How To Give Up Smoking – A Good Overview from Helpguide.org

Earlier today, I ran a Google search on “How To Give Up Smoking”, and the first result it returned was an article titled, “How to Quit Smoking: Guide to quitting and kicking the habit for good.” The article is featured on the site “helpguide.org”, and it’s one of the best and most comprehensive overviews of the quitting process I’ve seen.

What’s in the Article?

The article touches on some of the main challenges to quitting, how to design your personal quit plan, coping with cravings and withdrawal, as well as dealing with weight gain and changes in mood.

It also lists a number of different approaches to quitting (and I was pleasantly surprised to find “quitting cold turkey” listed first in its list of methods that people have used to successfully quit), and, while I believe that, in the final analysis, all successful long-term quitters quit cold turkey, the article’s authors don’t seem bent on convincing their readers to immediately turn to NRTs and other pharmaceutical aids to quitting.

Pretty Well-Balanced

Although the article’s authors do spend considerably more time discussing what they refer to as “Medication therapy” (e.g., NRTs and non-nicotine-based medications such as bupropion (Zyban) and varenicline (Chantix)) and various “Non-medication therapies” (e.g., hypnosis and acupuncture) than they do discussing quitting cold turkey, I suspect that this may be due to an assumption that there really isn’t much to talk about with the cold turkey method than with any bias against it.

The article wraps up with some reasonable advice on how best to help a family member quit smoking and what to do if you relapse.

The Bottom Line

All in all, this is an excellent overview of the quitting process, and, although I disagree with some of what the article says (particularly about the effectiveness of NRTs and pharmaceutical-based “therapies”), it’s still well worth the time to read. You can read the full article for yourself at the following link:

http://www.helpguide.org/mental/quit_smoking_cessation.htm

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