Cigarette smoking is much more than a bad habit. The nicotine in cigarettes is a highly addictive chemical, and breaking its grip means an uphill climb for the addict. Numerous techniques have been developed in the hopes of an easy way to break the cycle of nicotine addiction. Aversion therapy, a kind of behavioral therapy, has shown success but failed to gain traction among addiction counselors.
Nicotine Addiction
According to the Centers for Disease Control, nicotine ranks alongside heroin, cocaine and alcohol in terms of its addictive qualities. No other drug, in fact, holds so many people in its grip. Cigarette smoke contains a toxic stew of harmful chemicals and carcinogens that enter the bloodstream through the lung capillaries. The benefits of smoking cessation are felt almost immediately. Heart rate and blood gases stabilize after 12 hours of your last cigarette. After just three months of not smoking, lung function begins returning to normal levels. A year after quitting, your heart attack risk drops by half. Quitting smoking also reduces the risk of stroke and lung cancer, both lethal killers made worse by cigarette smoke and tar.
Aversion Therapy
Aversion therapy seeks to alter a person's perception of a particular stimulus. Smokers obviously associate smoking with pleasurable feelings. Aversion therapy breaks that association, substituting a negative feeling for the positive one. For example, a smoker may receive a mild electric shock every time they reach for a cigarette. Or, her cigarettes may be laced with a nausea-inducing chemical. According to psychologists, an aversion develops quickly under the right circumstances. A report in the "Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment" demonstrated that one example of aversion therapy achieved a remarkable 52 percent success rate in smoking cessation.
Methods and Tools for Quitting
Approximately half of all smokers will attempt to quit sometime during any calendar year. Quitting "cold turkey," which means all at once with no human or chemical assistance, is a relatively ineffective method. Both counseling and behavioral therapy sessions improve the odds of a successful quit. More time spent with a professional counselor, in fact, equals even better chances of quitting for good. Both over-the-counter and prescription medications may alleviate the powerful symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. Combining medications with counseling appears to offer smokers the highest probability of a successful quit.
Possible Drawbacks to Aversion Therapy
Despite its potential for success, aversion therapy has failed to gain much traction within the addiction treatment community. Health professionals balk at the idea of prescribing a treatment regimen that includes pain or other unpleasant sensations. Furthermore, the smoker must be wholeheartedly committed to ending his addiction in order to follow through with aversion therapy; however, one of the biggest reasons more smokers don't turn to aversion therapy is that most have never heard of it.
References
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Smoking and Tobacco Use: Smoking Cessation
- Mayo Clinic: Nicotine Dependence
- Southern Arkansas University Magnolia: Behavioral Therapy
- Psychology Today; The Human Beast; Smoking: Most Effective Quitting Technique Little Known; Nigel Barber; February 2010
- "Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment"; Long Term Outcome of Clients Treated in a Commercial Stop Smoking Program; Smith JW; 1988
