also giving yourself a 60 percent chance of staying smoke free for upwards of a year. Compared to the 25 percent chance you have by using only one of them, you have got to admit that you need to get in touch with a physician that can help you with all three. Call me.

Ok, he heard it from a doctor somewhere that if smoking cessation could not be attained by regular drugs and stop smoking treatments in the clinic, the only other possible route was through alternate medicine. He offered my brother hypnotism as a way to quit smoking, but my brother declined; and then he suggested smoking cessation by acupuncture, but Harry has always had a thing about needles. Finally, the physician said he was not sure about how effective this other treatment for quitting smoking might be, but could my brother try seeing a dietician about it?

My brother thought it had to be a joke; even I thought it had to be a joke. Except that we had nothing to lose – every other attempt to break the smoking habit had failed for Harry, and he was desperate – so we decided to give it a shot anyway. We called the number on the card and booked an appointment. And we did learn, boy did we learn!

As it turns out, body alkalinity has an effect on nicotine cravings. When your system has a low alkaline level, you will find it harder to resist the urge to smoke, and end up being stuck on the cigarette. The dietician ordered us on something of an acidosis diet with a rigid regimen of proteins and fat, while starch and sugar were to be greatly reduced. We also had to take a magnesium diet that consisted of valerian and wild lettuce. The dietician warned us to be careful on the diet; we could stay on it for only two weeks at a time before we absolutely had to get back to eating normally. He said the body could only take that much acidity or alkalinity at once without shutting down.

“Didn’t think it would work”, I must confess, I was the one who told Harry he should ditch the diet; but he wanted to be like me so much that he did it. So I moved in with him for a couple of months and joined him on the stop smoking program. “Didn’t think it would work”, I say again, but he was determined to stay on the diet; and so he did. Harry also made conscious effort to not buy any packs of cigarette for as long as he could help it. It was four months later before we realized that Harry had not smoked since the first month.

Increased alkalinity in the body system equals reduced thirst or yearning for nicotine, is what the dietician said, but I’ll never know if it was not the fact that we were together, our focus on sticking to the tenements of the diet, or simply willpower that was eventually able to help Harry stop smoking. We do know though that we stayed with the diet for another six months before I first ditched it, and then Harry did. He never smoked again since.

There are many ways to stop smoking; for Harry, it turns out it was the diet that helped.

I was there too, a while back; telling the whole world around me that I was trying to quit smoking. And I would stay clean for two days, and then I would be back worse than before; and then I would stay clean for another entire day, feeling really good about myself, but I would be back again even worse. I continued to decline that way for a very long time – I am talking about five years here – before I finally consented to the fact that I needed medical assistance to deal with the addiction. You are going to get there too, you know – that point where you realize that you have to get medical assistance to quit smoking. And when you do, you might just be able to break free from the bad smoking habit eventually.

For me, it was the stop smoking pills that eventually worked. I sincerely gave it my best shot; I went rogue with stop smoking literature and a host of other products that help you quit smoking; I even tried counseling and therapy; but smoking cessation for me was a phantom thought until my doctor introduced me to the pills. Don’t ask me; I’ll never know why nothing else helped. I suppose you could say ‘different strokes work for different folks,’ and you wouldn’t be too far off of the mark. All I can say is that once I started with the smoking cessation medications, I found my way back to stability.

I started out with Zyban, a long time antidepressant medication that has always been used in treating patients who had trouble dealing with the withdrawal symptoms from nicotine. Zyban is the brand name for the substance bupropin; it worked perfectly for two days before the doctor caught me trying to steal out of the stop smoking center to grab a cigarette. At that point, he had to introduce me to the rest of a wide range of antidepressant medications that worked by ‘regulating the levels of serotonin and other neurotransmitters’ in my brain, like I had a clue what he was talking about.

I didn’t. All that mattered to me was that he stopped that yawning craving for nicotine that had me in physical pain, headaches, and nausea for the whole day. This time around, I was given something called venlafaxine, or Effexor, as the mental health professional preferred to refer to it. He said it would tackle my craving. It did; and finally this time I was able to stay sober for a long time. That was three years ago, I have been clean from cigarettes and nicotine all of that time.

I will not presume to tell you it was a walk in the park because sometimes I still walk past a smoker and yearn for a drag, but when I think of the damage I had done to my lungs prior to quitting smoking, I remind myself that it isn’t worth it. The stop smoking group that I am a part of also helps in no little way, so I suppose I am in luck. But the best stop smoking advice I can give anyone is never to have started smoking at all in the first place.