The cravings you have to go through when you stop smoking are probably the greatest barrier to kicking the habit. Many people are quite optimistic when they quit smoking for the first time only to find that the cravings are much stronger than they thought and after maybe a few hours of quitting they relapse. In this article we will explain why you experience these cravings, which are sometimes referred to as nicotine withdrawal symptoms and we will also explain what you can do to reduce or even eliminate these cravings.

The reason you experience nicotine withdrawal symptoms is that, when you first started smoking regularly, nicotine attached itself to the receptors in your brain. The effect of this is that whenever you smoke again this will trigger the release of the hormone dopamine which is the hormone responsible for good feelings. It is the same chemical released when you laugh and when you take other addictive drugs. The tendency is to then smoke after you have had some kind of stressful stimuli, perhaps an argument or you are just feeling overwhelmed by something. This then creates a cycle of dependency on nicotine and leads you to smoke more and more while at the same time you are putting your health at risk.

When you then want to start quitting smoking it becomes hard because, depending on how long you have been smoking, the habit has become deeply ingrained into your subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is the place in your mind where associations or “anchors” are created, and it is also the place in your mind where habits form. Feelings of pleasure and stress relief are anchored to smoking and the habit is to smoke whenever you are faced with a stressful situation. It then becomes hard to deal with stress after you quit smoking which is why you become anxious, irritated and maybe even depressed when you quit smoking. There is that clash between the conscious mind, the place where you make all logical decisions, and the subconscious mind which is responsible for automatic behaviors. You know that consciously, you should stop smoking and make every effort to do so, but subconsciously there is still that need to smoke because the subconscious cannot think. It just accepts everything as true.

Now things ingrained in the subconscious can be changed but it takes some time. It can take up to 3 months to learn a new habit of not smoking when you are faced with stress. Most of the time, if you are not taking anything to help with the urges and symptoms, you will relapse when trying to quit smoking. The World Health Organization estimates that 95% of people who wish to stop smoking will relapse before the end of that year which really illustrates how hard it can be.

To help with this process of changing this habit of dependency there are many products on offer in the market place. These range from nicotine replacement therapy products like nicotine patches to natural homeopathic products which contain only natural substances. You can read more about these by visiting the website mentioned in the author information box.

Author Bio: You can find out more information on nicotine replacement therapy and natural homeopathic products by visiting this review site on how you can stop smoking.

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: smoking, quit smoking, stop smoking, stop smoking cravings, quit smoking cravings