You may be one of millions who get trapped by catchy ads of ‘magic pills’ that can cure you of your smoking habit without any effort. It is all tall talk. There is no such wonder drug. So, don’t wait for miracles to happen, and start making an effort to get rid of your smoking habit.
You will soon learn that promises made by advertisers, product manufacturers and salesmen should be taken with not just a pinch of salt but, perhaps, a handful of it. Smoking is a habit that has become a part of your system; you need to put in conscious effort to break the habit. I say, conscious effort, because there will be many times when you will revert to the old pattern unconsciously. So, you need to make the change and implement it with full awareness.
First, some statistics for you on the ‘magic pills’.
* Quitting cold turkey is successful for approximately 3% of people (keep in mind that those 3% may not have quit on their first attempt).
* Most off the shelf pharmaceuticals claim efficacy of doubling your chances (6%) to increasing them fivefold (15%) at best.
* Some other newly released products claim that they can achieve nearly twenty times the effectiveness of cold turkey. But, there is a catch. These numbers were gained by tracking a fully supported test group who got their medication for free and were watched over for the full term of the test phase by a team of doctors and counsellors. And, they were also paid for their efforts on top of it. Now, who wouldn’t quit if someone else was willing to spend thousands of dollars and dozens of hours to help you do it? So, there is nothing great about the new wonder drug. Most people are not fortunate enough to get such an option. And it is more likely that this new and improved wonder drug will ultimately fall into the same percentages as every other pharmaceutical offering.
The best success rate varies between 6% and 15% only. The magic 100% that the smokers would like to believe is an illusion. There is no doubt, nonetheless, that smoking cessation aids do help sometimes, and they can help more if you make a proactive effort on your part. All you have to do is place your faith in yourself and your ability to achieve your stop smoking goal and not rely completely on a pill or a patch.
I’m not talking about willpower here either. I’m talking about education and information. I’m talking about finding out what the real truths are about your smoking habit and what it really takes to rid yourself of it. But that is much too in-depth of a subject to cover in even a series of articles. That’s why fully encompassing information programs have been developed – to help you meet this goal.
I encourage you to seek out all the information you can find about smoking, nicotine, quitting and the benefits of quitting. You’ve spent years or decades developing your smoking habit, so now spend a few days or weeks even, finding the information that will help you quit without relying on a ‘magic pill’ to do it for you.
Knowledge is the basis of success. The more you know, the more successful you will be. This is true not only for quitting smoking, but in everything else in life.
To your very best in future,
Darren Warmuth