Smoking Myths . . .'Smoking helps you deal with stress'

This was one of my favourites excuses not to try and give up. I had a stressful job and I thought smoking helped me cope.

WRONG !!!

You may not believe it but smoking actually increases stress - because you are not only dealing with normal life but you are also suffering from nicotine withdrawal symptoms constantly.

I smoked heavily for 20 years and honestly thought I'd never give up but in the end I just quit. The secret to stopping is in a simple book by Allen Carr, read it and change your life forever by quitting.

But it really does feel like it's reducing stress - the cigarette calms me down and helps me relax.!

This is the horrible part of it - smokers are used to having a level of nicotine in their bodies. When they are not smoking that level slowly drops and causes the desire or cravings to smoke. This stressful experience is only removed when you actually have a cigaretteand so it seems that smoking is reducing stress.

The simple fact is that non-smokers aren't subject to that horrible stressful craving and so don't need to deal with it.

Here's my Experience

I used to use the stress card all the time to delay giving up cigarettes. I had a stressful job and couldn't imagine coping with that stress without my ciggy friends.

For instance I had a weekly meeting at one job which I had to chair - I often got a hard time at this meeting from all sorts of people so I never looked forward to it.

Before the meeting I was very stressed and had to go and smoke lots of cigarettes to cope. After the meeting I was relieved and dashed outside to smoke lots more cigarettes and I felt relaxed.

Of course it always felt as if Cigarettes were helping but what was really happening was cigarettes were removing the nicotine withdrawal part of my stress (the bit non smokers don't have). Smoking often gets the credit for some sort of benefit in this way which is why it can be difficult to stop.

After quitting the meeting was still a little stressful but honestly nowhere near as bad as when I was smoking - because I only had to cope with the events not nicotine withdrawals,

You'll Fight Nicotine Withdrawal every day of your life if you stay smoking !

Yes every minute of every waking day - smokers have to cope with this constant battle of nicotine withdrawals. Stress levels are thus much, much higher in a smoker - so a cigarette does feel like it's helping you cope with stress.

Trust me it is better to fight this battle once and let your body learn to live without nicotine - it's really not that hard - with the right frame of mind and a positive attitude.

If you need a professional, complete program prepared by stop smoking experts - have a look at this. It's an incredible program which will help you give up smoking without drugs, nicotine patches and without that horrible cold turkey feeling !

You have one life - don't shorten it or spoil it by having to deal with smoking every day of your life. If you feel you can't cope without smoking you're wrong you can - set yourself free.