Beginner's Guide to Quitting Smoking

Video Transcript

DR. CORAL ARVON: Hi. My name is Dr. Coral Arvon. I'm a licensed clinical psychotherapist with Arvon & Associates in Counseling in Aventura, Florida. This is the beginner's guide to quitting smoking. Number one, first of all, it could be a very challenging feat but you can do it. Some people can go cold turkey, not to say that it's easy, but you probably wouldn't be watching this clip if you could. Start slow, have goals, ask family members for support. You can start by decreasing the amount of cigarettes that you smoke. Start decreasing by one a day. And as you go each week, go to less and less. Try hypnosis, that's a very good support technique while you're doing it. There are products on the market that are nicotine gum and the nicotine patch. You can use either of those. They're very helpful. Besides going cold turkey, the next way would be an aversion method. An aversion method would be where you could wear a rubber band on your wrist and pinch yourself and flip it every time. You can pinch yourself. Every time you want a cigarette, do something negative so it gets paired off with smoking; and sooner or later, the smoking is not as palatable. Research, get as much information as you can, surf the Internet. The more that you read, the more that you will not want to smoke. Five things to remember about quitting smoking: One, it's going to be challenging so get support from your family; two, use nicotine patches and gum to help you get through this; three, you might try an aversion technique so that it's not so palatable; four, go ahead and surf the Internet for information, which will decrease your desire; and fifth, take your time, set goals, and this will work out fine for you.