Fatal Consequences Of Smoking

There are so many grounds for wanting to stop smoking, including reducing your risk of heart disease, cancer, and premature death. Notwithstanding, these terrible health risks, lots of smokers find themselves requiring other reasons to quit smoking. Strangely some seem to believe the "it could never happen to me syndrome" but they should realize that if they smoke long enough they can't escape the fatal consequences of smoking.

We are going to introduce some simple steps, to assist you in coming up with your own potent, persuasive reasons, break your addiction to smoking.

1) Please take a little time to write down on a sheet of paper, the bad things concerning how smoking affects the way you feel. Include physical problems such as breathing difficulties and fatigue; as well as humiliation, associated with the smell of tobacco on your clothes and in your hair. You may write that you feel like an outcast being forced outside to smoke, while the majority stay inside socializing and having a good time. You could express your fears of being ostracized by non-smoking relatives and friends, or even worse your worries about dying young through the fatal consequences of smoking. Be honest with yourself and write down all the reasons that come to mind, but endeavor to choose reasons that are real issues applicable to you personally. What other people may have thought or said is important, but try to concern yourself primarily with your own thoughts on the matter, of just why you want to stop smoking.

2) After you have finished preparing your list, examine it carefully. Think about each item on the list, and re-enact the various situations. Then pick out the top three reasons that are most compelling to you and underline them.

On a further sheet of paper write a longer explanation of each of those three reasons. For instance, if one of your main items was "not to die young and desert my family", write an account about why that is vital to you and your family. How would your children manage if you died prematurely? How would the possibly fatal consequences of smoking  affect them, not only now but in the future as well? Is it likely that your addiction to smoking will encourage them to smoke later and perpetuate the habit? Carry on writing until you are satisfied you have listed the main reasons why you want to quit smoking. Although this procedure may appear to be a gruesome exercise, it can be extremely powerful. Long time smokers may have been in denial about the dreadful consequences of smoking. Through this exercise you are putting the record straight.

Continue the process for the next two items on your most significant reasons list.

3) Now take a final sheet of paper, to list and write about how these awful consequences will change for the better, when you quit smoking. For example, you may write that when you stop smoking you will be able to fully participate in family life, without feeling 'fagged out' all the time. How you will not be as likely to 'snuff it' at an early age, and will be around to participate healthily in family life for as long as possible. You probably know of families where a parent has become a burden through smoking, so write that you are going to do all you can to stop that happening to you.

Complete the exercise for the three most significant reasons you want to stop smoking. Choose more than three if you want to. Carry the list about with you and read it slowly several times a day. You had almost forgotten about the effect of smoking, not just on yourself but on your loved ones too. Now that you have remembered and exposed smoking for what it is - a nasty, anti-social, smelly, life threatening health hazard, you have that added incentive to stop smoking.

You may need to dip into our web pages to find additional help in your stop smoking campaign, but if you continue to refer to your list you will never again ask yourself - why should I want to stop smoking?