Stop Smoking Cravings

Stop Smoking Cravings

Many people wonder how they can stop smoking with all the cravings and urges that are associated with smoking cessation. The answer is that it is very hard to stop smoking using sheer effort because the addiction has been developing since the day you started smoking so even if you have been smoking regularly for about a year or something it can be pretty difficult to stop smoking. If you start smoking as soon or after you get up then it becomes even harder because you basically rely on a dose of nicotine to get your day started. In this article we will discuss why the cravings are so bad and what you can do to make quitting smoking easier for yourself.

Nicotine attaches itself to the receptors in your brain and whenever you smoke from then on the nicotine elicits a feeling of pleasure. This is because the chemical dopamine is released when you stop smoking and this chemical causes you to feel good. It is the same chemical that is released when you laugh at someone’s joke and this chemical also has a bonding effect because it makes you like the stimulus that is causing the dopamine to be released. This explains why we find that we are drawn to people who are funny and who make us laugh. What then happens is whenever you are stressed or feeling bad about yourself you will smoke because dopamine will make you happier and get rid of those feelings. This is the addiction and after years and years of doing this, the addiction only gets stronger and it becomes more difficult for you to stop smoking because of this. This happens on a subconscious level which is why you may not really notice that you are becoming dependent on nicotine to function throughout the day.

The subconscious mind does not think and it simply accepts every input you give it as true. The more you reinforce the same input, the more it becomes ingrained in your subconscious and the more likely you are to act on that input automatically. Basically when you are smoking to relieve stress you are telling your subconscious that the way you get rid of pain or stress is by smoking. This then creates a link whereby the automatic behavior after experiencing stressful stimuli is to smoke.

This makes it very difficult to quit smoking then, because whenever you are in a situation where you used to smoke you will get urges to do so and if you do not smoke the feelings will only get worse. The effects of not smoke can range from anxiousness and irritability to even depression. This can be reversed though but it takes some time and you will need about 3 months of not smoking to be able to function properly without nicotine.

There are various products out there which can help you to kick the habit and these include nicotine replacement therapy products and more natural homeopathic products. You can find out more about these products and the pros and cons of each by visiting this website on how you can stop smoking.