Newswise — Are you resolving to quit smoking again this year? Anticipating that you will fail might help you succeed.
"A more productive approach than quitting cold turkey is to think about tobacco dependence as a chronic disease, and expect that there might be periods of relapse and remission," says Patricia Daza, PhD, staff psychologist for the Hope program at The Menninger Clinic. "On average, most smokers make between five and six attempts to quit before they are successful."
An estimated 25 percent of people in the United States smoke. About half of the 50 million smokers in the United States attempt to quit each year, but only five to 10 percent still don't smoke a year later.
Dr. Daza studied smoking cessation before coming to Menninger, and counsels patients working on mental health issue who also want to quit. Cigarette smoking is common among psychiatric patients. For patients with schizophrenia, the rate of cigarette smoking can be as high as 88 percent. The smoking zone is often the busiest area in a psychiatric hospital.
"A key factor with addiction to cigarettes is that not only is there a physiological craving for the tobacco, but there is also a psychological craving for social interaction and camaraderie," Dr. Daza says.
Dr. Daza recommends making a plan for quitting smoking. She offers the following suggestions for smokers who want to quit on their own:· Set a date to quit smoking.· Tell co-workers, family and friends about your quit date.· Clean your house, car and any other place where you typically smoke. Remove all ashtrays, deodorize your house and car to remove the smell of smoke and remove any items that might remind you of smoking.· If you usually drink coffee while you smoke, switch to orange juice or another beverage to break the link between drinking a specific beverage and smoking.· Recognize that the most intense withdrawal symptoms happen in the first three weeks.· Keep a list of reasons for quitting in places you typically smoked.
Nicotine replacement aids such as nicotine gum and the patch, help with withdrawal symptoms and can be purchased over the counter. Smokers can also ask their doctor to prescribe them the drug Buproprian SR (Zyban). Zyban stimulates the release of a feel-good chemical in the brain, called dopamine, to simulate the effect of nicotine. Studies have shown that the use of the drug doubles quit rates when compared with quitting cold turkey.
Most relapses occur within the first three months after a person stops smoking. One third of relapses occur because of alcohol use, Dr. Daza says. If you do relapse, treat it as a bump in the road rather than proof that you can't quit.
"Although this can be difficult to hear, relapse is common to smoking cessation," Dr. Daza says. "The best course of action if you relapse is to set a new quit date ASAP. More importantly, try to ask yourself what might have led to the relapse. Were smokers around you or were you drinking at the time? Quitting is a process and most people make several quit attempts before they are finally successful. Each quit attempt gets easier."
The Menninger Clinic is an international specialty psychiatric center, providing innovative programs in treatment, research and education. Founded in 1925 in Kansas, Menninger relocated to Houston in 2003 and is affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine and The Methodist Hospital. For 14 consecutive years, Menninger has been named among the leading psychiatric hospitals in U.S. News & World Report's annual ranking of America's Best Hospitals.
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