Your general state of mind will fluctuate from happy to sad to irritated to depressed. You will experience all sorts of physical and mental nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Your tongue and throat may get sore. Your stomach may ache. You may experience heartburn. You may have difficulty sleeping. Some people suffered from flu-like symptoms for a few days after their quit day.

While going a cold turkey sounds very brave and mighty, the truth is that it’s worse than self-flagellation. This is why it is important to prepare one’s self at least two weeks before the dreaded quit day. Fortunately, today quitters have a variety of stop smoking pills to choose from to assist them in lessening the pain of withdrawal symptoms.

Pills to stop smoking are created to relieve quitters the burdens of withdrawal. A huge portion of these pills is called nicotine replacement therapy drugs or NRT drugs. These primarily consist of the same nicotine substance found in cigarettes, but are absent of other health-endangering ingredients. Because the body has become used to the daily intake of nicotine, it is just natural that the body will create negative responses to nicotine’s absence. NRT drugs aim to supply the body small amounts of nicotine in order to avoid intense surfacing of the said negative responses. These NRT stop smoking pills are also available in other forms like lozenges, nasal sprays, and patches.

Aside from NRT stop smoking pills, anti-depressants also form a huge component of the pills that help you stop smoking. Anti-depressant drugs aim to relax the nerves and reduce the feeling of stress. Frustrations from everyday problems, which cause stress, are the prime motivators of smokers to smoke. One of the best anti-depressant drugs associated with cigarette quitters is Bupropion hydrochloride, which is also known as Zyban or Wellbutrin.

If you need help to quit cigarettes forever, ask your doctor for prescription stop smoking pills. They can be a big help.

Unlike nicotine replacement drugs and anti-depressants, quit smoking hypnosis aims to resolve not the concerns of the body but of the mind. By undergoing several sessions of hypnosis, the patients can gradually realize how and why they smoke, and how and why they can escape from the health hazardous habit. Perhaps the best metaphor to the state of hypnosis is the peak of watching a good movie or reading a good book. During such phase, we forget our surroundings and become passionately engrossed with the scene. It feels like we jumped into that other world and joined the characters in the story.  In quit smoking through hypnosis, the practitioner will make the patients forget about their physical realities and bring them to a state of mind wherein they will be convinced of the evils of the cigarette vice.

In order to avoid the possibility of relapses and withdrawals, quit smoking with hypnosis  programs are designed to gradually free the patients from the physical and mental addiction. The programs usually start with the establishment of determination and will, persuading the patients to quit by illuminating its numerous advantages. When determination and will are already set, the practitioners will then demystify the image of cigarette and reveal to the patients the negative and most of the time overlooked connections of the vice to one’s lifestyle.  After this, the patients will be taught how to resist the temptations of relapsing.

Quit smoking hypnosis is indeed one of the most modern and effective ways to provide recovery to people addicted to smoking. In undergoing the process, prospective patients must not forget to do their research and go to the best practitioner qualified to provide the treatment.

Some people can handle going "cold turkey" when it comes to quitting but for others smoking is tied to emotional and social aspects. These ties should be recognized and addressed in smoking cessation programs. There are support groups that meet online, in your local town and even over the phone. Of course, family members can be quite supportive as well as friends and acquaintances that are ex-smokers and have been where you are now. A number of support groups exist sponsored by national organizations like Nicotine Anonymous and the American Cancer Society in addition to local entities sponsored by hospitals, clinics and governmental health departments.

The physical part of smoking cessation programs deal with the nicotine withdrawal. There are a number of nicotine replacement therapies on the market today and you can choose your method of transmission – patch, gum, lozenge, spray and even inhalers. These products deliver the nicotine without the harmful cancer causing agents that tobacco has. Of course, you are still getting the nicotine, feeding your addiction but the point is that you now control how much you are getting. The goal is tapering off the amount you are receiving via your nicotine replacement therapy until you quit entirely.

Some smokers may need more of an extra boost than some smoking cessation programs can provide. Doctors may prescribe an anti-depressant or other drug which targets the part of the brain linked to nicotine cravings and reduces withdrawal symptoms. You may decide to try more natural forms of smoking cessation programs that utilize alternative means such as herbs, laser therapy, massage and acupuncture.

Before deciding on one of the many smoking cessation programs available, you should really examine your habits as well as your physical and emotional well-being. You have to know why you smoke and why quitting smoking is something you need to do now. Understanding your triggers and the "why’s" of smoking will help in your success.

