Smoking Quit Tips: When Drinking

When you are trying to quit smoking, one of the biggest obstacles you will find is alcohol. I am a former smoker myself and I know that when you have a drink in one hand you are likely to have a cigarette in the other. The two do literally go hand in hand. In this article I would like to give you some smoking quit tips for when you are drinking.

To me quitting smoking was much easier than I expected it to be, I would go days and weeks without touching a cigarette. That was until I started to have a couple of Bourbon and Cokes, then I couldn't find my smoking buddies fast enough in order to pinch one of their ciggies.

The obvious solution to this is to not drink while you are trying to quit smoking. You could try and find reasons not drink such as being the designated driver or having family or work commitments the next day. Because the quitting process may take a few months and you still want to have a good time with your friends this will not always be a realistic solution. Here are some ideas on things you can do to avoid the dreaded cigarette while you are drinking.

• Don't go overboard, try to restrict yourself to a few drinks. The more drinks you have, the harder it will be to say no.

• Try to keep focused on the reasons why you trying to quit. Don't obsess on these thoughts as it may ruin your night, just give yourself occasional reminders. Again the more you drink, the harder it will be to focus.

• Try to avoid your smoking friends when drinking. This doesn't mean staying away from them at all times but just while they are smoking. Hang out with your non-smoking friends instead. Your smoking friends wont resent you for this, they wish they could give up like you.

• When at bars and clubs avoid the designated smoking areas at all costs.

• If you associate a certain drink with smoking (like I do with bourbon and coke) then try a different drink instead.

• We know that hang-overs are caused by dehydration, not only from the drinking but from the smoking also. If you have stopped smoking for a while then the dehydration effect of cigarettes becomes much worse. If you have a night out of both drinking and smoking than you will pay big time the next morning. Trust me, I have experienced this for myself and I now use it as motivation to not smoke while I'm drinking.
  

Without doubt the hardest time I had quitting smoking was when I was having a few drinks. By using the above tips I have managed to overcome this obstacle and now no longer get those urges after a few drinks. I hope you can do the same

The After Effects of Smoking

We all know that smoking harms you and the people that you smoke around but something that is not as commonly documented is the after effects of smoking on your loved ones. You may be the one with the physical pain but it is your family who have to deal with the agonising emotional pain. I would like to share with you a story that is sad for me to tell.

I have been very lucky so far in my life in the fact that I haven't had many people who I am very close to, die. The closest person to me who has died is my Uncle Brian and he passed away last year at the age of 64. Uncle Brian was a heavy smoker and had been so since his teens. He was one of the smokers whose mentality was 'I will never give up'.

Well, one day my Uncle Brian did give up, the day he was diagnosed with cancer. The cancer was the direct result from all those years of smoking cigarettes. In the just under a year he managed to hold onto his life he didn't touch another cigarette.

The hardest thing for my family was having to watch Brian slowly deteriorate over that year. He has so much to live for, a loving wife and family, many friends and was actively involved in sport and social clubs. He did his best to live for as long as possible not only for himself but for everyone around him. He had to live that last year of his life wishing he had never smoked that first cigarette and hoping that a miracle would save his life.

That miracle never came and his funeral was one of the saddest days of my life. My Dad is Uncle Brian's younger brother and the two were very close. Dad wrote a eulogy for the funeral but only managed to say a few sentences before being overcome with grief. It was the saddest thing I have ever witnessed. Something that will always stick in my mind is something that Dad said to me a few days after the funeral. "We should have at least 10 more years of Brian in our lives"

To those of you out there who think that you cant quit then trust me when I say you can. You just haven't found the right motivation yet. Why not use your family, friends, all the people that love you as the motivation you need. Just imagine you are lying in a hospital bed, you are very sick and don't have long to live, all thanks to smoking. All your friends and family are standing around the bed crying wishing this wasn't happening. Think about that deep sad look on their faces.

Now imagine what you are thinking as you lie there with your loved ones all around you. Imagine how you feel knowing that you are one responsible for putting yourself and all the ones you love through this pain. The stupid thing is all of this pain could've been prevented if you had simply quit smoking. Now it's your time to go and the physical and emotional pain you feel is gone. Sadly for your loved ones the emotional pain doesn't stop, they have to live with this pain for the rest of their lives.

Are you feeling motivated yet. I really hope so, please don't be like my Uncle Brian and find that motivation when its too late.

Movie Stars Smoking

Cigarette companies have used many forms of promotion since the inception of the cigarette. In the early days of the twentieth century we were told that smoking was good for us and doctors were even used to back this claim up (incredible!). This belief was held until the first general surgeons came out in 1964 stating that smoking is not good for you and is in fact potentially lethal.

Since this time we have seen a drastic drop in the promotion of smoking, no longer do we see television advertising, sporting sponsorships or billboards advertising tobacco. However there is one form of advertising that has remained consistent over this time, getting movie stars smoking on the big screen.

But why use the movies and movie stars to promote smoking?

Research has shown that the vast majority of smokers start before they turn twenty, the cigarette companies know this fact all to well. Another fact they know is that children who see there favourite celebrities smoking on the big screen are 16 times more likely to view smoking favorably.

For the youth their popular culture is largely dictated by the movies and the celebrities that star in them. If you want to be with the in crowd, than you have to be up to date with all the news and latest fashions of the celebrities. This is exactly why cigarette companies executives are trying to get the stars to light up as much as possible during their movies. If the youth see them smoking than there is a good chance that they will start up too.

If you think that even cigarette companies wouldn't stoop so low as to blatantly advertise to our children than please reconsider that thought.

