Smoking: A Therapeutic Approach to Quitting Essay

You will listen to my voice taking you through the changes you want to make… As you are completely relaxed… you will respond to my suggestion… From now, you will stop smoking… This is your wish and desire on which you will act on from now… No one is able to make the change except yourself… Think of the positives gained by yourself in total command… your response is yours only… You are the only benefactor… Think of the harm cigarettes cause...think of lungs being completely black… foul smell from your mouth…your clothes smelling … continue with your breathing in and out...think of your family… Think of spending money on buying cigarettes as money going down the drain…Don’t turn them into passive smokers… your health and that of your family matters…You will continue with further sessions which will help you achieve the change…

     Nicotine is addictive! Most smokers use tobacco regularly because they are addicted to the nicotine. You can be addicted to the nicotine in a physical and physological addiction. Addiction is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use, even if they are in the risk of health problems. It is well documented that most smokers identify tobacco as harmful and express a desire to reduce or stop using it, and nearly 35 million of them make a serious attempt to quit. Unfortunately, 7% of those who try to quit in their own achieve more than 1 year of abstinence; most relapse within a few days of trying to quit. Some of the other factors besides nicotine addictive properties include its high level of availability, the small number of legal consequences of using the tobacco, and the advertising methods used by companies. What most people do not realize is that the

This essay will consider how each of the 5 psychological perspectives explain smoking. I will cover the psychodynamic, the behaviouristic, the biological, the cognitive and the humanistic approach.

The initial phase of the self-directed intervention consisted of baseline measurement of smoking behaviour. Baseline data was collected for a period of 7 weeks and a functional assessment was completed during this time. Upon starting the intervention phase, the final target behaviour of smoking cessation was broken down into smaller, short-term objectives lasting 2 weeks each.

One of my first memories in the United States was taking a Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E) class. I was in sixth grade and a top student, as talking about drugs and alcohol and the way they affect us was fascinating to me. This is why, the following year, I volunteered to become a peer educator in Teens Against Tobacco Use (T.A.T.U). For a couple of years, I gave presentations to young students which included facts, demonstrations, and games, to spread the knowledge that tobacco is harmful and that staying away from smoking prolongs life expectancy and increases the quality of life. It should come as no surprise, then, that I consider myself a big proponent of staying tobacco-free and encouraging others to quit smoking as a great way to promote health. I remember watching my mom and sister as they took part in their nightly ritual of smoking a few cigarettes to unwind. “Did you know that a main component of cigarettes is used as rocket fuel?” I would ask them, as I opened the window and they stared back at me blankly. “We know, we know” was the answer every time. I knew that convincing them to quit was no easy task, but I was committed. Day after day, I proudly stated a new fact about the evils of smoking. Finally one day, they quit. At first, they attributed it to the cost. Since we had just immigrated to the United States, the cost of cigarettes was simply not something they could afford. I didn’t believe it. I proudly

Smoking is a huge problem in today's society. Many people don’t understand the consequences that come with smoking. Cigarettes and marijuana are very common uses of smoking. As a college student I am able to the effects these two drugs have on students mental and physical abilities. People shouldn't smoke because not only does smoking affect your everyday way of live but they may also kill you. People who become addicted to these certain substances know the risks but don’t care because they are mentally attached to the drugs that destroy their body.

Another effective way to quit smoking is to ease the amount of nicotine in one’s body as well as decreasing the stress of completely giving up the habit of smoking. A study performed by Bullen and Etter found that 92% of smokers using electronic cigarettes for three months reduced the total number of cigarettes they smoked (as cited in Rahman et al., 2014). The use of an electronic cigarette reduces a smoker’s need for cigarettes since their mechanisms are like an actual cigarette. These devices also deliver nicotine to the smoker when inhaled, as well as the user can choose the dosage of nicotine they’re receiving. Furthermore, an electronic cigarette user can start with a nicotine dose that is measurable to or higher than a cigarette then over time reducing their quantity until the smoker no longer has the desire to be using the nicotine. This decrease in the amount of nicotine will reduce withdrawal symptoms of the person trying to quit smoking, thus decreasing the smokers need to use real cigarettes. Notably, a clinical trial done by Polosa

