Finding the best way to quit smoking can be difficult. Personally I think that one can not give up smoking without having a strong motivation. At least this is my case.

I’ve stated to smoke in high school not due to stress or by pleasure but due to desperate need to be accepted by those ‘cool’ people around me. At that time, like many others, I was convinced that I can give up smoking anytime I want.

While years have passed I continue to smoke trying to find various reasons for this habit. I did not try not only to find the best way to quit smoking but, for one single moment, I did not think to quit smoking.

When I got pregnant I have decided to quit smoking and ‘Surprise, surprise’ I discovered how difficult it can be. I was extremely nervous and I have learned what lack of concentration means. It was awful as all the people around me were smoking.

At the next visit to the doctor I told him about the encountered problem and I have asked him to support me as I was willing to find the best way to quit smoking. After a long talk we have decided that the best way to quit smoking in my case was to try to reduce the number of cigarettes instead of suddenly cut off smoking.

What do you think? Was my try successful? Did the love for my child motivate me enough?

You will be surprised to find out that next day after giving birth to my son I was asking my husband to give me one cigarette. As we were in the hospital I was refused. We have continued to discuss about our baby until I have remember that in the bag that I have prepared for hospital there were some cigarettes. I have ended the conversation motivating that I need to rest, went back into my room and light one cigarette. You can not imagine the peace and happiness I felt. In the next moment I realized that I was already addicted to nicotine and that I have to take position.

The only method that I have found was to spend with my son as much time as possible in order to decrease number of cigarettes. It was so hard. Late in the night, when everyone was sleeping, I went on the terrace and light one cigarette.

Was I successful? No. Not until the moment when the practitioner informed me that my son can have asthma. Starting from that moment I completely quit smoking. As you may see finding the best way to quit smoking can be very difficult but support comes from unexpected people and situations.

Which is my message to the smokers?
If you do not want to quit smoking for your own sake please take a look around you. Life is beautiful and you can overpass this try.

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“Smoking causes cancer”. “Smoking during pregnancy is dangerous for children”. “Smoking may kill”. These are few sentences written on my husband’s cigarette packages. Our elder son is reading these messages. He doesn’t know much about cancer and about death but his intuition whispered that smoking is a wrong choice. He took one package, showed it to his father and asked him to try to find the best way to stop smoking.

“Starting from tomorrow I will quit smoking even if the cigar helps me concentrating” was the answer. But he did not keep his promise.

Next day I remembered him about the promise he made and I asked him to find the best way to quit smoking I have received answers like “Lots of physicians are smoking” or “My grandparents smoked all their life, my mother smoked too”. I realized how difficult is for him not only to quit smoking but also to find the best way to quit smoking as from the very first years he lived among smokers. At the beginning he was a passive one but as years passed by he grew up and started smoking with his parents while drinking the morning coffee.

I have explained him that he has to find the best way to quit smoking as our kids are small and they still need his love and attention. As smoking means addiction to nicotine I have asked him to fix an appointment to our physician in order to see the long term effects of smoking. Luckily he has accepted.

During the meeting the physician explained the long term effects of smoking: pulmonary diseases, chronic coughing, difficulties in breading, heart attacks, lung cancer, bad immunity, problems with skin, teeth. He also realized how his smoking is affecting the kids as a passive smoker faces the same risks as an active one.

Together with our physician we have agreed that the best way to quit smoking for him was to go little by little that means to decrease the number of cigarettes on daily basis. He was advice to drink water or eat a fruit whenever he felt the need to smoke. Other useful advices, in order to keep his mind busy whenever he felt the need to light a cigarette, were to try to draw or read a magazine. We have also decided not to replace his addiction to nicotine with various medicines but to try some acupuncture sessions.

Acupuncture is an old Chinese method that is using the insertion of needles into various parts of body in order to restore the body’s life energy and balance. This method deals with subtle energy flows called CHI; any disruption in CHI affects health.

Even though he was skeptic and the idea of needles made him uncomfortable he went to the first session and, despite all the negative thought that he had, acupuncture helped him to relax without smoking. At the end of the sessions my husband wasn’t smoking at all and starting from then, twice a year he follows an acupuncture session just to restore the energy balance.

My husband also realized that even though the choice belonged to him, without the help and love of his family he wouldn’t have succeeded in finding the best way to quit smoking.

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