Ifs and Butts

There are many urban myths surrounding the difficulties involved in stopping smoking. These myths contribute to the anxiety and subsequent delay in seeking help to quit. The problem is further exacerbated by a poor understanding of the real basis of the addiction and the frenzied marketing of inappropriate tools to help the smoker stop. Here we discuss some of the most common myths and misunderstandings, thereby aiming to offer a more useful, in-depth understanding of the problem and suggest a direction for a successful solution.

MYTH: Nicotine Is Highly Addictive

Fact is, nicotine is a mildly addictive substance, and any withdrawal symptoms are nothing more than a mild anxiety that lasts for about four days. If nicotine was highly addictive, non-smoking family members of smokers would also suffer strong withdrawal symptoms. They too inhale enough nicotine passively to have an addictive effect, yet they are rarely aware of any withdrawal symptoms when they move to a non-smoking environment. This is because they have no emotional association to smoking.

Similarly, people who work in smoky places have levels of nicotine in their blood high enough to cause an addiction, but they don't need to smoke when they get home, because they have no mental association with smoking relieving the mild nicotine-induced symptoms. The symptoms often referred to as nicotine withdrawal symptoms are associated with levels of anxiety and fear that the addictive behavior is used to cover. When the cover is removed the underlying anxiety is exposed. The smoking has been masking the underlying anxiety..

MYTH: Old habits die hard

A 'habit' may make you reach for a cigarette with your coffee in the morning, but that is all it is, just habit. If you have stopped and no longer want a cigarette, it doesn't cross your mind to force one upon yourself. Habits are there to make life easier. They allow your mind to focus on what's important or new without becoming cluttered and confused. If a routine has no emotional charge then it is easily changed. It is only the emotional charge associated with a habit that keeps us from letting it go, no matter what the habit. Once the reasons the habit was formed are removed then there is no reason to continue it any longer and the habit will fade and be easily replaced.

MYTH: Nicotine Withdrawal Is Usually Long And Painful

The 'withdrawal symptoms' you experience when you try to give up smoking are exactly the same physical and emotional symptoms as fear and anxiety: sweating, restlessness, irritability, insomnia and nervousness. They are the same symptoms because they are the same problem. It is simply another smoking lie that being smoke free needs to be mentally and physically painful.

True nicotine withdrawals simply put – a mild anxiety; the rest is an exaggeration by the smokers mind, fuelled by urban myth. This artificial anxiety induced by smoking, will last only 4 days if left to its own devices and if it is not re -triggered by smoking another cigarette. The reason people start again after quitting, is the subconscious memory that smoking once seemed to relieve anxiety, an illusion created by smoking in the first place.. Any longer lasting symptoms of anxiety and fear are unrelated to the actual nicotine withdrawal, and are based on the underlying mental and emotional associations, which no amount of nicotine can alter.

SUBSTITUTES?

Nicotine replacement does not work as nicotine is not the thing you are primarily addicted to. Nicotine is only mildly addictive and the withdrawal symptoms wear off over about 4 days. So using nicotine replacement is only useful to the companies that manufacture these products. If this were really the case you would only need to cut down one cigarette a day until you no longer smoked. In many cases of light smokers they actually increase the level of nicotine in their body by using patches.

Hypnotic suggestion alone does not work often as a long term strategy. Hypnotic suggestions adds a new layer of unconscious thought patterns down in the mind, but does not eliminate the underlying root caused of the addictive behavior. Hypnosis can be a very powerful adjunct to a successful stop smoking program, but is not so effective as a stand alone technique. What does work?