Turn Your Back on Nicotine by Richard Mcgough - HTML preview

Introduction

Your about to save your own life, this may sound like an exaggerated claim but it's the plain truth. If you learn from and follow even a few of the techniques in this e-book you will be well on your way to being smoke free and avoiding the grim reaper for as long as possible!

Stopping smoking makes you feel great and empowers you to reach higher and grip tighter, mostly when people think, talk or write about stopping they focus on the hardships of the process, withdrawal symptoms, tension and disturbed sleep patterns.

No one seems to mention feeling stronger day by day, getting a huge boost of extra energy or being able to run six miles (fast) before you get out of breath, instead of the old smokey two miles, or no miles.

Yes it's true that the cravings can be tough to overcome but they're nothing compared to what you get back, your old self.

Feel free to read further and you will discover that quitting for ever isn't half as difficult or unenjoyable as you've heard.

Brought To You By www.letsgetsmokefree.com

Part 1. You Never Saw It Coming

How did this destructive little shit get into our life’s in the first place? The answer to this question is a little more complex than it would first appear, certainly advertising cigarettes in the media and in movies stretches back over the last seventy years, probably even longer.

So before you or I were even born the idea that smoking was something that only the coolest and cleverest engaged in, that it was a nice little treat for yourself, and that it made a woman more feminine and a man more masculine (how exactly?) had already been drip fed into the public psyche for years, consciously and probably subliminally to.

So with that kind of sneaky mass marketing campaign it isn't all that surprising that many of us started smoking without really stopping to ask

“Why am I doing this to myself?”

Also if you add to this the fact that most of us started smoking when we were between twelve and eighteen (the age when we think we know everything but we actually don't know that much) it's no great shock that it flew into our life well under the sensible radar.

In 2010 doctors criticised Ferrari for using subliminal advertising or creeping branding, the red and white bar code which is clearly visible on Ferrari's F1

racing cars and on it's drivers overalls bear's an uncanny resemblance to the bottom half of a packet of Marlboro cigarettes, it was claimed.

John Britton, director of the tobacco advisory group for the Royal College of Physicians commented “The barcode looks like the bottom half of a packet of marlboro cigarettes, I was stunned when I saw it, this is pushing at the limits.

If you look at how the barcode has evolved over the last four years, it looks like creeping branding.”

Benson & Hedges has also been accused of similar tricks by changing the lettering on their sponsorship F1 racing cars from -Benson & Hedges- to

-Bitten & Hisses- or -BE ON EDGE- and while this is more obvious because everyone knows what -Bitten & Hisses- really stands for it just goes to show that large cigarette company’s advertising ploys haven't left us alone just yet, rather they have evolved in order to squeeze through the loopholes and still get their message out. Anyone who is looking to stop smoking should be aware of this, if you know how a trick works it can't trick you anymore.

Part 2. How Difficult Is Quitting Going To Be?

This is the question that everyone who wants to stop smoking asks themselves at least three times a day, and the most honest answer I can give you is yes, it get's very difficult for the first four to seven days of quitting then it get's noticeably easier day by day. So if you can be strong for yourself and put up with a few days of annoying withdrawal symptoms you will very quickly start to reap the rewards and feel like your old self again. Also there are a number of proven methods which lift the strain of dealing with cravings, we will look into these methods a bit later in the book.

The reason we have to experience any withdrawals at all is our old friend (or enemy) nicotine.

Nicotine is the tobacco plants natural defence against being eaten by insects, in liquid form it is more lethal than Diamond-Back rattle snake venom and three times deadlier than arsenic, but for some weird reason it's chemical signature is so similar to the neurotransmitter acetylcholine that once inside our brain it fits a number of chemical locks permitting it control over the flow of two hundred or so neuro-chemicals. One of these chemicals is Dopamine, the brains own reward chemical.

Our brains dopamine pathways act as a guide to what we should be doing, they use a wanting or yearning feeling to lead us towards the activity that will keep us alive or reproducing. Water, food and sex being the obvious examples.

Now I'm sure you can imagine what happens when a chemical (nicotine in this case) is introduced to our brains and has enough similarity to acetylcholine to activate our brains dopamine reward system, with repetition our internal dopamine guide is going to believe that smoking and topping up the nicotine levels in the blood is just as important as eating, and it will tell you to do it over and over again, and if you don't obey. . . WO mamma! You're going to get some nasty cravings.

This is the reason that quitting is going to be tough, especially in the short term, but once your limbic or survival mind realises that getting no nicotine isn't going to harm you it will stop bombarding you with cravings and you can relax a little and start to feel healthier again.

