By going to a specialist to quit smoking we are not admitting our weakness, but we are reaffirming our determination to give up this harmful habit
The basic recommendation to quit smoking is to go to a health professional. It is a specialist who can guide you on the way out of this harmful habit. There are numerous prejudices and many false beliefs about how to quit smoking. However, statistically, it is clear that the best results are achieved with the help of specialists.
It is true that there are many well-founded methods, guides and advice to quit smoking, but sometimes something fundamental is lost sight of: smoking implies addiction to a substance, to a drug in the broadest sense of the term. This has consequences that are not always well understood and valued.
Refuting some myths and prejudices about how to quit smoking
There are numerous prejudices. There are people who believe that if they ask for help from a specialist they show that they are weak and that they assume they are sick. Instead, they believe that if they can quit on their own, they will show that they are stronger.
What is really proven is that quitting cigarette addiction is much more difficult if you try to do it yourself. It involves more suffering and there is no need to have a bad time.
Using drugs to quit smoking
There is another common myth. Medications such as nicotine gum or patches and psychotropic drugs are usually used to help stop cigarette addiction. This in itself generates fear and rejection in some people.
Perhaps they would change their minds if they knew that they are used as a way of supplying nicotine from tobacco. They ensure that the body is not so affected by the lack of that substance that implies a reduction in cigarette consumption.
Those people who reject the use of psychotropic drugs should know that the medication that is commonly used is Bupropion (or a similar antidepressant). Its function is to prevent the person from feeling the very unpleasant withdrawal syndrome without generating dependency.
What’s more, taking this type of medication dramatically increases (from 10% to 70%) the chances of being successful when trying to quit. This is because they solve the key factor of the unpleasant nicotine withdrawal syndrome.
As we have said, we can classify smoking cessation therapies into two main types:
- Nicotine replacement therapy: These are presentations such as patches, gum, candy, or even inhalers that contain different amounts of nicotine.
- Drugs approved for tobacco addiction: they do not contain nicotine, they are psychotropic drugs that have to be prescribed and controlled by a doctor. They are mainly bupropion and varenicline.
The power of addiction
The nicotine is a highly addictive substance, as you know those who, like the writer, have come to smoke a pack a day. For this reason, after a couple of hours without lighting a cigarette, you begin to feel an extremely intense desire to smoke.
Although the effects they produce are very different, some compare the need to go for the next cigarette with the addiction generated by cocaine. For this reason, and not because it generates an altered state of consciousness, it is for what tobacco consumption is considered as drug dependence.
Only smokers with low nicotine dependence and great self-control manage to quit smoking without help. The rest fail or only manage to quit smoking for a while, but then fall back into addiction. Some manage to quit smoking with great effort that could be avoided.
Many people do not know these things because they do not go to a professional. Usually, a pulmonologist is in charge of these treatments and who would allow them to access this and much more information about it. He will simply be there to answer every specific question you have.
The evil mechanism
One of the information that is essential to know is the functioning mechanism of the cigarette. Its addictive character is given because nicotine is a drug that impacts the brain creating a feeling of well-being.
The brain gets used to that feeling of well-being that lasts a certain time. Then, when the concentration of nicotine in the blood drops with the passing of the hours (or when an event produces a drop in our mood), the brain again demands that feeling of well-being.
That demand of the brain for the sensation of well-being generated by nicotine is perceived as a “desire to smoke”. It is a very perverse mechanism. When lighting a cigarette, you think that much more than doing what you want to do, you are in a chemical process that is very difficult to get out of, unless you go to a specialist.