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Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Quitting Smoking

Several patients over the past week have expressed interest in quitting smoking so I thought I would take a moment and post a few thoughts about this challenging habit. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, nicotine addiction (nicotine being the main culprit in tobacco addictions) is as, or more difficult to overcome than heroin:
(http://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/29/magazine/nicotine-harder-to-kickthan-heroin.html)!
If you are a smoker quitting is one of the most beneficial things you can do that will have an immediate and positive impact on your health.

In order to successfully quit smoking, it is important to take a comprehensive approach. One of the main reasons people fail when trying to quit on their own is that they often attend to only one or two facets of the addiction. HPS staff psychologists focus on comprehensive treatment, attending to the cognitive, behavioral, and physical aspects of nicotine addiction. Treatment generally consists of addressing the underlying thoughts and beliefs that the individual has about smoking, these may include the role of smoking in managing stressful situations, mistaken beliefs about the health consequences of smoking, and underlying beliefs about social smoking. Our clinicians help you to understand your smoking triggers, work with you on developing impulse control, and help you to substitute smoking with more healthful behaviors. In many occasions recommendations for nicotine replacement therapies such as the patch or referrals for medications such as Chantix are made in order to help people break free from smoking. Hypnotherapy and biofeedback are also often utilized. If you or a loved one needs assistance in quitting smoking please do not hesitate to call us, we are here for you!
Posted by at 4:56 PM

1 comments:

  1. On this topic, I can speak from personal experience. Can you imagine being a Psychologist in practice for many years and having difficulty quitting? Well, I quit almost three years ago and I could not be happier. It was a combination of relaxation techniques, cognitive coping statements, and Chantix (medication). What a relief! Now I take the (at the time) six dollars a day and re-invest it in my business. Or I just buy music CDs!

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