If you’re a smoker, you’ve probably tried all the usual methods for kicking your habit — but what if the real solution is to do something totally out of left field?
We recently reported on a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that have the good news that smoking prevalence among adults has dropped big time — from 20.9 percent to 16.8 percent, all within the last 10 years. That’s nearly a fifth of all smokers snuffing it out for good. But for everyone else, it remains a seemingly impossible problem to lick — or is it?
At the very least, you have medical authorities and lots of other resources at your side: the CDC’s new report is part of a broad campaign to drive down that number to 12 percent of adults by 2020, and media campaigns, new regulations, and smoking cessation products are helping people give up smoking for good. But for some, it just hasn’t been enough yet.
And if you’ve tried to quit, you’ve probably given cold turkey a try, or nicotine gums, or a number of other measures with no luck. But instead of giving up, it may be time to double down: everyone is different, and some tricks work for some and not for others. It may be time to find your own trick, and that could involve something a bit bizarre.
One thing that works for a lot of accountability. It may seem uncomfortable to either hire someone or get a friend to make sure you’re not relapsing, but that’s exactly the point: the discomfort will help you give up the habit, so if you’re truly desperate, it’s worth a try.
But if you are dead set against involving other people in your personal struggle, there are other tricks you could try. One solution used by a woman as described in a WebMD report involved sucking on a piece of candy and repeating the mantra: “NOPE — not one puff ever.” If you say it quietly enough, no one will look at you funny when you do it.
Still another slightly wacky way is to literally run from cigarettes. Another person described in the WebMD report started running when he got a craving, and ran until he stopped craving cigarettes, which sometimes took a few miles. That resulted in good exercise benefits in addition to quitting smoking.
No matter what you do, keep in mind that everyone is different, and you may have simply not found your personal trick yet.co.