What is the best way to quit smoking: cold turkey or gradually?

Faced with the problem of smoking, is it more effective to quit Smoking overnight or gradually?

Smoking kills around 8 million people worldwide every year. Most smokers with two fingers on their heads are afraid of the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads.

So, millions of people all over the world want to overcome tobacco addiction, but wonder: what is the best method to quit smoking? To quit smoking cold turkey from one day to the next, or to quit gradually, bit by bit, gradually, gradually? In this article I explain it to you.

Is it bad to quit smoking from one day to the next?

For some people it can be good, for others it can be a real hell. Let's face it: everyone is different. And I'm not just talking about their opinions and ideas, but also about their their metabolism and their genetics.

There are people who, when they try to quit smoking cold turkey, with a hard-hitting "tomorrow I won't smoke anymore" they succeed with hardly any anxiety or monkey or physical symptoms of tobacco withdrawal syndrome. But only some people.

If you take a stroll through Internet forums and facebook groups, you will read that most people endlessly repeat the same copy-and-paste discourse of "all you need is willpower, quit right now and that's it". However, no matter how pretty we paint it, the reality is not so sweet for everyone.

As I said before, individual differences matter, whether we like it or not.. There are people who suffer a lot of anxiety when they try to quit smoking from one day to the next. And anxiety does not usually kill people, but in the case of smoking we have to take it into account.

With anxiety, it is much more difficult to maintain abstinence.. When a person suffers from nicotine withdrawal anxiety, he or she is much more likely to relapse to smoking, because smoking is the fastest way to "calm" the unpleasant withdrawal symptoms.

Simply put, quitting smoking cold turkey doesn't work for everyone.. It's not a matter of willpower or attitude. It is biological.

Let's review the downsides of trying to quit smoking cold turkey:

• Increased anxiety in many people.
• More likely to relapse later
• It focuses on "motivation" and this does not last forever.

The advantages of quitting smoking gradually

I will now discuss some of the advantages and benefits of quitting smoking gradually:

Self-awareness of smoking habits as a smoker 2.

A very common mistake among people trying to quit smoking is to skip the phase of self-knowledge and familiarization with one's smoking habits. and familiarizing themselves with their smoking habits.

Most smokers who fail to quit have one thing in common: they have not dedicated themselves to carefully observing when they smoke, when they smoke, how they smoke, with whom they smoke, what they feel before, during and after smoking a cigarette.

To use an old metaphor, it is very difficult to defeat the dragon if you do not know its weak points..

2. Mental preparation to quit smoking on D-day

When a smoker has done this preliminary work of observation well, he can psych himself up and reduce his daily cigarettes strategically.

Thus, when he marks on the calendar the day after which he will not smoke again, he will be able to make a correct mental preparation and get there with the best chances of success.

Many people mark a day on the calendar without giving much thought to whether it is the smartest or the most realistic thing to do, and sometimes they get unpleasant surprises.Sometimes they get unpleasant surprises, such as that the day "comes too fast", or that it is harder than they imagined, or that they had not thought about what they were going to do when they meet other smokers or go to the "usual" places without smoking or buying tobacco. And they realize that talking is much easier than doing.

3. Learning to avoid relapse to smoking

Tobacco addiction is one of the "simplest" addictions compared to other addictions such as compulsive gambling, cocaine or alcohol, which are more complex and difficult to overcome. That is why so many people succeed when they try to quit smoking for a few days or a few weeks.

It reminds me a lot of the first days of January, when the gyms and parks fill up with people with very good intentions and motivation, only to be empty again before February arrives.

Most people who try to quit tobacco without preparing themselves for possible relapses... relapse. It's a fact of life. If it were not so, we would not have almost 30% of the population addicted to tobacco. Most smokers have tried to quit, and very few succeed without prior help. There are statistics that speak of 95% of attempts that end in failure..

Online course to quit smoking

Do you want to quit smoking? I am a psychologist specialized in addictionsand I have prepared an online course to which hundreds of people like you have already signed up. If you are serious about quitting smoking, contact me and I will guide you on your way to breathe with vitality again.