I’ve worked with a lot of people to quit smoking. In doing this, I have heard all kinds of reasons that it might be better if they kept smoking.

I’ve been told smoking sharpens your mind, relaxes you, calms you, keeps you from yelling at the kids (or spouse), tastes good with coffee, tastes better after a meal. In short, makes you feel “better”. (I always ask “better than what”?)

I know you don’t really believe these reasons, or why would you be trying to stop smoking. Still, a part of you DOES believe these reasons.

You do have a strong reason to keep smoking or you would have quit by now. Just so you know, there are not any laws stating your reason to keep smoking needs to make any sense. It rarely does.

You’ve probably already proven your reasons untrue. Smoking might taste better with coffee because the coffee taste on your tongue covers the bad taste of smoking???

Even when you know the reason doesn’t make sense, that knowledge doesn’t always help you stop. It might just add to your frustration in the struggle to stop. Just one more reason to stop that doesn’t out-weigh the craving to continue.

There are two important sides to this. The feeling that smoking will make you feel better and, the feeling you want to feel better than. That’s what needs to be changed.

If you’re too hot, you look for ways to cool off. If you’re leg hurts you look for pain relief. If you feel bad (tired, stressed, overwhelmed, angry, lonely, whatever…) you look to feel good. If you have held the belief that smoking makes you feel good, that’s where your mind takes you.

This is simple explanation of a craving. Some smokers have more than one type of craving, the ‘first thing in the morning’ craving might feel different than the ‘on the phone’ craving.

SO, how do you change these things? I can write on and on about this (and I have on my web site) It will come down to changing the feelings, motivations and beliefs involved.

First, the bad feeling needs to be helped. If it’s about stress, get it managed, if it’s a difficult situation, do what you can to take care of it or get some help. If it’s a bad feeling you get that is beyond what the situation deserves, behavior modification might be what you need.

Second, the ‘looking to feel better’ side of things needs to be updated. (it’s common that this is about mistaken beliefs, formed when young, that smoking is about being an adult, in control, strong willed, independent, etc…) Of course, a cigarette is only leaf and chemicals wrapped in paper. The good feeling is the emotions your mind has attached to this action. It could just as easily be ice cream or cookies that your mind has attached good feelings with.

And that’s the bottom line. The bulk of the quit smoking issue is about behavior modification - changing the way you feel. That’s why the success rate of most prescription medication and nicotine replacement (like the patch and nicotine gum) alone is so low. The only current exception is Chantix and even Pfizer, the makers of Chantix, recommend behavior modification go along with the medication.

Addiction to medically prescribed medication has reached widespread proportions in the USA. People obtain prescriptions for medicines to handle some kind of discomfort and get so used to taking them that before they know what is happening they become completely needy on them even when there is no pain or discomfort.

To enable a patient to come out of the effects of a enervating disease or disaster, a physician will prescribe some drugs to make him feel better. Since it has been prescribed by a medic, the patients deem that using them is safe. When they begin to take them to get through their typical days and to cope with the vicissitudes of life, they have become addicted to them.

Such addiction to medically prescribed drugs, projected to have affected over 20 million Americans, has spared no one. The rich, the poor, the renowned and the commonplace, celebrities and tycoons have all been affected.

If you suspect that you may be grappling with such an addiction, it is time for you to have a serious dialogue with your medical practitioner. Preferably the one who prescribed them to start with. If you cannot do without them and need growing quantities of them, you need to cut off the source and commence the recuperation procedure.

It is very arduous to see some one dear to you walk down this path due to addiction to prescription medication. It is fairly possible that the original devotion for the medically prescribed was some painful event. It may be that you may even deny their addiction just as they are likely to. This may be a major error in judgment.

Be it for yourself or somebody that you care for, it will be a good idea to keep track of the usage of medication like Vicodin or Oxycontin prescribed to combat pain. Monitoring the dosage and incidence of ingestion can give a good indication to usage in excess to necessity.

The main reason why people get hooked to medically prescribed medicine is the fear of pain - the fear that the pain for which the medication was originally prescribed will reappear, if the prescription was not present in the body. The fact of the difficulty is, yes, the pain is likely to return for a diminutive while. Not for the initial reason for which it was prescribed, but as a reaction from the body which has got used to its presence. The pain will eventually go.

Addiction to prescription medication is a profound complication. It can clasp hold of you before you know what is happening and refuse to let go. It is necessary, whether it is for you or for someone that you care for, that you take instantaneous help and return to your usual life at the earliest. To do this, you have to first admit that there is a problem. Do not delay this, do it now. Get help.