Stop smoking – this is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions people set because they want to see a positive change in their lives. Whether you only smoke on occasion or you let smoking control your life, there are ways to fight the cravings and change your behaviors through professional therapy. In this discussion, we will explore how to conquer smoking addiction through counseling so you can achieve your personal goals.
Smoking Addiction Statistics
In order to understand the importance of quitting smoking, let’s put this addiction into perspective:
- According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 8% of American adults smoke cigarettes.
- Over 16 million people in America live with diseases caused by smoking.
- Cigarette smoking causes nearly 6 million deaths per year worldwide.
- 480,000 Americans die each year as a result of cigarette smoking, including 42,000 people who die from secondhand smoke exposure.
- For every one death caused by smoking, 30 people suffer from a smoking-related illness.
The good news in all of this is that smoking addiction rates in the United States are on the decline. The CDC reported an average of 20.9% of smokers in America in 2005, and that number has now dropped to 16.8%. We still have a long way to go before we rid the country of smoking addiction for good, but increasing costs of tobacco products and a rise in health-risk awareness is causing more people to put down their cigarettes for good. Working with a smoking addiction counselor can help you get on the positive side of the numbers so you can enjoy a better quality of life moving forward.
How Smoking Addiction Counseling Works
As with any form of counseling or therapy, each smoking addiction counseling program is tailored to meet the needs of the patient. Your reasons for smoking and for quitting will be completely different from someone else’s. The goal with therapy is to identify the reasons why you started smoking and find ways to fill the void that not smoking will leave in your life.
Behavioral therapy is designed to help you make positive changes in how you behave and interact with the world around you. You and your counselor will discuss your addiction and find solutions for fighting the cravings, breaking bad habits, and staying away from temptations in the future. Some patients are able to stop smoking right away, and others need time to gradually cut down on their addictions. Whatever the case may be, your counselor is there to guide you through the process.
Simple Solutions For Fighting Cigarette Cravings
Working with an addiction counselor will allow you to come up with a custom plan for conquering your addiction, but the tips below may give you a good head start. Here are some simple and effective ways to ward off cigarette cravings to come:
- Find activities to occupy your time and mind. You’re more likely to smoke when you’re bored.
- Try doing activities that require your hands. Your mind may feel like you need to be holding something out of habit – a pencil, a puzzle piece, or a Rubik’s Cube may be a fitting substitute.
- Use Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) like what you may find in stop-smoking gum or patches to ween yourself off cigarettes. Alternatively, you may try electronic cigarettes so you can control how much nicotine you put in your body.
- Surround yourself with people who do not smoke. Peer pressure sometimes works in reverse, especially when you feel like the odd man out for taking a smoke break. The fewer breaks you take, the sooner you can conquer the habit.
- Avoid activities that encourage you to smoke, like going to the bar or casino.
- Drink a glass of water every time you have a cigarette craving and wait 20 minutes to see if it goes away.
- Eat healthy foods, drink plenty of water, and exercise regularly. Your body will start to feel better as the cigarettes leave your system, and you can speed up the process by sweating away the built-up toxins. When you start to see the health benefits of not smoking, you’ll be less tempted to pick up a pack.
Whatever you do, do not push yourself into a new addiction to fill the needs of your current one. In other words, don’t turn to comfort food or alcohol when you crave cigarettes. That will only lead to more problems that you have to get through later on. Focus on the positive outcome of your personal goals, not the struggles you may face along the way. Every addiction comes with difficulties, but you have the power to overcome them. Work with a smoking addiction counselor to work out the emotional side of your habits, and you will find yourself in a much better place in life.