How to stop smoking or vaping.

How and why should stop smoking or vaping.

Nowadays, even people who smoke usually agree that it is unhealthy. Vaping is widely 
accepted as less injurious but there is widespread uncertainty about how much harm still accrues from vaping. The majority of vapes however, still contain nicotine, which is highly addictive. Nicotine does give feelings of pleasure but as soon as the peak level of this substance starts to fall, pleasure is replaced by mild withdrawal symptoms including anxiety, irritability and reduced concentration. These can be immediately relieved by using more of tobacco or vape, but otherwise steadily become worse if a replacement ‘dose’ is 
delayed. Nicotine has profound physiological effects also, and its long term use has a high association with risk of cardiovascular disease (which causes heart attack and stroke), and raised blood pressure (which can harm various organs in the body). Apart from nicotine, vapes contain other substances which can inflame or irritate the lungs, and cause long term respiratory illness. 
Of particular concern is vaping in adolescence. Adolescence was thought in the past to end at age 19, but it is now considered that brain maturation and social development continue beyond this age, and perhaps to the mid 20’s. Nicotine can have profound effects on a young person’s development and wellbeing, affecting sleep, concentration and social 
interactions. Adolescents may be more prone to the addictive effects of nicotine, and obviously have more years of increased risk, ahead of them. 
The contributors to this website contend that:
1. Smoking and vaping are seriously harmful. 
2. The only merit in vaping may be as an alternative to cigarette smoking – and 
hopefully then, as a controlled means of withdrawing from nicotine use altogether, 
which essentially means stopping vaping sooner or later.
3. Ten or more cigarettes a day is more harmful than one or two a day – but not that much more. One or two cigarettes a day are expected to still have much potential for harm.
4. It should benefit any user of tobacco or vapes to stop doing so. This cannot be 
overemphasised. How to stop smoking or vaping: 
1. Some people are able to reduce their use of these products themselves, having 
made a serious decision that they wish to do so.
2. Nicotine patches or gum can be very helpful in stopping use of nicotine products. 
These are often obtained through seeing a Health Care Provider.
3. Acupuncture and hypnosis appear to be very helpful in some people.
4. Below, is a really simple though effective scheduling method for smoking and vaping cessation.

How to reduce and stop smoking or vaping by oneself. This is so simple a method, that it can work for anyone who wishes to achieve this, and relies on employing willpower for only a short time interval each day. The time to achieve withdrawal is flexible; this matters less than getting there reliably in the end:
1. Determine what time of the day you would usually have a first cigarette or vape.
2. When ready, you should begin your day, and delay the first cigarette or vape for half 
an hour. After this point, you should feel free to use these products as you normally 
would, though be careful not to increase your rate of use over the remainder of the 
day. It also helps a little to reduce use below your norm if this is easy, but this should not become tormenting or stressful.
3. After a period – some days, or a week, or more – this new pattern should be habitual. This means it is now easy to not use nicotine for the first half hour of the day.
4. When ready, extend the ‘set point’ for the first cigarette or vape, by a further half 
hour. It should be easy to reach the previously achieved ‘set point’ because this had become habitual. Willpower is only needed for the new half hour extension, after which you can freely continue, as at step 2.
5. Again, only when ready, take another step of 30 minutes. Once more it should be easy to have the first hour of the day smoke or vape free, using willpower to extend the set point by 30 minutes. 
6. Simply repeat this process, so that the set point gradually goes later through the day.Try to never smoke or vape earlier than the achieved set point, but any misstep is 
not the end of the world, and does not mean taking your set point back a long way earlier. However, try to minimise any such ‘hiccup’. 7. Taking however long you need, the set point will eventually become late in the day and you might smoke or vape once, before going to sleep.
8. Finally, one day, when not stressed, and ideally with encouragement from a partner 
or family member, you should go to sleep without use of these products.
9. Don’t doubt that cigarettes and vapes are very addictive and alluring. Try not to give in to their appeal and restart, though an occasional lapse should not necessarily 
lead to regular reuse. 
This is admittedly a simple tool, perhaps too simple for some to consider using, but 
contributors to this site have found it to be acceptable to many patients. It has no cost and no ‘downside ‘ apart from being slower to achieve cessation of nicotine use in some people. 

Copyright – Being Better Ltd.