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I loved them. They were my solace, my trigger, my friends. They were part of my French heritage, so I told myself, so giving me the out as one of a culture with low disease and death rates.

But my closest friend, a CNS working in a retired living center described to me the fallout: “You’re at risk for cancers, emphysema, and strokes, for starters,” she said, despite my balking. “If you don’t quit smoking cigarettes,” she nagged, “I would hate to see you end up like my people here, gasping for breath, toting around oxygen tanks, needing help doing the simplest of tasks because you’re all stroked out.” So I agreed. I would quit smoking…if she would help me.

That’s the key to quitting cigs – using all the help you can get your desperate, hacking, trembling hands/self on, can wrap your resistant brain around. Here are some steps I took to quit smoking cigarettes, steps you, too, can take to one level or another:

- PREPARE BY READING UP ON QUITTING

The American Cancer Society offers free, thoughtful info on giving up the habit. The pamphlets are written in serious terms and at the same time use gentle language. If you need the soft approach, so you don’t feel like a freak, the ACS might be for you.

There are plenty of books on quitting–many informative, supportive, coaxing, humorous, brilliantly researched, and helpful. I can’t recall the title (it was about 15 years ago I quit smoking cigarettes), but you’ll know it when you see it, as it has something like twenty words in the title, all hyphenated: something like, The No-nagging-low-pressure-how-to-really-quit-smoking-cigarettes-book!

And it’s written by an MD offering info on how smokes are a dual drug…unlike any other: they are, he says, upper/downers. When you’re nervous or agitated, you take long…slow…drags and are tranquilized; when you’re logy, sluggish, tired, you take short.quick.puffpuffpuffs, and are instantly energized, hyped up.

Doc X exclaims, “No wonder it’s so hard to quit smoking!” He also defines another characteristic that helps us appreciate why we’re so hooked. He gives the times for onset, noting how there’s only one other drug, of all drugs (OTC, street, prescribed that hits the brain faster, and that’s crack cocaine. If I recall correctly, crack hits you in 3 seconds, heroin in 10, 7.

Cigarettes are harder to quit than heroin!

- INTERVIEW SUCCESSFUL QUITTERS

No need for brutal interrogation; just informally ask how others who stopped smoking did it. Here are a few tricks told to me:

1. Drink water. A lot of it. Our bodies take at least 8 ten-ounce glasses of water a day anyway, so whenever you feel the urge to puff, do water instead.

2. The oral act is a big part of smoking. Use a pencil, an imaginary butt, or even – if you’re brave – a real unlit cig, and each time you have the crave to drag, inhale really deeply and satisfyingly, instead.

3. Say, “If I still want a cigarette in 20 minutes, I’ll have one.” What? Give in? No. Give yourself permission to. BUT…truly wait the whole 20 minutes (for most cravings cycle through and pass away in 20 mins.). Then, here’s the trick, repeat the permit. If you still want a cigarette in 20 minutes, you can have one. The next thing you know, 8 hours have passed.

4. Reward yourself. First, when you plan to quit smoking cigarettes, note how much you spend on smokes. During white-knuckle moments, remember you have a treat coming. Use the same money you’d use on cigs to buy a toy, new bauble, health drink (not coffee!), magazine, DVD (yes, some of us smoke that much).

5. Use slogans. 12-step programs have something there. Easy does it. This too shall pass. I think I will have to wring the neck of the crazy driver in front of me.

Well, not that last one…but you get the idea. Do whatever works. Pray. Meditate. Run. Walk. Bike. Hike.

I did a lot of hiking. My friend drove us to Mt. Tam every day, and we scaled trails I bitched about, cried over, resented. But the tricks worked. For a year and a month, exactly. Then I stupidly picked up the lung bleeders again.

Quit smoking cigarettes? Aw, crap. Here we go again.

Commit yourself to permanent abstinence from alcohol. You do not need alcohol to survive. The human brain is much smarter than the booze brain, which doesn’t understand that you can live without alcohol. You can outsmart your booze brain by learning to think of it as something other than yourself. This way, when it demands alcohol, you can tell it “never.” When you think about this, you might hear your booze brain objecting and pleading with you to “never say never.” It does not want you to quit drinking, because it thinks it will die. But you are smarter than it is, and you know you need to stop. Make a plan to quit for good. When you’re ready, say the words “I will never drink again.”

Enjoy your recovery from alcohol dependence. Don’t be afraid that you will slip or relapse, because that fear is the booze brain at work, trying to give you an excuse to give up. Once you practice the CORE process for a while, it will become impossible for you to go back to drinking, because anytime you think about having a drink, you will see that it is just your booze brain at work. Remember, only your booze brain wants to drink. You do not want to drink, you want to quit.

Let’s say you have a few drinks around the house, three times a week, and that light touch of drunkenness costs you three hours of productive thinking each time. Within one year, you’ll have shaved about one full month off your life. That’s a lot of lost CPU time that could have been put towards reading a book, writing a speech, playing a sport, or even starting a business. And this doesn’t even count the time lost waiting for your brain to resolidify the morning after a night on the town.

Clearly, there’s a conspiracy between the fast food industry and the liquor industry. Free will collapses under the weight of insobriety and convenience. With enough alcohol in your system, even the most wretched burger joint becomes an irresistible sanctuary.

Why alcohol is taking over your life is a question that will only be answered when you DON’T let it take over your life. It’s like a kind of non-living, evil dictator demon liquid that can only live and breathe and act in the world through you.

Admit you have a problem. You do not have to admit to being powerless over alcohol. You do have to admit that you have a problem and that you want to change. What constitutes a problem is determined by the level of detriment that the consumption of alcohol wrecks havoc on your health, your successful functioning in life–in your job, in your relationships, etc.