Herbs, substituting habits, exercise and different types of therapy are all natural ways to quit smoking without using nicotine products as a crutch. Some people have trouble kicking the oral fixation habit as well as the physical act of taking a drag. They need something to put in their mouths and hold in their fingers. If you are one of these people, there are a few herbs that are safe to smoke and may even have some mild health benefits. Rosemary and sage are two fragrant, safe herbs that can be smoked and they even act as an expectorant, clearing the lungs of excess mucus.

Exercise is an obvious natural choice for kicking the smoking habit. Every time you feel the urge to light a cigarette, go for a brief walk instead. If that is not feasible, get out of your chair and stretch or dance to a song on the radio. The endorphins you release during even the lightest exercise can nip that nicotine craving in that moment.

Acupuncture, hypnotherapy, reflexology and support groups are natural ways to quit smoking as well. Acupuncture and reflexology both target pressure points on the body with acupuncture using needles and reflexology using a type of massage. Hypnotherapy uses hypnosis to try and modify the behavior of the smoker. Support groups can be helpful because you might find it helpful to share the burden of quitting smoking with others and gain strength from numbers.

Drinking herbal tea, sucking on hard candies, chewing on cinnamon toothpicks … these ideas and many others join the ranks of natural ways to quit smoking as well. There is no one right or wrong solution. However, in order to break the nicotine habit for good, you will have to exert willpower and patience as you experiment with a natural solution that works for you.

Craft Project: Tootsie Pop Tree
The image above is the photo of the Tootsie Pop tree my sister made for my birthday shortly after I quit smoking. As you can see the construction is quite simple and all the necessary supplies other than the suckers can be purchased for a couple of dollars at any craft store. If you are curious about the text surrounding my photo, it is one of my smart remarks turned back on me: Star of Her Own Production. Yes, I did eat all of the Tootsie Pops, they were an essential part of my quit smoking plan even though I also used nicotine alterpatches.

Get Help If You Need It
The first thing you would have to acknowledge is your intention or motivation for quitting. People might have different reasons for giving up in smoking but, for most of them, it is mainly for health reasons. Now, you must recognize if this motivation is strong enough for you to go through with this without professional support. If you think, you need peer or professional reinforcement, you should consult your physician, therapist, or local quit smoking helpline.

Asking for help from these professionals can provide you the support you need and they can help monitor your smoking habits. They can also provide you with alternative treatments and self-help materials that can make quitting easier for you.

Nicotine Replacement Therapy
Medically, physicians might suggest that you use cigarette or tobacco substitutes. This is what is called the nicotine replacement therapy. There are alternatives available in pharmacies or in supermarkets such as nicotine gums, patches, nasal sprays, lozenges, or tablets. These contain small amounts of nicotine that you can consume so that your normal everyday craving for nicotine becomes satisfied without having to smoke cigar or tobacco. In this way, you can quit smoking without the adverse withdrawal effects of quitting cold turkey.

Prescription Support
Moreover, some doctors might prescribe medicines as stop smoking treatments that would further help manage the cessation of the smoking habit. Examples of such drugs are Bupropion and Varenicline. Bupropion or Wellbutrin acts by preventing the body from experiencing the withdrawal symptoms that emerge when you abruptly stop smoking. It is an antidepressant drug, so it mainly avoids mood swings that are normally experienced by smokers who quit. On the other hand, Varenicline or Chantix works by blocking the positive effects of nicotine in the body. Since nicotine brings positive feelings of euphoria and relaxation, a smoker tends to crave for that good feeling and thus becomes addicted.

Laser Treatments
More recently, there are other advancements in the field of medicine such as the use of laser therapy to treat nicotine addiction. The use of this treatment eliminates the physical manifestations of nicotine withdrawal. The process involved is that specific parts of the Central Nervous System will be exposed to a low power laser. Through this, nicotine cravings will be lessened.

Exercise Can Help
There are also some other opinions which say that exercise would help keep you away from those burning sticks. With regular work out, you would be able to quit smoking and not crave so much for cigarette or nicotine, in general.

If you are really planning to stop smoking, these treatments offer optional support if and when you need it. Don’t try using them all at the same time, unless you are prescribed by your physician. When you are planning to make a radical life change like quitting smoking, it’s a good idea to see you doctor first.