Visit www.letsgetsmokefree.com To Learn More Part 3. Identify What Type Of Smoker You Are

Figuring out what kind of smoker you are can help you figure out the best way to go about stopping. For a part time/social smoker stopping cold turkey could be the best option however for a heavy, everyday smoker hypnosis or nicotine replacement will greatly improve their chances of stopping and staying stopped, let's have a look at the different types.

The Skinny Smoker.

This is the person who believes that if they quit smoking they will gain unacceptable amounts of weight, so they keep smoking, sometimes even when they don't want to.

Nicotine acts as an appetite suppressor by giving receptors in our brains signals which are almost identical to the signals we get after eating a meal, we relax after a cigarette and feel satisfied or appeased. So it stands to reason that once the skinny smoker quits their appetite will get stronger and they could put on weight.

A good way to prevent this weight gain is to adopt a regular exercise routine once you stop, this will burn of the extra calories you are taking on and will also keep your mood level and make good use of the extra energy you get when you quit, anything that makes you sweaty and out of breath for forty five minutes every second day is good. We will look into quitting without gaining weight in more depth a bit later, for now the next type is . . .

The Stressed Smoker

This is a very common one as a lot of smokers spark up to relieve stress, you can see the same behaviour with snacks or cups of coffee, the person in question needs a little boost along or a little break from the stressful task at hand. Fortunately this one isn't to hard to break, because the smoking is a learned response to a trigger, the trigger being the increase in stress.

You can learn new responses to old triggers, NLP or neuro linguistic programming is a good method for changing behaviour patterns and teaching yourself new responses. It can be as simple as getting up and going for a walk outside for five minutes to escape the stress for a bit (instead of escaping via smoke bomb) but there are a few mental exercises which help you to instantly think of your new response, instead of thinking stress-smoke-no can't smoke-walk you will just think stress-walk-back to it.

We will look into some NLP techniques in more detail later on.

The Smoker Who’s Always Quitting

This type of smoker constantly assures themselves that it's ok because they are going to quit very very soon and telling themselves this becomes an alibi to keep smoking as opposed to what is going to happen. What is definitely going to happen is that they are going to continue smoking far longer than they think with the odd four day quit session thrown in to appease the more sensible side of their nature.

If you find yourself reading this while you are actually in this state I would like to tell you this. You might as well just stop, for ever this time, because you are going to anyway further down the line so is there any real point in see sawing between the two for another three or four years?

The Social Smoker

People who fall into this category never experience the same annoying cravings as a daily smoker, they smoke when they want to not when the nicotine tells them to. However more people would like to be in this category than actually are, people who truly are social smokers never smoke alone, they only smoke when they are doing something they deem to be social, recreational and relaxing. They never smoke sitting by themselves on a boring drive home like a regular (mortal) smoker would.

If you truly fall into this category you can stop cold turkey whenever you like, with little or no fuss. If however you now realize you can't stop quite as easily as this then over time you have crossed a line somewhere and become addicted, and therein lies the problem with social smoking.

The Emotional Smoker

For those of us that have more extreme shifts in mood (for whatever reason) dealing with nicotine withdrawal can be all the more difficult because what for someone else is a slight downer can seem to you like a plummeting spiral!

The flip side of this is that once you do get free of the withdrawal stages you’ll feel much better about your accomplishment, and if you know your going to be having strong mood shifts its better to behave in a way that creates good moods as opposed to bad ones. If you are this type of smoker you probably smoke to avoid negative feelings, situations and arguments. For you smoking has become something to turn to when things are happening that you either don't like or have no control over, the challenge for you is to become comfortable with yourself when your not smoking, and also you have to ask yourself “if being around something or someone is so annoying to me that it forces me to smoke, is it really worth being around that?” Part 4. The Upside Of Quitting

Whenever the subject of stopping smoking comes up the mind always goes to the harsher aspects of the subject, how difficult it's going to be and how long your cravings are going to last and what not, but the flip side to this smokey coin that a lot of people forget about is how amazing they're going to feel after the first week or so of annoying cravings have past.

Your whole body and also your mind has been weighed down, in most cases for a few years at least, by this fog of chemicals and when this fog starts to lift you really do feel stronger, healthier and younger. Most people who manage to stick to stopping find themselves going back to an old sport or finding a new one, I got back into running and boxing when I stopped and I can honestly say it was easy and enjoyable to reach a good level of fitness, because I was no longer struggling against my own body, and once I had achieved this state the thought of going back to smoking was laughable!

