Giving up smoking  can be hard. Not many people can tell themselves one day that they are going to stop smoking and manage it [by themselveson their own]. But if you really want to, the good news is that you can – and there is a lot of support available to help you. You will always be able to find a stop smoking program that suits you.

A lot of smokers have found that going ‘cold turkey’ just does not work for them, even when using nicotine patches, gum, fake cigarettes etc etc.  If you are like that and are determined to stop smoking and have the will power, then try the gradual approach.

Start by having your first cigarette of the day an hour after you get up in the morning rather than right away. If you find you can’t do this, then make your second cigarette at least an hour after your first one. Usually within a week or two your body will have become conditioned to accept this, and you will no longer crave that first cigarette, then you should start to make the  interval between cigarettes longer. Do this deliberately. If you really crave a cigarette, wait at least five minutes until you light up and after a week or two make it ten.

When you have become accustomed to smoking less, stop smoking during the afternoon and then either the evening or the morning, whichever is most comfortable. Eventually, one or two cigarettes a day will be sufficient to satisfy the craving and from there it is only a short jouney to giving up altogether.

Whilst you are cutting down on your cigarette consumption, make it a bit uncomfortable to smoke. Start by not emptying ashtrays, you will be surprised at how much the smell of long dead cigarettes will put you off. Next do not allow yourself to smoke indoors.

Try to avoid those places where you regularly smoke and spend less time with those colleagues you regularly smoke with. Tell them that you are kicking the habit and you may find that they will join you. Help and support is always good. You need to break the habit and to do so you may need to break other habits.If you use cigarettes as a reward system ( I will finish this and then I will have a cigarette) then you should give yourself a different reward. (I will finish this and then sit down and look at a magazine/t.v. for five minutes, go out into the garden) – whatever floats your boat.

If you do have a friend who also wants to quit, set up a mutual support system. Phone each other every day to exchange experiences and be available if either of you need support so as not to break the rules regarding where in the system you are.

Finally, set a goal for when you do finally stop smoking. Work out how much money you are saving and put this away weekly. You could use it to have a holiday, or buy a new wardrobe, or something else you really want. A goal that is not associated with cigarettes will help.

It is not easy to quit smoking,if you need other help and its available, use it. You will not regret giving up the habit. Smoking is no longer a sociable thing to do, in fact it is definitely anti-social.

Tags: free stop smoking, how to stop smoking, quit smoking, stop smoking, stop smoking program

Facing Your Phobias

Have you ever wondered how a person could develop a phobia, especially of kittens or balloons, or the other things you hear people having phobias of? Although many phobias do sound pretty outlandish, their development is not that odd. In facts, the development of a phobia is a natural survival instinct that is a little confused.

Although the creation of phobias is not an absolute science, all types of phobias form as the result of an extreme aversion to something. The difference between a phobia and simply being afraid of something is the level of fear that is characteristic of a phobia. In addition to feeling emotionally uneasy, phobia sufferers show physical symptoms of their fear, including increased heart rate and breathing, sweating, feeling faint, and feeling as though they are choking. Phobias strike people differently depending on the severity of their phobia and what triggers the phobic response. For example, for someone who has a phobic reaction to heights is usually not equally frightened by all situations involving heights, and how high they are, the presence of a handrail, and a number of other factors affect each individual phobic response. However, the classic example of phobia formation is that a fear of poisonous snakes gets transferred to all snakes, creating a snake phobia. Although the ideas about phobia development have progressed from this theory, the phobia forms because the brain identifies a great threat, in this case a snake, and sees the situation as out of control and dangerous.

In many cases, this causes the body to undergo a fight or flight response, or even have a full-blown panic attack. Another way to describe a phobia is that the brain forms false associations between a situation or thing, which caused the phobia sufferer to ascend into fear unnecessarily. An example of the phobia mindset would be that after burning your hand on a stove, instead of fearing or avoiding putting your hand on a hot burner, you have an intense fear of all stoves and fear their presence instead of being careful not to touch the hot burner. Some phobias are so severe that even the thought of the phobia trigger can cause a phobia episode.

While phobias can be difficult to deal with, the system that causes phobias to develop is a means of protection and was very helpful to our early ancestors. In specific places in the world at various times throughout history, it might have been the people who have snake phobias who were capable of surviving, particularly in areas such as Australia as well as Africa where they have an abundance of very venomous species of snakes. For early people, fearing and avoiding snakes may have kept them alive, but they were able to react in an extreme way to the presence of a snake. They were also allowed to kill the snake, which may help cure the phobia, if the presence of a snake was seen as a controllable situation.

Although you can have a phobia of anything, it has been shown that people are genetically predisposed to develop phobias or fears of some things much more easily than others. An experiment that focused on exposing subjects to images and electric shocks showed that it took very little to develop a fear of certain animals, while others took many electric shocks. Because of this, experts think that phobias develop as a survival instinct, but that survival instinct is, for the most part, unnecessary in the modern world. However, these instincts are intact in case we ever need them.

For a great deal more informational value go here: Controlling Your Panic Attacks and certainly try Help A Panic Attack and more information at What Is A Panic Attack

Tags: Are Phobias Normal