Avoid the labels. It is not necessary to announce to everyone that you are an alcoholic, or a recovering alcoholic. Share your victories with your allies, as they are the encouraging ones. Know that you do not have a disease, and you are not sick–quitting drinking will make you a much healthier person.

If quitting drinking seems like a task too large to tackle alone, it may be best to seek advice from professionals such as those available through DryOutNow.com. They can offer advice to those who wish to quit drinking and offer treatments that may be needed such as detox and rehab.

Numerous studies have evaluated the adverse health effects smoking has on the body and the economy. The most serious facts on smoking related health and economic risks are listed below.

• Tobacco is the only product, that when used as intended, damages the body and causes numerous life threatening health ailments.

• Smoking related diseases, such as chronic lung disease and coronary heart disease, result in the deaths of over 400,000 Americans every year.

• Tobacco products contain close to 5,000 different chemicals, of those chemicals 69 are known to cause cancers.

How to Quit Smoking?

1. Deep Breathing Perhaps The Single Most Powerful And Important Technique: Every time you want a cigarette, do the following. Do it three times.

Inhale the deepest lung-full of air you can, and then, very slowly, exhale. Purse your lips so that the air must come out slowly. As you exhale, close your eyes, and let your chin gradually sink over onto your chest. Visualize all the tension leaving your body, slowly draining out of your fingers and toes, just flowing on out.

2. Stay Away From Alcohol, Sugar And Coffee

Do your very best to stay away from alcohol, sugar and coffee the first week or longer, as these tend to stimulate the desire for a cigarette. Avoid fatty foods, as your metabolism will slow down a bit without the nicotine, and you may gain weight even if you eat the same amount as before quitting. So discipline about diet is extra important now. No one ever said acquiring new habits would be easy!

3. Develop strong personal reasons in addition to your health and obligations to others. For example, think of all the time you waste taking cigarette breaks, rushing out to buy a pack, hunting for a light, etc.

4. Begin to condition yourself physically: Start a modest exercise program; drink more fluids; get plenty of rest; and avoid fatigue.

5. Set a target date for quitting – perhaps a special day such as your birthday, your anniversary, or the Great American Smokeout. If you smoke heavily at work, quit during your vacation so that you’re already committed to quitting when you return. Make the date sacred, and don’t let anything change it. This will make it easy for you to keep track of the day you became a nonsmoker and to celebrate that date every year.

Learn New Skills and Behaviors

Try to distract yourself from urges to smoke. Talk to someone, go for a walk, or get busy with a task.

When you first try to quit, change your routine. Use a different route to work. Drink tea instead of coffee. Eat breakfast in a different place.

Do something to reduce your stress. Take a hot bath, exercise, or read a book.
Plan something enjoyable to do every day.

Drink a lot of water and other fluids.

The surgical approach

Surgery is also an effective trigger to quitting, other research shows. In fact, surgery is often one’s best chance to quit smoking for good, according to David Warner of the Mayo Clinic.

Doctors have long known that nonsmokers and recent quitters recover better from surgery than smokers.

Warner’s review of research also shows that patients who stop smoking prior to surgery have better success withdrawing from cigarettes.

Alcoholism and smoking cigrettes are problems that plague people across the world, regardless of racial or economic background, and result in over 500,000 deaths annually in the United States alone. Roughly 10 percent of people who use alcohol will become smoke cigrettes, another 10 percent will become alcoholics. To clarify, ‘alcohol abuse’ is the behavior that precedes the disease ‘alcoholism’, and though it doesn’t always lead to the disease it can in itself be very disruptive to an individual’s life. Alcohol treatment is recommended for both alcohol abuse and alcoholism.

Even though people widely regard it as a harmless beverage, alcohol and smoking cigrettes are very addictive drugs in the class of chemicals sometimes referred to as hypnotic sedatives. Some other hypnotic sedatives include benzodiazapines (Valium, Xanax, Klonipin, etc), and barbiturates (Phenobarbital, Seconal, Barbitol, etc). Alcohol is the most toxic, addictive, and widely used of the hypnotic sedatives. All of these chemicals can lead to a tissue dependence to the substance and moderate to severe cravings following discontinued use. The ‘withdrawal’ symptoms for these sedatives can range from mild discomfort to severe anxiety, rapid heartbeat, heart palpitations, profusive sweating, severe nausea, nightmares, hallucinations, tremors, dizziness, disorientation, seizures and death. Because the withdraw symptoms for these chemicals are so serious, it is extremely dangerous to discontinue use of these drugs without first seeking the aid of a doctor or a drug and alcohol treatment professional.

There are many resources available across the internet, and many professionals that can help you determine if you are suffering from either alcohol abuse or smoking cigarettes. Once developed, alcoholism is a lifelong condition that only gets worse with time, unless alcohol treatment is sought. If you are having problems resulting from your drinking, it is therefore highly recommended that you investigate treatment options as soon as possible.

The greatest barrier toward recovery from Smoking Cigarettes is an unwillingness to seek help on the part of the abuser. It is important to keep in mind that smoking cigarettes and alcoholism are disorders that afflict millions of people around the world. It has nothing to do with a lack of willpower, or poor character. Like all addictions, alcoholism is a neurologically scripted compulsive behavior that once develops is impossible to fight without help.

The good news is smoking cigarettes treatments and alcohol treatments are often effective. Don’t be dissuaded by the low percentages shown in studies done on treatment methods. While its true, most treatments have a fairly low percentage of ‘success’, they almost always induce some amount of progress for the patient. Addictions are not likely to be overcome immediately, and almost always involve setbacks and relapses. However, with time and repeated attempts, alcohol treatment is effective for most people.