The Best Way to Quit Smoking

Smoking can be one of the most powerful addictions for some people to kick. Every time I see *or smell* a smoker, I want to sit them down and have a chat together. Since I can’t, I’m writing this post.

Nicotine is kind of a weird substance in that it both relaxes and stimulates the user at once. Anxiety, stress, and tension trigger the need to smoke because nicotine works as a relaxant. It helps you kick back after a rough day, a fight with your significant other, or an annoying experience.

Conversely, nicotine is also a stimulant. Smoking increases dopamine and sharpens cognitive focus. This is the reason that smokers in the process of quitting feel mentally dull and unmotivated. In fact, research has shown that the greatest number of accidents in the work place occur on the day of the Great American Smoke Out! Those who have symptoms or full blown ADHD are especially prone to nicotine use for these two reasons.

What helps? First and foremost, motivation to quit. Quit until you finally quit forever. There are more people in the US who have quit smoking than there are smokers, and that is a sign that it’s possible for anyone to quit. It takes a smoker an average of 20 times to finally quit smoking.

The 2nd most important tool for smoking cessation is exercise. Why?

1. Exercise increases dopamine to offer stimulation and sharpened cognition. This helps replace the stimulant effect, especially for those who need help with sharpened focus and motivation.
2. Exercise decreases tension and anxiety, both of which can trigger cravings. This effect can also help smokers feel less homicidal while quitting.
3. Exercise can fend off cigarette cravings for approximately 50 minutes, which doubles or triples the intervals between cigarettes. In other words, this is an excellent way to begin quitting and continue to decrease your number of daily cigarettes.
4. Exercise will help prevent any weight gain associated with smoking cessation, which is one of the primary reasons that women fail to quit smoking.
5. Exercise rebalances mood related neurotransmitters, which can help buffer the mood related triggers to smoke.
6. Exercise gives you a measure of perceived control. You can DO something instead of trying to regain will power to overcome smoking triggers. Increased perception of personal control is the one factor that helps all of us feel better-fast.

The trick to using exercise to help you quit smoking is finding some form of exercise that’s fast, easy, and accessible when needed. The perfect option for many people would be the jumprope. Keep one at home, in your office, and in the car and jump rope for 5-10 minutes when needed. Yes, you may work up a sweat and yes, you may need to take a shower. But hey, shower or chemo? Shower, not so bad. Chemo will suck.

If you happen to be a heavy smoker, you may need nicotine replacement to help decrease physical withdrawal effects and urges to smoke. Chew the gum, use the patch, or use it all at once.

Lastly, medications like Wellbutrin can help alleviate some cravings and give you a little energy kick to boot. I would reserve this option for those of you who have been heavy smokers for a long period of time with many failed attempts.

Again, keep trying. Use intense exercise as many times a day as needed. Each day will bring fewer triggers until one day, you won’t have them. Good luck from the Maverick.

Cognitive Therapy: It Works

Cognitive therapy-do you know what it is? It’s a fancy way of saying that changing your thoughts can help your mood. In fact, thought patterns can often fuel depression. A recent study suggests that cognitive therapy can help even the worst cases of depression.

Changing your thoughts begins with mindfulness. After all, you can’t change what you haven’t identified yet. Moment to moment mindfulness simply means that you’re aware of your own thoughts. Right now, I am thinking about this topic and the word metacognition, which means “thinking about what you’re thinking.”

Positive thinking helps. One of my favorite positive thoughts is, “Things almost always turn out much better than I ever expected.” The *trick* is remembering this thought when it matters! The queen of positive self talk is Louise Hay, who founded her own publishing company and wrote several books on this topic.

There’s more to cognitive therapy than positive thinking, though. Much of it has to do with identifying your core beliefs about yourself, others, and the world. That may sound simple, but your beliefs can be tough to reach-kind of like digging for the biggest root of a 200 yr old oak tree. Byron Katie, best selling author of The Work, writes beautifully on this topic and has an excellent website at thework.com.

You will find that irrational thoughts usually stem from 2-4 underlying beliefs. Here are some of the most common:

1) I am not good enough 2) I am not lovable 3) I am unlovable.

These negative beliefs are like the roots of weed growth in your garden. The beliefs spawn hundreds of negative thoughts, and negative thoughts beget negative self talk (ie, “I’ll never get that far,” or “I’m ugly,” or “I’m fat”). Negative thinking can decrease serotonin levels; conversely, low serotonin levels would support negative thinking patterns.

Conversely, positive thoughts increase serotonin. Modifying a thought isn’t just a mental change-thought changes create new neural pathways in your brain. New thoughts are like alternate highways that bypass the negatives. The more you use them, the deeper those neural pathways get and the better your mood will be.

The neat thing about cognitive therapy? It begins working in the prefrontal cortex of your brain. Antidepressant medication begins working at the stem of your brain, moving forward to the prefrontal cortex. Physical exercise, an excellent behavioral medicine for depression, starts at both points and moves toward the middle of your brain. The UK utilizes exercise far more than the US, which is a real shame. Exercise happens to be one of the most cost effective, excellent treatments for depression (Blumenthal has published many studies on this topic).

That’s all for today, folks. I think I'm done with this post.