|
Smoking
Smoking is a very hard habit to break. In order to stop smoking it has to come from within!! No one can stop you from smoking, no medicine, no
treatment. Stopping smoking is 95% willpower, 5% help. When an individual has been smoking 200 puffs of soot per day for 20 years, it is very hard to suddenly stop that pattern. It is part of that
individual's life. In order to stop, one has to make a commitment of the same magnitude as any other major project in life! This is admittedly very difficult if there are lots of other things going on in
life. But since there may be a 10 year lag time before smoking related cancers or other damages surface, trouble is 10 years closer than one thinks. It is critical to understand why one smokes. Is it fear of weight gain, need to have something in the mouth,
purely a reaction to stress, or just a habit?One needs to be so committed to stopping, that he or she is able to announce to twenty or thirty people that they will never take another puff of
another cigarette ever again for the rest of their lives. Then one needs to replace those need s that perpetuate the habit. For stress and weight gain fears that certainly means increased exercise
as well as other methods of stress reduction. Meditation, yoga, therapy, etc. First commit to the exercise and stress reduction. Then commit to the stop date. It is here that if one needs help,
Zyban may be an adjunctive therapy. Zyban is an anti-depressant that takes two weeks to work, It can cause agitation and anxiety, and rarely can cause seizures. In general it is a safe
medication. It helps one to focus, it does not stop smoking. Zyban is not covered by insurance. It costs about $60/month. Generally one takes it three or four months. In addition, one can take
nicotine substitutes in order to deal with the addiction component. Patches, gum, and nasal spray all serve that purpose. These can be tapered over a very long period of time if necessary. These are also not
covered by insurance. But then again, neither are ciagarettes! Hypnosis, acupuncture, "the mad Russian", and other therapies may also be adjunctive. We will help you in any way we can if your commitment to
stopping is very sincere. |
