Salaspils Secondary school N.

Form 12b

Madara Vanaga

Breaking Free: Exploring Strategies to Overcome Smoking

Addiction and End the Cycle

One of the most prevalent types of addiction that affect millions of individuals
globally is smoking addiction. Smoking has several harmful consequences on health. Despite
the well-known health risks of smoking, many people find it difficult to quit because
of nicotine and its surroundings. Physical, psychological, and environmental causes, as well
as other aspects related to smoking addiction distract people to quit. Even though there are
lots of techniques for supporting people in quitting smoking. This essay discusses the
reasons why smoking addiction continues and what methods can be done to end it.

Smoking addiction is a big problem because it is making a lot of people sick and even
dying from the symptoms that the chemicals in cigarettes cause. According to the World
Health Organization tobacco use results in more than 8 million deaths. There are 1.3 billion
tobacco users worldwide. More than 7 million of those deaths are directly related to tobacco
use, whereas 1.2 million are caused by non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.
When compared to the entire world, these figures are enormous.

Understanding the causes of the difficulty in quitting smoking is necessary before

looking at smoking cessation methods. Looking overall there are three smoking addiction
types. The author summed up the following information from the book “Narkoloģija’’ edited
by Astrīda Stirna (2008): one is a physical addiction, the central nervous system acclimation
to nicotine. After quitting nicotine the most frequent withdrawal symptoms are anxiety,
insomnia, headaches, and a strong desire to smoke. Withdrawal can manifest itself in many
ways for smokers. The first few weeks after quitting smoking are when withdrawal
symptoms are at their worst. Within three months, this cigarette craving goes away.(p. 371)
Nevertheless, psychological, and social addiction are more of a problem than nicotine
addiction alone. Social addiction is the environment. For instance, if the majority of co-
workers smoke, it may be more difficult for a non-smoker to quit after trying for the first
time. Meeting a smoking friend can automatically result in you taking up a cigarette because
smoking is a social activity. The only time this social addiction is seen is when someone is
trying to give up smoking. The third and final addiction is a psychological addiction, which
occurs when smoking cigarettes starts to become a routine. When a smoker is troubled or
stressed, he or she will probably pull a cigarette out, light it, take a puff, and put it out again.
A smoker has developed the ability to relax and take a break during this period. (p.
371)Understanding the various types of smoking addiction is critical for developing effective
smoking cessation methods. To successfully overcome the habit, it is critical to address not
only the physical addiction to nicotine, but also the psychological and social aspects.

Breaking the cycle of smoking addiction requires taking into consideration the three
mentioned addictions physical, psychological, and social. There are so many ways to quit
smoking, but not all work for everyone, but there are proven to most likely to work stop-
smoking aids. Internet site nhs.uk gathered all the important information about smoking
aids: nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs), nicotine vapes, prescription-only medicines,
and behaviour therapies. NRTs give you nicotine without any of the harmful chemicals. They
can help reduce the withdrawal symptoms of quitting. At first the smoker is supposed to
take/use a bigger dose, since the body is used to taking a big amount of nicotine every day,
then take/use smaller dose till there is little to no nicotine level in the body left. It also takes
psychological and social addiction into consideration. There is a range of NRT products to
choose from. Nicotine patches, nicotine nasal, mouth spray, nicotine inhaler, gum, lozenges,
and micro tabs. There are also prescription-only medicines, varenicline, and bupropion.
These medicines do not contain nicotine, but they can help with withdrawal symptoms. If
recommended by a doctor or a stop-smoking adviser, they can be taken together with
nicotine replacement products. These two stop-smoking methods are medication based, but
there are also methods where the smoker overcomes smoking by just willpower and the
help of others. Usually, these methods are used by mixing them all together to make the
perfect stop-smoking method.

In conclusion, smoking addiction is a significant issue that many individuals

experience globally. Despite tobacco addiction's well-known harmful effects, many people
struggle to quit due to its biological, psychological, and environmental components. To
develop smoking cessations that effectively treat all three aspects of addiction, it is
necessary to first understand the different types of addiction. It's important to recognize
that giving up smoking is a challenging process that requires commitment and effort. There
are different effective ways to help people in breaking the cycle of smoking addiction, but no
method is guaranteed to work for everyone. Each person must find the strategy that works
best for them and request the help of family members and medical specialists along the
process.

1. World Health Organization. (2021). Tobacco. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-

sheets/detail/tobacco

2. Astrīdas Stirnas redakcijā. (2008). SIA ‘’medicīnas apgabals’’. 371-381.

3. nhs.uk. Stop smoking aids. https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/stop-

smoking-aids/

4. wikipedia.org. Smoking cessation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_cessation