When a person decides they want to stop smoking, it’s usually because of health reasons. They’ve been told countless times by people who love them that smoking is awful for them and will lead to a prematurely death. Usually, the person responds by blowing out a plume of smoke while nodding with acknowledgement. Everyone knows smoking is bad for them, it’s written right on the side of the box in the form of a Surgeon General’s Warning. However, it’s not until the smoking begins to take effect that people actually take to trying to quit. It’s not until they are wheezing after walking up a flight of stairs, or just getting out of their car that they seriously decide to quit smoking. That’s when they will likely spend lots of hard-earned money on the latest stop smoking products.

Not As Easy As It Looks

It is said that cigarette tobacco is as addictive as heroine, or even more addictive. That means that a person can become addictive with just one puff of one cigarette. The reason why cigarettes are so addictive is because the tobacco attaches to certain receptors in our brains that trigger certain fight or flight tendencies, such as the affects of adrenaline. That’s why a person may feel calmed by a cigarette even though it’s a stimulant. The problem is that the tobacco fits into those receptors better, and more easily, than the chemicals in our bodies. For this reason, once you start smoking, it’s nearly impossible to quit.

Mark Twain once said that quitting smoking was easy, he’d done it a thousand times. It is said that most smokers quit at least five times before they finally kick the habit and most people never do. Why would this be the case with so many stop smoking products on the market? That’s because that most people use stop smoking products to quit smoking but just end up become addicted to the products. It’s like an alcoholic trying to quit drinking by attaching alcohol patches to themselves. It still contains alcohol, or in this case nicotine, and so you are merely replacing one with the other.

Cold Turkey

That’s not to say that stop smoking products don’t work. They do work if you have the will power and desire to quit. For most, however, that is easier said than done. The best way to quit smoking is to forgo the stop smoking products and merely throw out the cigarettes you have now. Make a conscious decision not to smoke. Ask for the non-smoking section in restaurants, refrain from visiting bars and other places where smoking is commonplace and try to pay at the pump when getting gas instead of going inside where the cigarette advertisement is very in-your-face. It’s by making a conscious decision to smoke and by refraining from those activities that entice you to smoke that you can truly hope to quit smoking once and for all.