Just below I have laid out the timeline and the good changes your body will go through the longer you have stopped for and the more distance you put between yourself and cigarettes.

1. Just twenty minutes after stopping your blood pressure and pulse rate will return to normal.

2. Just eight hours after stopping the remaining nicotine in your system will have fallen to about seven percent of normal daily levels, thats a drop of around ninety three percent!

3. Twelve hours after stopping the oxygen levels in your blood will have shot back up to normal so you won't get so out of breath doing medium difficulty physical activity.

4. Forty eight hours after stopping damaged nerve endings are beginning to regrow and your sense of smell and taste will be returning to normal.

5. Seventy two hours after stopping and your body will be completely nicotine free and your lung bronchial tubes are beginning to relax, breathing is becoming easier and your lungs capacity is beginning to increase, basically you are getting stronger.

6. Ten days after stopping you should only be getting two or three times a day when you think about smoking, and the cravings will be far less insistent, also your lung strength and stamina will be continuing to rise.

7. Two weeks to two months after stopping your risk of heart attack has dropped greatly (bonus) and your circulation keeps improving.

8. And lastly two months to eight months after stopping your cilia have regrown in your lungs which increases their ability to clean themselves and reduce infections, and your body’s energy has greatly increased.

Once you make it through the annoyance of the cravings stopping smoking becomes an enjoyable, refreshing process, but you never usually hear about this side of it because the people who try to quit will tell you how impossible it is to make themselves feel better about failing.

Visit www.letsgetsmokefree.com To Find Out More Part 5. The Best Methods For Quitting

In this section we're going to have a look at the best methods for stopping smoking, which have been tried and tested. If you see one you like the sound of you can skip straight to that chapter later in the book, or you can have a read through all of them if you want.

Some of the methods that appear to be a little unbelievable are actually some of the best ones, like stopping with hypnosis for example, when I personally first heard about this method I thought “Isn't hypnosis something that stage magicians use at weddings and parties to give people a laugh?” But once I had looked into it I discovered that it's one of the best techniques for easily overcoming your cravings. So it might be a good call for you to give all the methods a look, even if they sound slightly out of the box at first, because the one you overlook might be the one that would of worked for you.

Quitting With NLP

The main focus of NLP is replicating the most effective behaviour patterns in any field, for example Tiger Woods in golf or Richard Branson in business, and teaching you how to replace a part of your behaviour, which is bad or detrimental with behaviour from the best role model in the field.

By learning a few simple techniques you can greatly change the quality of your life, or get rid of an unwanted behaviour pattern, smoking in this case. NLP

has a few good techniques for beating addictions, to learn more about them just head for the NLP chapter.

Quitting With Nicotine Replacement

Nicotine replacement reduces your withdrawal symptoms which helps you to stop smoking, I won't linger on this one because nearly everyone who smokes has heard of nicotine patches and gum, if you feel like this method could work for you head to the nicotine replacement chapter and we will have an in depth look at the pro's and con's.

Quitting With Hypnosis

If you decide to use either self-hypnosis or a session with a hypnotherapist to quit (or both) your chances of success are going to greatly increase. In most cases it only takes one session with a hypnotherapist to quit, because they access your subconscious and suggest that you don't want to smoke anymore, once you achieve this mental state there's no need for a prolonged battle with nicotine cravings. To find out more head for the hypnosis chapter.

Quitting Cold Turkey

This is definitely a good option if you are stubborn, if you are not it can be a very difficult way to quit. The plus points about quitting cold turkey is that once you succeed it is very unlikely you will start again, because you went through such a tough time you won't want to ever again. The other positive about quitting this way is you can feel every stage clearly (unlike with nicotine replacement) and as soon as the intensity of your cravings wear of you can feel it right away and you very definitely know you are going in the right direction, head straight to the cold turkey chapter if this method sounds right for you, and you like a challenge!

Using Acupuncture To Quit

Not always the first place your thoughts go to when you think about quitting, but acupuncture is a treatment handed out by many courts in the U.S.A. For treating drug addicts because of it's ability to reduce cravings and alleviate withdrawal symptoms. The acupuncture needles used are hair-thin. They are lightly inserted into various points in the ears and body to release endorphins which help with cravings. In between treatments, small pellets are often taped to the acupuncture points on the ear. When a cigarette craving hits, gently pressing on the pellets stimulates the acupuncture points to calm you down and get rid of the craving. If you are interested in this method check out the acupuncture chapter where we will look at its history, success rates and other details.

Using Medication To Quit

These medications help you to stop smoking by reducing cravings and withdrawal symptoms without the use of nicotine. Any treatment like this must obviously be discussed with and obtained through your doctor, we will look into this treatment in more detail later to discover the pro's and con's.

