At alt.support.stop-smoking, I came across a comment that said cutting down on smoking is not a recommended way to help you quit smoking. Following that commentary, it was written that you can resume your smoking habit easily because you are still addicted to nicotine. Although you reduce your smoking, you are still gratifying your cravings for cigarettes.
However, that doesn't mean that cutting down will not work at all. It can help you be smoke free only if you do it right. Cutting down should not just refer to the number of cigarettes you consume. You must also take into account the way you smoke. Most smokers on reduced smoking will inhale harder, deeper and longer to feed their addiction. You must change the way you smoke by inhaling less tobacco smoke into your lungs. If you can't handle the withdrawal symptoms, then you may need nicotine replacement products such as nicotine patch and gum as a partial replacement.
Keep track of how much you smoke. You need to monitor your smoking habit or else you will find it easy to smoke more. Using your record, you can plan to bring down your smoking effectively. You can also watch your progress.
When reducing the amount you smoke, you must practice absolute reduction. During the entire course, you must stick to your goals and never at any time, increase the number of cigarettes to suit your addiction. You can change to other milder brands which contain less nicotine. But don't smoke more of milder cigarettes. Remember, you want to cut down because you don't want to chain yourself to nicotine.
Instead of smoking the whole cigarette, you can smoke less of each cigarette. It is not neccessary to smoke until the end of the butt. Some smokers smoke only half of their cigarettes.
Cutting down on alcohol can help you subdue the cravings for nicotine. Based on a research by University of Chicago, any smoker, regardless of their tobacco consumption, experience lesser impact of withdrawal symptoms by refraining from alcohol. The study also showed that when you drink alone, you tend to smoke more. In other words, alcohol consumption can increase your frequency of smoking to more than what you would normally smoke.
These cutting down methods can lower the amount of carbon monoxide, nicotine, and other harmful substances in your body. Cutting down also means changing the way you smoke. The whole idea of cutting down on your smoking is to smoothen the transition to zero nicotine. Ultimately,your objective is to quit smoking completely.
