How can I help while my boyfriend is quitting smoking? -
My boyfriend is on day 3 of no cigarettes. I-m so proud of him! He-s on the patch using Nicoderm CQ to try and help him quit. I should add that he-s going through a pretty tough time and has been for the last year (we-re in a long, sad custody battle), so that-s an addred stress while he-s trying to quit. How can I be helpful? Any advice?
I-m on week 2 of being a non-smoker and I know that just the encouragement and recognition is huge. Maybe try and help him find outlets for his stress like going for a walk, or doing something he enjoys.
buy him an e-cigarette. it is absolutely the easiest way to quit smoking. if you don-t know what an e-cig is, you can go to e-cigarette-forum.com, and check out the new to e-cig threads.
if you e-smoke you-ll still be getting nicotine, but no carcinogens and no smoke. they are totally safe. you-ll get your sense of taste and smell back, and your energy level, and you-ll stop smelling bad and won-t cough anymore.
best of all, you-ll still feel like you-re smoking and you can e-smoke almost anywhere, and e-smoking is WAY cheaper than smoking OR any other kind of patch/gum/etc, if you know what to buy.
while i do not endorse any e-cig company at all, but a good place to start would be puresmoker.com. they have cheap starter kits and very tasty eliquids.
when u figure it out.. let me know, i have been tryin for months now. the stess makes ciggs sound good.
As a mental health professional with 20+ years experience (now retired), much of which focused on treating alcohol and other drug (including nicotine and caffeine) abuse and dependence, and as one who has kicked his own nicotine and caffeine dependencies, I can confidently advise you that a lot of people who want to be helpful to their mates in their breaking their addictions find themselves in the place of being a hindrance to that process more than a help. Contrary to the popular jargon of today, if a person really wants to break the addiction, the ONLY thing they have to do is put the substance down and don-t pick it up again, under any circumstances, period! In all of my training and practice in the field of chemical abuse and addiction, I heard from everyone in treatment facilities say that breaking an addiction wasn-t a matter of will, but it took some great (and expensive) treatment program and facility (such as theirs) to help them do it. And in everyone of those treatment programs, inpatient or outpatient, they state very clearly, at the bottom of their lonnnngggggggggg recitation of the -benefits- of their program, in the proverbial -small print-, that it is up to the patient-s / addict-s WILLINGNESS to follow their program that will be the measurement of success or failure. Nowadays there-s so much nonsense on the market to -help- the poor cigarette addict quit this -horrible- addiction that what they-re creating is a culture of co-dependents, which, in the professional jargon, means someone(s) other than the addict who is actively involved in the addicts addiction by their passive or -helpful- intervention. The commercial enterprizes who have come up with all this nicotine gum, patches, etc., are making a HUGE profit by making the addict addicted to them and helpless of their own accord. They are enlarging the addicts addiction since the addict now is not only addicted to the -drug of choice-, but is now addicted to the -helpful- agent, who is truly of NO help to the addict AT ALL. So, as to how you can help your boyfriend break his addiction to cigarettes: DON-T!!! I don-t care what -tough times- he-s going through or how long he-s been going through them or which -tough time- he-s experiencing. The best way you can help him is DON-T, or simply take him at his word and expect that he-ll carry through on his promise or -mission-. Don-t be proud of him! EXPECT the outcome he-s promised! Or you and he, and the millions of other addicts and co-dependents will be carrying out their -long, sad- struggles with whatever their struggling with because no one decided to stand up and do what-s expected.