Stop smoking cold turkey or the sudden and complete withdrawal from the habit is perhaps the hardest thing for any smoker, heavy or light, to achieve. Usually the individual draws back to the habit as the withdrawal symptoms appear to be too hard to overcome. Nonetheless,it is claimed that 80% to 90% of those who manage to effectively quit the habit use the stop smoking cold turkey method.
Cigarettes contain nicotine, a chemical that is highly addictive. Once a smoker quits the habit, nicotine cravings kick in and they prove to be very difficult to overcome. Furthermore,apart from the nicotine cravings, symptoms of stop smoking cold turkey including irritability, insomnia,headaches and fatigue kick in and may continue profoundly during the first few days. Certain methods such as Nicotine Replacement Therapy may be able to ease the symptoms and cravings by providing the body with a dose of nicotine through products such as nicotine gums, patches and sprays.
Although this is an effective way to deal with the withdrawal symptoms, it promotes nicotine addiction in the body. An individual who was previously addicted to a cigarette may now be addicted to nicotine gum or patches. The body demands the old level of nicotine even though these products offer a lower dose of nicotine to combat the stop smoking cold turkey symptoms. Therefore, it should be realized that this method creates a new level of required nicotine in the body and only places an individual in a chronic state of drug withdrawal.
There are only two methods available to get off this state and they are either to completely stop administering nicotine into the body or to start smoking again.It should be remembered that the withdrawal symptoms would heavily persist only during the first two weeks and it would normally decline subsequently.Therefore, stop smoking cold turkey is probably the best and effective way to quit the habit.
Finding support and guidance would help an individual immensely to stop smoking cold turkey; friends and family members would be ideal for this task and would help one to overcome the habit successfully. In addition, joining a support group or undergoing therapy and counseling sessions would also be helpful to an individual who wants to stop smoking cold turkey.
It should be remembered that quitting smoking, particularly to how to stop smoking cigarettes cold turkey is indeed not a relatively easy feat to achieve. It takes pure determination and a whole lot of will power.