A 1999 study from the U.S Department of Health and Human Services found tobacco use in 79% of movies rated G and PG and 82% of those rated PG-13.

Is there one reasonable excuse as to why any movie rated PG-13 or below should have tobacco use in them, I will give you an excuse but its not reasonable. It's because someone was paid mega bucks to make it happen.

It was actually made illegal in 1998 to have paid product placement of tobacco in the movies. You would think that this would stop or at least slow down the promotion of smoking. Well it hasn't.

A classic example of this is in the 2002 movie 'Men in Black II'. There are some scenes of these cute little aliens (which appeal to children and were later made into toys to give away in kids Burger king meals) smoking away on Marlboro cigarettes. How do we know the brand, well the little aliens are surrounded by Marlboro cartons. It doesn't take a genius to figure out some money exchanged hands somewhere there.

Marlboro have come out and said “If producers or directors use or depict our brands, they do so without seeking or obtaining our permission.”

If the above statement is true then I just don't understand why the people who produced 'Men In Black II' would clearly show the Marlboro brand name when there is no incentive in it for them.

This is because the above statement is a big fat lie, of course they paid for the tobacco product placement. After all these cigarette companies have got pretty good at lying to us, they have been practicing since the beginning of last century.

Dangers Second Hand Smoke

We all know that smoking has serious health effects on the individuals who choose to smoke cigarettes. For the vast majority of people it will lead to sickness, disease and eventually premature death. But what are the dangers second hand smoke pose on those who choose not to smoke, but are put in the unfortunate position of being around those who do on a regular basis?

Before we explore this question it is important to understand exactly what second hand smoke is. Second hand smoke (also known as environmental tobacco smoke) is smoke that is inhaled involuntarily by someone who is not smoking. This second hand smoke can come from two sources, Sidestream smoke and/or Mainstream smoke.

• Sidestream smoke is produced from a burning tobacco product e.g. burning end of a cigarette, out of a tobacco pipe

• Mainstream Smoke is the exhaled (breathed out) smoke from a smoker.

Second hand smoke is very harmful as it is known to contain over 4000 chemicals compounds including some of which are very poisonous. So not only are smokers causing themselves considerable harm but they are harming and possibly killing those that they smoke around.
So what exactly are the effects of second hand smoke on these people?

Non-smoking Partners

• A non-smoking spouse has a 30% increased chance of developing lung disease and a 20% increased chance of developing lung cancer

• Can cause many other health problems including nasal sinus cancer, stroke and weakened immune system (which can lead to many other health problems)

• Breathing problems are very common and these can include coughing, asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia and bronchitis

• Breathing in your partners smoke can also have an emotional toll because as a non smoker they have chosen not to go down that path but yet they still have to put up with all the negatives of smoking.
  

Infants and Children

Infants and children suffer from the effects of second hand smoke more than adults because their bodies are still developing. Infants also breathe faster than adults and therefore inhale more second hand smoke. Some of the effects of second hand smoke on children include;

• The chances of an Infant dying from SIDS(Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) quadruples in a smoking household

• Increased risk of developing illnesses and diseases especially ear infections, bronchitis, pneumonia asthma and breathing difficulties.

• Children with Asthma are in particular danger as breathing in second hand smoke (even in small amounts) can trigger an attack and make future attacks worse.
  

• Second hand smoke has been linked to children with behavioral and learning difficulties. Children who are constantly around smokers score lower on tests including maths and reading.
  

If knowing what smoking is doing to your own body isn't enough to make you quit then you really need to consider what your second hand smoke is doing to your family. After all do you really want to be responsible for making a family member sick or even for their death. No, of course you don't. So make now the time to quit, if not for yourself then for the ones you love.

Methods of Quitting Smoking: Why NRT's Dont Work

There are hundreds of methods of quitting smoking with NRT's being one of them. NRT's (Nicotine Replacement Therapy) come in many different forms and have been around for a few decades. They are supposed to work by helping you to ween off cigarettes by putting small doses of nicotine into your system while you are trying to quit smoking. Sounds good in theory but I'm go tell you exactly why NRT's don't work.

I'm sure you have all seen the NRT advertising (T.V ads, posters, billboards etc) trying to convince you that you can not give up smoking without their product, whether it be a patch, drug, gum, spray or whatever new contraption the pharmaceutical companies can come up with. Now how many people do you know who have given up forever using an NRT system? Some of you may know one, two people tops but the majority of you (like me) won't know anybody. There is a very simple explanation for this:

People are given Nicotine to help replace their addiction to Nicotine.

Try to forget every NRT ad you have ever seen and read the above statement again. How on earth is someone who is addicted to a drug ever going to quit by taking the same drug? There have been many cases where people are able to stop smoking but then get addicted to the NRT system that they used to help them quit. Why? Because its not the smoking they are addicted to , its the nicotine.

NRT's are expensive and inconvenient so people stop using them after a while. Well what happens then? They are still addicted to nicotine and need their fix. So, of course they go back to a cheaper, more convenient form of nicotine: Cigarettes.

It then becomes a never ending cycle which is exactly what these pharmaceutical companies want. They don't want you to quit any more than the cigarette companies do, their bottom line depends on it.

In not sure who is more evil, cigarette companies who make millions by spreading death and disease or the pharmaceutical companies who make millions by spreading false hopes and dreams. Maybe they are both just as evil as each other because they both use clever marketing to spread their lies and take advantage of other people.

I hope that I have helped you to see why NRT's don't work. There are other stop smoking options out there so why not give them a go. After all, their primary goal is to help you quit, not take your money.