To quit smoking is one of the best decisions you can make for yourself. You have the power within you to make this choice. This can be a hard thing to do when you are in a drug rehab program. Maybe smoking is what helps you deal with the stress of trying to get help with another addiction. You can tackle both addictions at the same time.
Why are you in a drug rehab program? Because you want to get help with addiction, right? Smoking can have severe consequences over time. You don’t have to do this alone. You can get help with the program. You can also seek family and friends for support to help you through on harder days.
Long-Term Risks of Smoking
Everyone has heard the countless warnings about smoking over the course of their lives. Millions of families have even lost loved ones to smoking. Despite the red flags, warning signs, and stop lights, people continue to smoke. Rates of cigarette smoking are much less than they used to be over past years, but the draw to nicotine still remains. When cigarettes are smoked for a long period of time, they can have extremely concerning and even deadly risks. Some of the conditions most widely experienced by cigarette smokers include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Development of several types of cancer
- Heart disease
- Stroke
- Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
- Rheumatoid arthritis
- Emphysema
- Chronic bronchitis
Some of these conditions can be treated, but for the risk of developing them and potentially dying as a result of them increases the longer a person smokes for.
Benefits of Quitting Smoking
Quitting anything that has become a habit comes with stress. Smoking might be your crutch to help handle the stress. Let’s think about some positive benefits of quitting smoking at the same time you are recovering from another addiction.
- The sooner you quit smoking, the more likely you are to reverse some of the effects you have caused yourself. In fact, some of the effects of smoking immediately change once you stop, such as your blood pressure returning to a normal rate. Coughing and shortness of breath can decrease over time, too. In some cases, the damage to the lungs can reverse to an extent.
- By quitting smoking, you can focus on healthier ideas to manage the stress. Smoking can make you feel less motivated, so when you are struggling, it is easy to reach for a cigarette. But, when you quit you can start feeling healthier, more alert, and more motivated. Quitting smoking alone can help with the way you feel physically, subsequently influencing how you feel psychologically.
- You’re in a drug rehab program to get help with changing your life for the better. You don’t like some choices you make. You don’t like the way those choices make you feel. Quitting smoking while getting help can aid you in getting that fresh start that you began the program for. Consider your own wellbeing. You are already working on giving up something you are hooked on, so why continue to smoke? Now is your opportunity to capitalize on the opportunity to not only get sober from drugs and alcohol, but from cigarettes, too.
- Consider your family and friends. Maybe some of them smoke. Maybe none of them smoke. Whether they smoke or not you still love them and want to have them around for a long time. Smoking can cause serious health problems. By quitting smoking you can prevent some of those health problems and be with your family and friends longer.
When you quit smoking, you gift yourself a clean slate and the ability to increase your quality of life for a long time.
How to Quit Smoking
There is no magic word that you can say to make nicotine cravings go away. This is not something that you can kick overnight. Furthermore, it is not something you need to go through alone. If you are ready to stop smoking for good, consider the following:
- Establish a primary reason why you want to quit smoking. Focus on that reason and utilize it as a goal.
- Speak to someone at the treatment facility, such as a doctor or therapist. Ask them what tips and tricks they might suggest and see if any of them can be applied to your situation.
- Consider using a nicotine patch or nicotine intranasal spray to help ward off cravings.
- Reach out for community support both at your treatment center and when you return home to your own town or city.
Smoking is a crutch that will eventually give out on you by giving you more health problems. You’re on your path to creating a fresh start. The life you want is on the other side of the stress and hard days you are going through now. One addiction is not the way to help quit another. Think positive. Find your motivation. Visualize your new life. You will get there.
We can help you. Give us a call 844-903-2111 and start creating your new life today.
