Clear The Air
Honest Information about
How to Quit Smoking

No one ever thinks it's a good idea to start smoking. You likely picked up cigarettes as a habit during a fit of rebellion, experimentation, desire to conform to a social scene, or as a means of comfort during times of stress. Whatever your reasons were, the choice to smoke remains a poor decision.

The addictive qualities of the nicotine in tobacco cigarettes are well documented, and, as a smoker, you are painfully aware of the persistent craving you experience for cigarettes. Despite the potent physical addiction that results from smoking tobacco, you can certainly quit smoking successfully. In fact, it is imperative to your health that you do so. Smoking is an unfortunate habit that clearly results in disease and is increasingly expensive. You might look cool smoking at the bar on a Saturday night, but slowly dying of cancer is utterly lacking in glamor.

To be honest, there is no easy way to quit smoking. The addiction to nicotine profoundly influences your physiology, and cleansing your body of nicotine cravings is a time consuming and difficult process that will test your will at every turn. Your nicotine addiction began with the very first cigarette you ever smoked. Research by Joseph R. DiFranza, M.D. and others, as reported in the May 2008 issue of Scientific American, strongly suggests that even one cigarette begins to rework the chemical infrastructure of the brain and lay the foundation for nicotine addiction.

As with other addictions, your addiction to cigarettes deepens as your years of smoking add up. Therefore, it is best not to put off your quit smoking plan. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to quit. And it is always difficult to quit, even for fledgling smokers just developing the habit.

Many techniques and aids have been developed and marketed to help people quit smoking. Nicotine gum and patches, prescription pills, hypnosis, and old-fashioned quitting cold turkey are all methods that can help you battle your addiction. No single method works for everyone, but all people who successfully quit smoking have will power in common. You will have to fully commit yourself to stopping smoking. You have to truly decide that you are not going to smoke ever again.

The articles at "Clear the Air" offer numerous tips, insights, and encouragement for smokers who are ready to reclaim their lives from tobacco. I am a former smoker and I published this website to encourage other people to escape the discomforts and dangers of smoking. You'll never regret quitting smoking.

Sincerely, Tracy Falbe, owner Falbe Publishing