If you have tried to quit before with one of these methods and failed then it might be a good idea to try a totally new method, most people stop and start a good few times before they nail it so theres no harm in shopping around until you find the technique that sticks for you.

Part 6. Today's Better Than Tomorrow

One of the worst excuses I've heard (and said myself) is the dreaded and famous "I'll stop tomorrow".

This little beauty's usually spoken about 3 seconds after the smoker in question has extinguished the last cigarette of the night, you never hear a smoker say this when they haven't had one for 6 hours and its only 3 in the afternoon! In the land of quitting smoking tomorrow's always just out of reach and never quite gets here.

Another excuse that is similar but not quite as far into fantasy land as "'I'll stop tomorrow" is "ill cut down, and then I will stop... " For some reason this very rarely works, it always starts with the very best of intentions, 6 a day for a week then 4 a day the next week and so on, but instead of going 6-4-2-0 it usually goes 6-6-8-11-14. So this one is just as useless as the first one.

Another good (or bad) one is "smoking relaxes me" we all know how relaxing it is to rake through all the junk drawers in the house looking for your emergency cigarette (which you already smoked) because you have run out and don't get paid until TOMORROW!!

Yes very relaxing indeed, this reasons rubbish to, you only feel slightly relaxed when you smoke because the cigarette is topping up the nicotine levels in your body and postponing the dreaded withdrawal for another 20 minutes or so, the nicotine levels that wouldn't be there in the first place if we didn't smoke.

So basically if your going to quit tomorrow. . . today's going to last a bit longer than a normal day, probably about 3 years long! The best thing to do is give the power of now a try and stop today.

Head Over To www.letsgetsmokefree.com For More Info Part 7. NLP

After graduating from the university of San Francisco (with a bachelor degree in psychology) and then serving as a captain in the US special forces during the cold war in Europe, John Grinder moved on to work for a US intelligence agency, he then returned to college to study linguistics (the scientific study of human language) in the late 60's and received his P.h.D. In 71.

In 1972 while he was working as assistant professor in the linguistics faculty at the university of California he was approached by Richard Bandler for help in modelling Gestalt therapy (at the time an experimental therapy which focused on the individual's experience in the present moment) and this lead them to model or copy behavioural patterns of Fritz Perls, the creator of gestalt therapy, Virginia Sitar, a leading figure in family therapy and Milton Erickson who was a leading figure in hypnosis and psychiatry. This work was the foundation of what would become neuro linguistic programming.

Richard Bandler and John Grinder began hosting practice groups, it was here they were able to practice their newly discovered behaviour patterns and teach them to the groups participants, they also used the information gained from these practice groups to publish several books. It was during this period that a creative group of students and psychotherapists formed around Grinder and Bandler, and all of them made valuable contributions to the growing field of neuro linguistic programming. In the 1980's the group separated and continued with NLP in their own directions.

NLP helps people to overcome their addictions by helping them to change their addictive behaviour, this is done by looking at your reasons for behaving this way. Are you smoking to avoid something else? Feeling stressed, bored, lonely or sad?

These are all examples of “moving away from” behaviour, a lot of people focus more on moving away from what they don't want, instead of asking themselves the questions that will draw them more towards what they do want!

The first principle of NLP is in fact to know what outcome you want, this is very important because many people have not thought about what they definitely want, others have no idea what they want but know what they don't want. Their life becomes about moving away from those things they don't want. NLP focuses on the importance of moving towards those things you want. Once the outcome you want is clear in your mind you can begin to move towards it.

The second principle is to have clear understanding. This means to know if you are moving towards or away from your outcome, this is achieved by mentally taking a step back from yourself and looking at your behaviour to see if you are in the desired state for moving towards your goal. If your current behaviour is not moving you towards what you want you need to change it.

The third principle is flexibility of behaviour. This means to vary your behaviour until you get the response you want, if your current behaviour is leading towards your goal then you should continue, if it isn't then you should do something else.

The fourth and final principle of NLP is to take action now! This is a very important step because when someone says "I'll do it tomorrow" either to themselves or others, tomorrow usually means never!

The key benefit to you is that you can begin to move towards the things that are important to you in life, today that might be becoming a non smoker, next month it might be creating more money for yourself or your loved ones. What you want is definitely within your reach by adjusting your behaviour and identifying your goals, and sometimes it only takes a small positive adjustment today to get a very big positive response a few months down the road.

