How To Deal With The Psychological Dependency Of Smoking

Although all forms of dependency on cigarettes have a certain chemical basis, unless you are a heavy smoker (pack a day or more) the chemical basis is not likely to be particularly strong. Discomfort or annoyance when you can't smoke, such as during an airplane trip, or the need for a cigarette in certain social situations is mostly psychological.

Chemical Dependency

It is recommended that you consult your physician about nicotine replacement therapy if you smoke a pack a day or more. While research shows that, taken by itself, nicotine replacement may not lead to significantly better success rates in remaining a non-smoker a year or two down the line, it may prove to be the critical factor in getting you through the first few days after you quit smoking.

Nicotine replacement significantly reduces the extent and intensity of withdrawal reactions. In addition, it can compensate at least in part, perhaps as much as 50 percent, for the reduction in metabolic rate and those other physiological changes that can lead to weight gain when you quit.

Mental Boredom

While it may not be the primary reason for smoking, doing something with your hands, like lighting and handling a cigarette, can become part of a person's habitual reactions in certain situations. Some people automatically reach for a cigarette when they arrive at a party, enter a bar, make a phone call, or are forced to wait for something or someone without anything else handy to engage their attention.

Some people fill time with smoking when they can't think of anything else to do. If this description applies to you, you must find different ways to replace the mechanical act of smoking. Some people find it helpful to adopt a particular behavior that can have symbolic value; each time they do it in place of smoking they can feel positive about themselves because it means they are being successful in resisting a cigarette. Sipping water, using a toothpick or cocktail straw in place of a cigarette, working on the daily crossword puzzle in the newspaper, knitting, or fingering a special coin or medallion can come to represent and symbolize your determination not to smoke.

If boredom is sometimes an issue for you, consider whether quitting smoking can be a time in which you pick up on a hobby or avocation that you have always wanted to pursue, or which you have been neglecting. It would be great if smoking didn't go well with such an activity! Perhaps working on a puzzle, knitting, or playing a computer game could become an interesting, relaxing way to fill otherwise empty time.