When one is trying to quit smoking they need to ensure that their environment is very supportive or they have their mind set to give up the nicotine. The smoker that is trying to quit smoking cigarettes needs to take it seriously, and they should sit down and write out their goals and the reasons they hate smoking so that way when their biological brain wants to smoke this can help them fight ambivalence. Some people have a greater urge to smoke after watching another person smoke cigarettes or even seeing a pack of cigarettes. If one person experiences greater sensitivity to environmental cues then it will be particularly harder for that person. You may relapse very

For years, smoking cigarette has been a trending topic in media. When I was growing up my mother smoke Newport short cigarettes, and the smell was not pleasant. The cigarette smoke would stay in my clothes and hair. One day my mother decided to quit to smoking. I was beyond excited because I no longer had to smell like a walking cigarette waiting to be lit. Chance (2014) talks about how we witness stimulus control and discrimination in smokers, but do not realized it (p.335). Referring to the example in the book, my mother tried to smoke again. After not smoking for fifteen years, she seen a friend smoking and decided to try a cigarette. She stated that it made her feel sick and light headed. Therefore, she never picked up another

From my late teens, into my mid-twenties, I was a smoker. At first, it was just recreational; however that changed fairly quickly. I began buying them and smoking regularly throughout the day. It then progressed to smoking a pack per day until it was too late. I was officially addicted. I knew it was a terrible habit and I was shamed of it and would hide it from friends and family hoping they wouldn’t find out. Finally, after coughing hacking, and repeatedly getting sick several times a year, I came to the realization that I had to quit. However, it wasn’t as easy as I had anticipated. After relapsing several times before I was finally able to quit, I broke this terrible habit successfully. It was an extremely difficult habit to break

A number of smokers desire to quit, as they understand the peril of continued smoking, yet they consider that it is too hard to let go the habit.

Prochaska & DiClemente. (1983). Stages and Processes of Self-Change of Smoking. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. vol. 51, no. 3, pp. 390-395.

There has been a great increase in the number of deaths due to smoking. Headlines such as ‘’Second hand smoke kills 600,000 worldwide annually’’ (Falco, 2010) highlights that there’s a major problem. My question is, why are people still smoking? It should be a wake-up call for those who smoke but even with the hard facts presented, people still decide to smoke. As a psychology student, I was interested in exploring the phenomenology of smoking & wanted to address this matter further. To do this, I designed an interview schedule from which I have gained an individual’s emotion as well as perception towards smoking. Before I could do this I had to, myself, understand what an interview is & how I could professionally interview an individual

Cigarette smoking is something people all over the world have been doing for about 2000 years. Back in 2003, the first electronic cigarette was successfully created by a gentleman named Hon Lik. Lik was a 52 year old pharmacist at the time, whom of which was also a smoker. The inspiration behind making the electronic cigarette came after Lik’s father passed away from lung cancer due to him also being a heavy smoker. “A Historical Timeline of Electronic Cigarettes.” cassia.org. Consumer Advocates for Smoke Free Alternatives Association, 15 June 2017. The idea behind creating this device was to give smokers a way to still ingest nicotine, the most addictive chemical in tobacco cigarettes, without the countless negative health effects that

The hundreds of young people who start smoking every day run the risk of developing a lifelong addiction that will sap their vitality, reduce their enjoyment of life and lead to an early death. And I am someone who knows the power of that addiction. I began smoking cigarettes when I was 13 years of age and I smoked heavily until I was 35. I tried in vain a hundred times to quit. And although it has now been 15 years since I quit, I can still understand vividly and very personally the difficulty that smokers face when they try to put it aside.