Check Out www.letsgetsmokefree.com For More Quitting Help Using The Swish Method To Replace Your Smoking Triggers The method used to combat addictions and cravings is known as the swish technique, this is a valuable technique for managing your own thinking, states, and behaviours. And each time you use the swish you are training yourself to re-direct your mind from negative habits or behaviours to more positive ones.

How to use the swish is as follows.

1. Select and visualise a replacement behaviour. First select your replacement behaviour, ask yourself "what do I want to do instead of smoking another stinking cigarette?"

Once you have selected the replacement behaviour, going for a walk for example, visualize yourself acting out this behaviour as if you are looking at a square, clear photograph of yourself doing it.

2. Find the trigger for the unwanted behaviour.

Ask yourself "what occurs just before the unwanted behaviour (smoking) begins?" And this time you want to visualize a clear, square photograph of what happens just before you engage in the unwanted behaviour, for example you might visualize a picture of yourself just sitting back from the table after finishing a meal.

3. Put the replacement in the corner of the unwanted image.

Visualise your replacement photograph (going for a walk) as a small postage sized image in the bottom corner of your trigger photograph (sitting back from the table after finishing a meal).

4. Swish the two images. Now you want to make both photographs swap places in your mind's eye at the same time.

Have the "negative" image become smaller and at the same time have the

"positive" replacement image become larger and closer until it replaces the negative image completely. Imagine a "swish" sound as you do this.

5. Clear your mind

After each Swish round blank your mind, fully. Just take slow deep breaths and let your mind clear. Sometimes people tend to hold their breath while concentrating on doing the Swish. It is crucial to the success of the Swish to clear your mind or turn your attention outside before you do each next round.

6. Practice 5-7 times

Repeat steps 3 to 5 up to about seven times until you have difficulty in maintaining the "negative" or trigger photograph. It can seem a little blurry and unclear at first, depending on your ability to visualize, however if you keep practising your swish it will become crystal clear and will help you to exchange your trigger behaviour that happens just before you smoke for your better replacement behaviour.

Using Anchoring To Achieve The Result You Want In the last part I covered the NLP swish technique for dealing with nicotine cravings and changing unwanted behaviour patterns, in this article I'd like to tell you about a technique called anchoring.

This technique involves anchoring thoughts and feelings when you perform a specific action such as squeezing your thumb and finger together. The anchor can be a sound or a gesture, it's totally up to you, so in the instance of a smoker who is quitting, if they crave a cigarette then by performing the anchor action the craving is relieved, below are the steps to follow to successfully practice the anchoring technique of chaining 1 positive and 1

negative anchor together, By doing so, whenever you start to feel the negative state it will flow to the positive state.

Step 1. Get yourself in a calm and relaxed state, this is easily done by getting yourself in a quiet, comfortable place where you won't be disturbed. Either sit or lie down in a comfortable position, without crossing your arms or legs and begin to take slow, deep breaths and with your mind scan down over all your muscles, loosening and relaxing any that you feel tension in (usually the shoulder and neck muscles). Slowly close your eyes and let yourself relax, don't try hard to relax because this will keep your mind in a state of effort, just let it come naturally with your slow, deep breaths.

Step 2. When you feel at your most relaxed, do your first (positive) anchor, pressing your thumb and forefinger together is a good one, but it's up to you.

Step 3. Open your eyes and break the state and repeat what you've just done a few times.

Step 4. Now close your eyes and visualise yourself really badly craving a cigarette, you've not had one for hours and somethings just really annoyed you and this makes you want one even more! experience the sense of tension and frustration.

Step 5. At the peak of feeling frustrated do your second (negative) anchor, allowing yourself to do the anchor and remain in the frustrated state for twenty seconds or so.

Step 6. Repeat a few times.

Step 7. Now chain both anchors together. Start by visualizing yourself almost screaming out for a cigarette, then do anchor number two. Visualize yourself as you start to feel tense and short-tempered, then change to anchor one, suddenly you feel a calm and relaxed feeling. Bingo. Always make sure your positive anchor is stronger than your negative one.

Anchoring is one of the best ways to place yourself into a calm state, this is a very useful tool in dealing with stopping smoking because it is usually when we are tense or annoyed that we cave in and run back to cigarettes.

Part 8. Acupuncture

The term acupuncture was invented by Willem Ten Rhijne, a dutch physician who sailed for Nagasaki, Japan on june the 20th 1674. He sailed on one of the dutch east india trade ships that sailed from Java to Nagasaki each year to trade with the japanese and to re-supply the dutch factory on the island dejima (exit island) in nagasaki bay, dejima was a small fan shaped island which was built in the bay of nagasaki in 1634.