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 WWW.QUIT-CIGS.COM

Have You Tried An Electronic Cigarette To Quit Smoking??
http://www.easyecigarette.com

We are putting together a website where we can all share our ideas and opinions on the best ways to quit cigs. 

This site is divided into the following sections, if you feel we should add a section please email us and we'll look into it:       

    quit cigs

SECTION A

The different methods currently available to help quit cigs.

SECTION B

Peoples thoughts on the best ways to quit smoking.


SECTION A - The different forms of quitting smoking.

  • Hypnosis
  • Nicotine Replacement Therapy
  • Self Help Books
  • Group Therapy & NLP
  • Cold Turkey
  • Electronic Cigarettes
SECTION B - Commonly observed reactions to quitting.

  • HYPNOSIS

Many therapists offer a pay for one-off session to quit smoking with free follow-up sessions if necessary. A stop smoking consultation with a hypnotherapist will generally involve gathering information into your personal reasons for wanting to quit smoking. Though often successful initially many respondents find that over time they start smoking again.

Hypnosis is state of mind that is achieved by relaxation.  The therapist develops a technique that allows the smoker to begin to relax and to calm the flow of everyday thoughts in the smokers mind.  When this deep relaxation has been achieved it is believed that the smoker will be more susceptible to suggest.  Now, don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean you'll be "programmed" to carry out an action, no, the person achieving the hypnotic state is completely in control of their thoughts and actions and can at any point rouse themselves from the relaxed state.  Alot of people have seen TV shows based on hypnotic suggestion and believe they will turned into a chicken whilst in the relaxed state.  That just doesn't happen.

Many reports and journals have been written about the HYPNOSIS approach and many studies have been carried out to compare this approach against other techniques.  Though HYPNOSIS doesn't guarantee anything it has been compared very favourably against NICOTINE REPLACEMENT.  The following is an extract from a journal published in 2002:

To find the most effective method to stop smoking Frank Schmidt and research student Chockalingham Viswesvaran from the university of Iowa used a meta-analysis, utilising the results of more than 600 studies totalling nearly 72,000 people.
The results, which were published in the Journal of Applied Psychology and included 48 studies of hypnosis covering 6000 smokers, clearly showed that hypnosis, to use the same terminology as the quit counsellor, was three times more effective than NRT.

References - Elliot Wald, Tami J Eggelston PhD & Fredrick Gibbson PhD, "Cognitive reactions to smoking relapse", New Scientist, vol 136, pp6.
Posted from Josephine Teague, Research Director on 07/09/2002

  • NICOTINE REPLACEMENT THERAPY
          Over the last decade there have been an avalance of Nicotine Replacement products hitting the market place. The most common ones are the patches, the gum and the lozenges and we have recently seen the introduction of the "inhaler", for me the inhaler is a side step and I'll come on to why I think this one particular product says more about quitting cigs than the others.

Nicotine Patches/Gum/Lozenges:  since the introduction of the patch I've seen many work colleagues swear by them, they are discrete, affordable and effective.  The only downside to them I've learn't is that as with most of the products available you still need to have willpower to eventually quit.  Thats why I'm not buying into this approach 100%.  Yes I've tried them and yes I did think they would be the answer but I found out that when I was in a social enviroment like at the pub I would still want to smoke.  I realised that it's probably because I NEED to do something with my hands, all past and pressent smokers will understand this.  I've been smoking for over 2 decades and become accustomed to handling a cigarette and thats why I believe they didn't provide the whole answer for me. Please email me and tell me about your experiences of NRT products, my email is above - I'll add them to this site.

  • SELF HELP BOOKS
Part of me wants to laugh out loud when I remember my first attempt at the SELF HELP approach.  I've read probably 8 books over the years all promising me that this book would be the one to help where all the others failed.  I'm not naturally cynical but after a while I got to believe that these books did nothing more than fill someones bank balance.  Lets be honest, there are probably some of you out there who swear by them and I will hold my hands up and say that it worked for you then they must be effective.  But my opinion is that in general they just don't work.  I mean how do they hope to convince you that the cig you are craving isn't really there!

Please let me know if you have any experiences, positive or negative about the use of SELF HELP books, all comments (unless obscene) will be posted.  My email is at the top of the screen.

  • GROUP THERAPY & NLP
Personally I've not tried to quit smoking with GROUP THERAPY - my reservations are my own I can't blame anyone else but I just can't see how this would work for me.  Possibly it would after I manage to quit and it could provide me with a connection with a support network all trying to achieve the same goal.  Realistically though if I did manage to quit altogether I'm not the type of person who goes in for "team hugs" or "crying sessions", I find it all abit too personal and thats why I roll my eyes when I think about it.

  • COLD TURKEY
Possibly my least favourite method of quitting cigs.  I've tried it time and time again and I know just how difficult it is so anyone out there reading this has my sympathies.  That said I've questioned myself each time I've failed to quit smoking and I keep coming back to the same answer, how does this scenario sound to you??

"You're about 3 or 4 days into COLD TURKEY and you're on a night out with friends in the pub".  I've been here so many times it's almost laughable, after 3 or 4 pints, oh and remember the last time I tried COLD TURKEY you could smoke in the pub, lots of cigarette smoke floating around and someone offers you a cigarette!.  Thats all it takes, well, for me anyhow.  The funny thing is I KNOW that its going to happen but I convince myself that "not this time".

COLD TURKEY is possible the worst way of quitting known to mankind.  If you have a COLD TURKEY experience, successful or otherwise please email me, I'll include your comments on here.

  • ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES
Pretty much a late comer to the "quit cigs battle" but I'm sure I'm in the minority at the moment (but when I tell you what my experience is you might be very interested in them).  Electronic cigarettes came into my life Oct 2008.  Sat at home one morning before I left for work watching the BBC news.  They featured an article on electronic cigarettes, a cigarette that smokes but without the harmful side effects of tobacco and tar - don't get me wrong this thing still gives you a hit of nicotine, it looks just like a real cigarette too.  I was intrigued, after all I'd tried to quit cigs so many times before for all sorts of reason, health, wife kids, money without any permanent success that after looking around the web for a supplier I convinced myself that if I was going to continue smoking I might as well smoke a healthier cigarette. 

I ordered my electronic cigarette and when it arrived I was pleasantly surprised just how realistic it was.  I'd hoped it would look the part but secretly thought it might just be a cheap gimmick, well, One Nil to the electronic cigarette.  I was even more impressed when I tried it for the first time.  My wife was nearly as excited as me, it was just like a real cig!, if you want to see more of them, click here: electronic cigarette 

The reason I've left talking about them till last is this, I've tried to quit smoking, I've looked at all the best ways to quit cigs and I've resigned myself to the knowledge that I probably won't ever be smoke free, yes I can go for a while without them buy eventually I end up smoking again.  Smoking an electronic cigarette is a half way house at least I now smoke a product that satisifies all my cravings and is a lot healthier than a real cig.

If you have any experience of electronic cigarettes, good or bad, please email me and I'll include your comments here for others to read.
 
 
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