GOING COLD TURKEY: NICOTINE

Quitting nicotine cold turkey can be an extremely difficult thing to do, and will require a lot of strong will. If you want to quit cold turkey you have to really want to quit. You have to be 100% convinced that you want to quit. If not it will be really difficult to quit.

To take your quitting seriously there are a few things that you can do to make your life a little easier. One of the most important points is "Out of sight out of mind". Get rid of everything that will remind you of smoking. This includes all ashtrays, lighters and matches. Don't even make excuses to keep matches get rid of everything. Throw out all cigarette ends into the bin. You don't want anything to trigger a response to smoke.

The second point to 'Out of sight out of mind' is avoid people and places where you know smokers are going to be. If you see someone smoking in public avoid them, if you are walking behind them walk on the other side of the road. It might seem extreme but you got to remember this is your health and its your life. Nobody else is answerable to it. Even tell yourself that you never smoked before, and that you don't understand why people smoke.

At work avoid those smoke breaks. Rather than taking it outside, stay inside. Drink some cold water and breathe in and out slowly and heavily. The breathing can also help the body, as its so used to dragging on cigarettes for years, that you can mimic the smoking ritual. Avoid drinking too. It does not matter if you can think before hand that you will be OK, once you've had that first beer you are well on your way to having that cigarette.

Another very important thing to remember is that you know when you are going to crave, so prepare yourself for it. If you look at any given day, you already know when you like to have your first cigarette and you know when you are going to have your last. Its the one's you enjoy the most that are the hardest to pass up on.

After meals, with your morning coffee, the one when you get your first minute of peace for the evening. We all have our favourites, and that's probably the reason why we smoke is because of those moments. All the other cigarettes are part of the addiction and are the one's we don't like. Unfortunately to quit you have to quit it all. There is unfortunately no chance of you controlling the cigarette.

The obvious thing you can do to avoid your favourite cigarettes is to do something else. Many people choose fitness, but your changes don't even have to be that drastic. You could visit people who don't smoke. Take to cleaning your house a little more, perhaps even the garden. Remember that by quitting its not that you have to be a cleaner or gardener for the rest of your life, try not to see it from a mundane point of view, its all for keeping yourself busy in the first month or so.

Also remember that if you make a mistake and find yourself lit up, its not the end. Start over again, and keep starting over again if you have to, until you fully manage to quit.

If you experience headaches from going cold turkey, do what you would normally do if you had a headache. There's no reason to treat it any different. Drink lots of minerals.

Something to avoid as much as possible is quitting for four days then go back to smoking your regular amount. Quitting for another week then starting at your regular amount again. This will only damage your lungs more, and perhaps you could have irreversible damage. The reason being is that as soon as you stop your lungs start to heal themselves, so by smoking again you damage what has been healed. If you continue like this your lungs will give up trying to heal themselves.