Why Most Quit Smoking Remedies Don't Work

It's automatic

You started smoking gradually and naturally, right? You might have seen your parents or authority figures smoking. Maybe someone gave you your first cigarette in a social setting. You took a few puffs with friends, they rewarded you with acceptance, next thing you know, you are buying a pack of cigarettes at the store.

With about 1 mg of nicotine ingested with each cigarette, over time you become addicted to the nicotine. However, besides the physical nicotine addiction, your smoking habit develops an "automatic" mental addiction that becomes a deeply embedded, very human need. It's a very powerful combination that can keep you enslaved with no way out without a good plan

To overcome this powerful addictive habit, doesn't it make the sense that the best way for you to stop smoking is to address both the automatic mental addiction as well as the nicotine addiction?

It's not just physical

This is why if you want to quit for good, you can't just address the physical addiction to nicotine. If you only use nicotine patches, gum and lozenges, or prescription nicotine receptor blockers like some top-selling prescription drugs, you still have a 63% chance or better that you will return to smoking.

You may also think you can quit with "cold" laser beams, "electric" cigarettes, hypnosis and cold turkey. Studies show these have a low success rate of 5% to 13% success.

If you try quit using cold turkey, about 95% of smokers will smoke again after a year.

Most of these "quick fix" treatments and nicotine products don't work well because they only address one component of your habit, the nicotine addiction, but not the whole "automatic habit" process. Many smokers mistakenly misunderstand this, thinking it's only about the nicotine. The result is they have a high chance of going back to smoking after quitting.

Like any powerful love relationship, it's not just the physical, it's the human emotional and mental part, too.

Here is a breakdown of studies on quit smoking treatments and their success rates results after one year:

top-selling smoking prescription drug: 37%top-selling anti-depressant smoking prescription drug: 30%Nicotine replacement (Gum, lozenge, inhaler, patch): 15%Cold turkey: 5%cold laser: no studies availablehypnosis acupuncture, herbs treatment: no known studiesexpensive inpatient hospital and clinics: 23 to 45%

The two factors of your smoking habit

The best approach to quit smoking so you quit for good, is to addresses both aspects of the smoking habit: the physical nicotine, and the automatic mental component.

You want to break the automatic part of the habit while at the same time reducing the amount of nicotine

By quitting in this comprehensive way, you quit for good. Permanently. This means you won't have any more urges or cravings to smoke, and you don't fall back into the habit again.

Many smokers wish for an easy solution like popping a couple of pills to cure years of cigarette smoking habits, but that is no sure thing. Worse, the side effects of some of these quit-smoking prescription drugs are - literally - suicidal.

To quit smoking for good, make sure you employ both the physical and the mental aspects of the smoking habit, to overcome your very "human" need to continue a habit, once you start one.

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