When quitting smoking it is important to understand why you smoke. People smoke for the following reasons:
1. Lifestyle Coping Tool : Smoking can be used as a way to suppress uncomfortable feelings and alleviate stress, calm nerves and to relax. It can also be a way of taking time out from a situation.
2. Tranquliser: Smokers with emotional stress or chronic pain often turn to smoking as an attempt to treat pain. There is some evidence that nicotine can soothe pain, mental and physical through working on the pleasure centres of the brain.
3. Feel Good: Nicotine works on the pleasure centres of the brain and the release of chemicals can be seen as a way to avoid feeling unpleasant emotions such as sadness, grief and anxiety. Even though smoking dulls the emotions you must remember that it does not make these emotions go away and sooner or later they will bubble to the surface.
4. Feel Calm and Alive: Nicotine and sugar can induce a feeling of well being but it is a false sense of well being that can never produce a permanent satisfying result. Smoking can lure you into believing that you can escape some underlying truth or reality but does not allow you to transform your day-to-day life.
The act of smoking is often personal and meaningful to you. If you are considering quitting take some time to explore the reasons of why you smoke. The most important factor in quitting smoking is a genuine desire to quit. You were not a born smoker, it was something that you learned to do.