How To Quit Smoking Once And For All

How To Quit Smoking Once And For All

How To Quit Smoking Once And For All

We often hear that strong willpower is needed to quit smoking. It's true. But this definition can be misleading, as it seems to imply that wanting to quit is the most important thing.

And in fact, it is also for this reason that many smokers declare that they "want to quit" for many years, but that they are unable to do so. In short, there is no lack of will. It is the practice that is lacking.

This happens for many reasons; the anecdote is more or less known to all. You don't quit because after all smoking "likes", because it is never the right time because it helps against stress because it contributes positively to maintaining weight etc.

One could say that any excuse is good, but the truth is that our brain is behind these motivations.

The connection between smoke and brain

Everything stems from the fact that nicotine is a substance that, when consumed through cigarettes, creates a lot of addiction. What we call "smoking vice" is nothing more than an adaptation of our brain to nicotine consumption. Continued consumption over time favors the stimulus of reward, which is linked to the state of dependence and the withdrawal crises that arise, albeit temporary, when too much time is spent between one smoke and another.

The withdrawal crisis is relevant when you try to quit and signals a profound struggle between your will and what pushes the brain, badly accustomed to receiving stimuli from nicotine.

A very interesting research has tried to establish why some people can stop and others can't, despite the proclamations. It also depends on how the brain responds to possible rewards. Triggering an alternative (in the case of the search for a cash prize in exchange for more time since the last cigarette smoked) would seem to be able to help. But not all brains look the same.

The point is that quitting also implies a mental predisposition, which is perhaps more important than willpower. You need to protect yourself without the cigarette in your mouth into your daily routine.

This concept is strongly supported by those who fight smoking damage on the front. In addition to addiction, there is a mental aspect to consider. The cigarette is considered part of the routine, a travel companion in the normal work and family day, which has a disruptive effect on everything else. There is a cigarette break exactly as there is a coffee break.

The day is punctuated by appointments with nicotine, so much so that at the end of it, before going to bed, it is discovered that there was always more or less the same number of cigarettes. There is a cyclicity that is part of the ordinary that should be mentally wiped out, in order to facilitate things.

The social and convivial aspect must not be forgotten. Although it is now banned almost everywhere, there are still many smokers. The cigarette is however socially accepted, of course, smokers understand each other, and it can help induce a relaxed mood that facilitates social relationships. Since you start as a young person, it is easy to be "infected" by a friend or friend; this is because as human beings we tend to follow in the good and in the bad example. And also because until the final growth the brain absorbs more notions without assessing the consequences too much.

It is natural, therefore, that to quit smoking we must eliminate all the stimuli that lead us to do so.

Advanced studies on neuroscience and on the formation of habits tell us that the main problem, when you want to get out of a vicious circle of bad habits, is not the habit itself, but what triggers it.

Several testimonies corroborate these studies and research. For example, one of the classic stimuli (triggers) is the morning coffee which induces to smoke the first cigarette of the day.

The stimulus is so strong that the pattern repeats itself after each coffee. And in the end, they drink more coffee to indulge the stimulus of the cigarette, favor it in some way. In these cases, it is sufficient to check the number of coffees drunk, and then deactivate the stimulus, to trigger a first positive process.

At the brain level, nicotine triggers a dopamine response, which transmits a feeling of pleasure.

The brain is therefore led to release dopamine behind the consumption of a substance and not for other more natural inputs that determine a " positive addiction " (for example, doing physical activity, sleeping better, meditating, going out in the fresh air). This does nothing but devalue the dopamine response with the consequence that the release is never enough and tends to "conform" to the nicotine intake.

In the meantime, the brain associates nicotine consumption with the sensation of pleasure.

But this continuous stimulus has no cost. The habit of smoking induces withdrawal symptoms: irritability, anxiety, a sense of tiredness, and poor mental clarity.

To compensate you need to smoke more.

The result is deterioration over time of cognitive functions, due to the fact that this vice literally rewrites the brain. And it must be repeated because it seems that the cigarette can only hurt the lungs or the heart. Research has shown that repeated smoking can lead to loss of brain mass volume (one of the secrets of our species' evolutionary breakthroughs are having a voluminous brain full of connections) with an increased risk of senile dementia, memory loss, and increased risk. of stroke.

How to quit the bad habit of smoking

To quit smoking, ultimately, not only willpower is needed and sometimes a good example is not enough.

You need to imagine yourself outside of the current frame of the hardened smoker. An image that probably accompanies you even in dreams.

In this way, you can already get used to detaching the stimuli that lead to the inevitable cigarette. Working on stimuli is important because you start to deactivate those neuronal pathways that lead you to seek nicotine for more dopamine and a feeling of euphoria and well-being.

It often happens that the smoker does not have a lifestyle consistent with an idea of ​​well-being and that he also associates with smoking bad eating habits, poor sleep, little physical activity, excess stress or hyperactivity (those who stop often blame the blow by dedicating themselves to make up for addiction by eating more).

Instead, you channel the stimulus towards activities that in any case generate more varied hormonal releases, in order to balance the dopamine response, make it more natural over time, and less dependent on unhealthy external stimuli such as smoking, and more linked to social experiences or good practices.

You will see that by doing so you will find a valid ally in the brain, causing it to lower artificial pretensions, in exchange for a more natural satisfaction that involves every aspect of your person.