How Can I Quit Smoking ?

First of all - understand the insidious, manipulative, subliminal ways of tobacco companies:

Tobacco companies created the TIRC - Tobacco Industry Research Council (now disbanded) to counteract the research of scientists proving the dangers of smoking from the early 1950s until 1998. One of the more infamous statements from the TIRC - "You can get cancer from eating chicken".

Tobacco companies have joined repeatedly to destroy research of the dangers of smoking.

90% of smokers started in their teens.

The tobacco industry's "prevention ads" tells teens, who want to look older, that smoking is an adult behavior - the exact behavior the tobacco industry's own research proved was the leading motivator for youth to start smoking.

Philip Morris's prevention ad tells youth to "Think. Don't Smoke." Psychology 101: when you tell youth not to do something, they are going to want to do it. An independent research study found that the ads actually increased teens' intentions to smoke. Law as the reason not to smoke reinforces the forbidden nature of smoking, further increasing its appeal to rebellious teens.

If upon lighting a cigarette - it blew up in your face & physically maimed or killed, guaranteed they would be banned as a dangerous weapon. However, cigarettes maim & kill over time, it has been glamorized & labelled as "cool". The maiming & killing is going on inside, be sure.

Smoking cigarettes through adulthood reduces life expectancy in women an average of 11 years.
Stopping before 40 avoids more than 90% of excess mortality (smoking related deaths).
Stopping before 30 avoids more than 97% of excess mortality.
Ex smokers still have a 1.2 times mortality rate, of never smokers.
Think about how you would encourage a teen to not start smoking - pay it forward.
Smoking habits usually follow the buddy system - often linked with increased alcohol intake, food addictions, and other tough to kick habits.

Tobacco companies infuse the cigarette paper with titanium oxide + numerous other chemicals to accelerate burning, no need to relight, & make you purchase more cigarettes, & btw another carcinogen. This is also the same "feature" that causes cigarette fires.

The cigarette is a drug delivery system designed to get nicotine to the brain the faster the better - get em really addicted!

Tobacco use is a serious risk factor for 6/8 of the world's leading causes of death

Smokeless tobacco (aka chewing tobacco, spit) is just as deadly. It is NOT a quit smoking strategy.

A father who smokes will contribute the highest level of carcinogens to a fetus, sperm constantly regenerates.

Exposure to second-hand smoke in the confined space of a vehicle is particularly dangerous since secondhand smoke levels (from a single cigarette) can exceed 4 times the concentrations found in the smokiest bars and restaurants. Protecting our children from second hand smoke (SHS) is critical, as they are more vulnerable to the horrific health effects of SHS exposure. Children are smaller, have immature immune systems and higher respiratory rates (inhaling even more carcinogens). SHS is linked to leukemia, brain and other childhood cancers as well as to sudden infant death syndrome, asthma, ear infections and other childhood respiratory diseases.

Cigarettes are more addictive than cocaine, heroin, marijuana, alcohol.

Second hand smoke has over 4000 chemicals, 69 known carcinogens.

Some SHS carcinogens are more concentrated than the smoke inhaled by the smoker.

SHS has 5X the amount of carbon monoxide: heart disease, developmental toxicity to fetus... long long list...

Understand why "cold turkey" just doesn't work most of the time. There are infinite micro manipulators at play here. Smoking cessation/behavioral counseling has the sustainable quit rate.

Interventions need to be uniquely tailored as the quitting process is different for each person. Only 10% of quit attempts each year are successful at the one year mark. Watching the self discovery of a smoker going through the process is an eye opener for the smoker him/herself. Discovering the emotions, patterns, triggers, environment - this is a journey with smoker & counsellor. Let's understand the addiction & its many complicated tentacles.

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