Did you wake up this morning and thought “I should probably quit smoking.”

Well, while we are all with you in making the biggest change in your life (yet), smoking is not something you can stop at a drop of a hat. If you’ve only been into it for a couple of months, then cold turkey is a viable option. However, if you’ve literally integrated it to your lifestyle for several years, putting your body through immediate nicotine cessation will feel like hell.

I kid you not.

Nicotine withdrawal is no laughing matter. While you may be ready to take the plunge, there’s no telling how the people closest to you will handle it. You may become unstable and exhibit crazy temper outbursts, surges of depression, become annoyingly restless, irritable, and impatient.

So Am I Stuck With Smoking Forever?

Well, not forever. We are not against change, and we know that change is very much attainable – but not abruptly. When you try to force change, it retaliates. In the case of smoking, facilitating change improperly can backfire in a number of ways. Some of which are:

  1. Binge-smoking – You used to smoke a pack of 20 tobacco cigarettes a day. You suddenly stopped in an attempt to quit pronto. You fought your urges off for 4 daysor until you could no longer help it. You come back to smoking and now you smoke 2-3 packs a day. What improvement.
  2. Flabby Sweets Maniac – Suddenly quitting nicotine can alter your body’s metabolism that either makes you lose or gain a remarkable amount of weight. But one factor that likely contributes to the abnormal weight gain is the craving substitute. Cold turkey quitters, in an attempt to quit smoking, would find a substitute for their nicotine craving. Common victim? Sweets.

Smoking is an orally-ingested substance. It makes sense to substitute one oral substance with another. Other substitutes include excessive chewing of gum and intake of caffeine – all of which having secondary psychological and physiological repercussions that can lead to a relapse. This means that you hardly solved your smoking problem; you just gave way for new health issues to arise.

  1. Cold Turkey Trauma – Many who have tried to quit smoking using cold turkey have undergone a painful, exhausting, and horrifying experience that many account to never try it again. And “never try” can mean two things: (1) never try to quit smoking using cold turkey; or (2) never try to quit smoking at all.

So What Do You Suggest I Do?

Although cold turkey works for some people, the success rate of this method is ever-changing – and most of the success rides on a person’s character and willingness to quit. The odds are rather high so you might want to approach this change in lifestyle differently. Slow, gradual cessation might be a better option for you.

First things first, you got to let go of the combustible sticks. Some people assist their withdrawal using nicotine substitutes such as nicotine patches or gum. Others divert their attention away from smoking by engaging in various activities. A third option you can consider is using Electronic Cigarettes.

E-cigarettes or Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) may serve as a substitute for conventional cigarettes. These are handheld, battery-powered devices that heat up liquid to create vapor. The user then inhales and exhales this vapor in place of real cigarettes.

Aren’t E-Cigarettes and Conventional Cigarettes The Same Thing?

They are and they aren’t.

You both inhale and exhale their fumes – so they are.

Conventional cigarettes have high nicotine content; E-cigarettes have optional nicotine content ranging from a spectrum of low to high – so they aren’t.

If you can gradually adjust your nicotine intake, then it shouldn’t be impossible to quit smoking. After all, it is nicotine that’s causing the addiction, and not the act of smoking itself. If cutting down on the number of sticks don’t work, try cutting down on the nicotine – little by little until you reach that negligible dose that hardly gets you addicted at all.

Another advantage of using an E-Cigarette as a substitute is having a large community of users present online. They open discussions, give recommendations, and offer support to those who are interested in trying out this smoking apparatus. E-liquids (the one used to produced vapor in electronic cigarettes) also come in a variety of playful flavors to help with cravings and withdrawal symptoms.

There may be other ways that can help with smoking problems better, but the one best way to find out if E-Cigarette is the thing for you is to give it a try. You can share with us what you think afterwards – no wrong answers!