If you’re a smoker, you’re well aware that quitting is the best thing that you can possibly do to improve your chance of having a good health outlook later in life. The problem, though, is that quitting is extremely difficult. It’s so difficult, in fact, that most people who try to quit smoking aren’t successful. Nicotine replacement products like gum and patches can help – but if you have any experience with those types of products, you know that replacing the nicotine from cigarettes only helps to resolve the physical side of the equation. The mental side, however, is just as powerful. Even if you’re using nicotine supplementation, you may still find yourself thinking about cigarettes almost constantly. That’s the real challenge of quitting: overcoming cravings that never seem to go away.
So, what do you do when you’re trying to quit smoking and can’t seem to stop thinking about cigarettes? This article will provide some actionable advice that can help.
Buy an E-Cigarette Kit
Research strongly suggests that using a vape kit from a company like V2 Cigs UK can significantly improve your odds of quitting compared to using traditional nicotine replacement products. In 2019, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study in which people who contacted NHS for help quitting smoking were randomly assigned either vape kits or traditional smoking cessation products. In all, 886 people participated in the study, and the study’s ultimate goal was for the participants to abstain from smoking for one year. After a year, 18 percent of the people in the vaping group were successful in their attempts to quit smoking. Of those who received traditional nicotine replacement products, only 9.9 percent had quit successfully. The study’s outcome suggests that using an e-cigarette instead of a traditional nicotine replacement product can nearly double your chance of quitting smoking successfully.
Why do e-cigarettes work better than other smoking cessation products? It all comes down to three primary factors.
- When you vape, you have something to do with your hands – no other smoking cessation product replaces the hand-to-mouth ritual of smoking. Between that and the fact that you see a visible cloud when exhaling, it’s easy to stop thinking about cigarettes when you vape.
- Because the vapour is inhaled, vaping delivers nicotine to the bloodstream much more efficiently than a traditional nicotine replacement product. Vaping feels dramatically more satisfying. Vaping also gives you a throat hit that feels very similar to the sensation of inhaling smoke.
- There are hundreds of e-liquid flavours in the world. Cigarettes, on the other hand, only come in one flavour. Vaping is infinitely more pleasing to the palate than smoking could ever be.
Find Another Way to Keep Your Mouth Busy
Let’s suppose that you haven’t opted to use vaping as a smoking cessation tool. Instead, you’re using a traditional nicotine replacement product. If that’s the case, you’re going to find another way to keep your mouth busy. You can’t pop one piece of nicotine gum after another into your mouth all day – and if you’re using nicotine patches, your mouth isn’t involved at all. Either way, you’ve got to find something to do with your mouth if you want to stop thinking about cigarettes.
Ideally, the thing that you use to keep your mouth busy should be something without sugar because having sugar in your mouth all day is going to lead to oral problems of its own. You should choose something that you can feel completely comfortable putting in your mouth every time you crave a cigarette. Sugar-free candy can work. You might also consider chewing on toothpicks or sugar-free gum.
Try a Nicotine-Free Tobacco Alternative
If you haven’t explored the world of nicotine-free tobacco alternatives, now is the time to start. You may have looked at products like herbal chews and pouches made from tea, mint and coffee and assumed that those products are more for people who are trying to quit chewing tobacco than they are smoking cessation aids. However, an herbal chew or pouch creates a nice tingle in the mouth that can feel extremely satisfying even if you’ve never chewed tobacco or used an oral nicotine replacement product before. The best part is that these herbal products are nicotine free – and if you use a mint-based product, there’s no caffeine. Therefore, there’s no reason not to throw a pouch or wad into your mouth whenever you feel like it.
Seek Smoking Cessation Help Through NHS
If you’re the type of person who prefers to do things on your own, it’s possible that you haven’t considered asking for help with your smoking cessation efforts so far. Studies suggest, though, that counselling can significantly improve your odds of quitting compared to going it alone – and that’s just one of the many things you’ll get when you request smoking cessation assistance through NHS.
When you call the NHS stop smoking hotline, you’ll first be given an opportunity to meet with a smoking cessation counsellor in a one-on-one or group session. During the session, you can check your body’s carbon monoxide level if you like. The result might surprise you. After that, you’ll spend a bit of time discussing your history as a smoker and why you’d like to quit. Your NHS counsellor can provide a coupon for over-the-counter smoking cessation products and can also help you get a prescription for medications such as Zyban and Champix. Vaping products unfortunately aren’t available through NHS, but your counsellor will be familiar with vaping and can help walk you through it.
The most important service that NHS provides for those who want to quit smoking, though, is counselling. Once you decide to begin a smoking cessation program, you’ll meet with your counsellor once a week to discuss how you’re doing and plan a strategy for handling the challenges you face. You’ll also be given an emergency number that you can call if you’re having trouble dealing with late-night cravings. It may turn out that one of the best ways to stop thinking about cigarettes is simply to have someone on your side who has been through the process and understands how difficult it can be.
