Every year on May 31st, the World No Tobacco Day is celebrated to make people conscious of the problem of smoking. According to the website Worldometers, in the current year, more than 2347700 have died due to tobacco smoking. Yet, billions of cigarettes are smoked every day. Furthermore, more than 600000 non-smokers exposed to tobacco smoke die every year.
Tobacco contains nicotine, which is the substance that makes it addictive. Nicotine is a chemical that contains nitrogen, which is made by several types of plants, including the tobacco plant. It is also produced synthetically. While not cancer-causing or excessively harmful on its own, nicotine is heavily addictive and exposes people to the extremely harmful effects of tobacco dependency.
Smoking is a chronic disease. However, many people do not consider it this way, so when they try to stop the addiction they do not go to a doctor. Therefore, many people who try to quit smoking fail. However, if the person makes the decision of eliminating this dangerous habit from their lives, there are several stages she will be very likely to go through. After the first 8 hours she will already feel the first nicotine cravings. On the third day the person may experience nicotine withdrawal. This is the hardest part as people will usually experience increased moodiness and irritability, headaches, and nicotine cravings as the body tries to readjust. After three months, she will have made it through the hardest part of nicotine withdrawal. Though, no matter how hard she tries to avoid triggers, she can´t stop all of them. So, it is important to have willpower during these trying times. The body will continue to heal, and health will improve. A common milestone for smokers who try to quit this habit is one year. However, no matter how much time passes a person without smoking, if she has a single cigarette on any day, she will be likely to fall into the addiction again.
There are several methods an addict can choose from to quit smoking. They include acupuncture, hypnosis, lasers, herbs syrups, gum and nicotine patches. However, experts agree that the most effective one is the one that combines pharmacologic and psychologic treatment. With good psychological treatment, motivation, and self-esteem can be worked on, and this helps to reduce the level of anxiety.
Gradually, people and countries have become conscious of the problems tobacco produces. Actions are being taken against it. From August 20th this year, smoking will be forbidden inside every house in the United States. More and more institutions are available to deal with the disease. So, although it is true that the number of smokers is increasing rapidly, there are more chances to revert their situation.
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