Self Help Strategies to Stop Smoking

There are some simple activities that can be used to help you stop smoking such as keeping the hands busy, chewing carrots, taking the long deep breath, drink a glass of water, or even rewarding yourself when you manage to reach the end of the day without a single puff. The first few weeks after you quit is very critical in increasing your chances to quit for good:1. Record your progress. When you are trying to quit smoking, do it slowly but steady. It is important that you set a date and time that you will begin to quit. At the mean time, keep a detail record of each cigarette that you smoke; where, when and in what conditions. This will make it easier for you to identify situations in which you smoke, and then come out with an alternative activity to replace it.2. Hold your desire. When you decided to stop smoking gradually, each time you feel eager to smoke, wait for five minutes before lighting it up. After several days, extend the delay to ten minutes. Several days later, extend it to 15 minutes, and so on. By doing this, you will began to notice that the cravings would disappear faster.3. Search for help. Whether you want to stop out of a sudden or gradually with reducing the number of cigarettes you smoke, it would better to have someone who provide support. With support from people, the result will be much different. Ask support from friends, family, or the other smokers who share your goal to quit smoking. It is not uncommon that during the first week people who quit smoking often encounter depression symptoms such as anxiety and sleeplessness.4. Drinking orange juice.Most difficult part to stop smoking is when you have to overcome the nicotine withdrawal symptom; a reaction due to the absence of nicotine. Normally it would last for one or two weeks. During that time you would experience reactions such as susceptible, anxious, confused, difficulty to concentrate and difficulty to sleep due to nicotine withdrawal. Drinking lots of orange juice would help you to overcome those symptoms. This is due to the fact that orange juice makes your urine more acidic in order to quickly dispel the nicotine from the body. However, if you stop smoking with the help of patch or chewing gum that contains nicotine, avoid drinking orange juice and other acidic drinks because those are meant to induce a little amount of nicotine into your body.6. Stay away from bars and cafes. The biggest temptation to smoke again is when you go to a bar or cafe. For lots of people, coffee and beer go together nicely with cigarettes. Therefore avoid bars or cafes for at least two weeks after you first stop smoking because there are considered as places that would influence your desire to smoke. Instead go to the library, place of worship, or other public places that prohibit smoking.