Smoking Habits

If you’ve notice that you reach for your cigarette pack as soon as you get in the car, or immediately after a meal, you may be smoking out of habit. This differs from those smokers who feel the drop of nicotine levels in their blood and reach for a cigarette every hour or two to replenish the supply of the nicotine to the brain. These smoking habits can put a wrench into our quit plan simply because the action is automatic.

Many ex-smokers, especially those who were social smokers, have had to replace these smoking habits with others. This could include taking a walk after dinner instead of lighting up, or turning up the radio and singing along instead of picking up the pack. Since smoking is addictive on so many different levels, socially, emotionally, and physically, it’s important to determine just how you are addicted to smoking in each of these areas.

The American Cancer Society has developed a tool to help you determine how physically addicted to smoking you are, and how likely it will be that you may need medical intervention to quit smoking. They as questions like, “How soon after you wake do you smoke your first cigarette?” and “Which cigarette would you most hate to give up?” to analyze your smoking habits and help you determine the next course of action. You can find this Stop Smoking Quiz at cancer.org.

Often giving up bad habits such as smoking takes time, or at least takes time to get used to. You can help yourself along by considering the social, emotional and physical reason you smoke and developing a game plan to address each. Be sure to check with your doctor, and start your plan right now.

Resources:
http://www.cancer.org/healthy/toolsandcalculators/quizzes/app/smoking-ha...

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