As a fact, there are quite a number of ways available to help you quit smoking. Each method has a different effect on everybody. While one method works for one person, it may not work on another.

Here are a few popular methods to help you:

Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT)

Nicotine is a very addictive drug and for a person who has had developed a dependence to it, it really is very difficult for one to withdraw this very familiar drug from his system. To somehow control the physical withdrawal symptoms, there is a need for a steady dose of nicotine for the body. NRT includes lozenges, patches, gums and inhalers that take the form of a cigarette.

False Cigarettes

Your body may be anxious on the fact of not being able to hold on to a cigarette anymore when you started to quit smoking. This “therapy” substitutes the action or the physical sensation of having to hold onto a cigarette without having to take in all the chemicals involved in smoking.

Eye Openers

These may involve events that could cause a smoker to decide to be a non-smoker. For some people a certain form of shock will open their eyes on the odds of smoking and would cause them to finally quit smoking. These eye openers could be the information he may have gained about some smoking related illness such as cancer or it may be the loss of a close friend or a family member. Either way it allows the smoker to think of his own mortality and fragility and be conscious about his lifestyle. He may then decide to live a healthier life. But these eye openers could work for a while. There is a possibility that the fears he once had on smoking would eventually subside and the once non-smoker would once again feel comfortable with smoking.

Zyban (or Bupropion)

This is a prescribed antidepressant drug that helps the brain fight those nicotine-craving chemicals in the body. There may be also side effects to the body so it is important that one should consult a general physician before taking in the drug.

Acupuncture

This is an ancient Chinese form of medication which involves inserting thin needles into various yet specific acupuncture points of the body. This kind of quit smoking program should result to reduced urges and controlled levels of withdrawal symptoms.

Meditation

This involves deep breathing exercises and guided imagery to calm the senses and promote a sense of inner serenity and well-being. One form of meditation would involve a repetition of a chant or mantra while another would just involve emptying one’s thoughts. This method is useful as it could help you relax and calm yourself especially when one is experiencing certain withdrawal symptoms.

Hypnotherapy

One not only has to convince his conscious mind to quit smoking. He/she also has to work with the subconscious, which is also believed to be the stronger part of the mind. This method of using suggestions can be learned or self-taught. One could use relaxation tapes or techniques to help calm your mind and free it from any worries.

Though there may be numerous methods available, the most important asset one could have is the will power to quit and stay quit.

I suffered with agoraphobia for more that twenty years. During that time I tried all sorts of treatments, some conventional, some not so, and nothing I did seemed to have any sort of positive effect upon my agoraphobia, panic disorder or anxiety disorder. In fact, some things made my condition worse, in some cases, much worse.

When my panic attacks started, back in 1985, I was left with a travel phobia but as the years passed, my safe-zone became increasingly smaller until I wound up being more or less completely housebound. During this time, at two separate stages of my downward progress, I consulted with a couple of homeopaths to see if they could help me. We tried all sorts of different treatments but nothing seemed to work. However, there was something that they both told me that lingered with me for a long time afterwards. They both stated that there was a “time for healing”. I must admit that I didn’t fully grasp what they actually meant by that and figured that they were trying to say that there was some God-given, pre-determined date when my recovery would begin. It wasn’t until much later, when I was well on the road to recovery, that it finally dawned on me what they were talking about.

I was working with the wrong definition of time. What they were getting at was that, there is, in a person’s life, a “suitable point” at which healing can take place. Unfortunately for me, it wasn’t until I had got to that suitable point that I was able to figure out what they were trying to tell me. You see, unbeknown to me at the time, there were some things happening in my life that were preventing me from getting well again. Looking back now, I can plainly see that until I went ahead and physically removed these things, I hadn’t a prayer of getting better.

Here’s a list of things that needed rectifying:

1. The first thing I had to get over was my resentment toward my agoraphobia: Right from the moment that I suffered my first panic attack I was extremely resentful of the fact. In my opinion, I wasn’t a bad person. Why me?

2. The second item was my denial that I had agoraphobia: It took me years to acknowledge that I was ill and in need of help. I truly believed that one day I would wake up and it would magically be gone. In the meantime, if asked about it by even the closest of friends, I’d deny that there was a problem.

3. The third in line was the guilt I was carrying because of letting people down: I had this crazy habit of agreeing to anything that I was asked to do, including things that involved travelling, and hoping that everything would work out fine on the day. Things seldom worked out fine and more often than not, I just couldn’t face the journey. Even if I could confront going through with what I’d agreed to, I’d put myself through hell just to keep someone else happy.

4. And the last item on the list was self-medicating with alcohol: At first it started out as a couple of drinks to steady my nerves but as time rolled by, I started to lean on the stuff more and more. Eventually, I was drinking just to get through the day and wound up with depression.

Something had to change. The first thing to take a hike was the booze, followed closely by my no longer making promises just to keep others happy. If I was invited anywhere, I’d say that I would try to attend but I’d ask the host/hostess not to make any special arrangements and not to be upset if I didn’t make it. I started to accept my “fate” and settled, quite contentedly, into my restricted life. I started to look upon it as a puzzle that I had been given to solve. Looking at it from this perspective made a game out of it. Also, if and when asked about my agoraphobia, I was truthful with my answer.

Within a short space of time, I started to feel better. I was no longer viewing life through an alcoholic haze and the depression started to lift, the guilt I felt from my missed engagements ceased, I was no longer kidding myself that I would magically get better and, last but not least, the resentment that I used to feel had been replaced with a sense of determination to find a cure.

Doing the above didn’t cure my anxiety, panic attacks or agoraphobia but what it did do was pave the way for my recovery by removing most of the stress from my life. Once this was done, right on cue, I stumbled across the system that I needed to remove the agoraphobia and its cousins completely.

Then there is the most universal of all symbols, the Swastika (pictured). At one time it was thought that the Buddhists carried it all over the world with them, but it has been found out that ages before Buddhism it was used among nations. In Old Babylon and in Egypt it was to be found. What does this show? All these symbols could not have been purely conventional.There must be some reason for them; some natural association between them and the human mind. Language is not the result of convention; it is not that people ever agreed to represent certain ideas by certain words; there never was an idea without a corresponding word or a word without a corresponding idea; ideas and words are in their nature inseparable. The symbols to represent ideas may be sound symbols or colour symbols. Deaf and dumb people have to think with other than sound symbols. Every thought in the mind has a form as its counterpart. This is called in Sanskrit philosophy Nama – rupa — name and form.

It is as impossible to create by convention a system of symbols as it is to create a language. In the world’s ritualistic symbols we have an expression of the religious thought of humanity. It is easy to say that there is no use of rituals and temples and all such paraphernalia; every baby says that in modern times. But it must be easy for all to see that those who worship inside a temple are in many respects different from those who will not worship there. Therefore the association of particular temples, rituals, and other concrete forms with particular religions has a tendency to bring into the minds of the followers of those religions the thoughts for which those concrete things stand as symbols; and it is not wise to ignore rituals and symbology altogether. The study and practice of these things form naturally a part of Karma-Yoga.

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