Last week was National Addictions Awareness Week. During this week, we encourage the community to increase the knowledge and awareness of addictions and to live a lifestyle free from addiction.
Smoking is a huge cause for concern amongst mental health and addictions workers, especially with the high levels of use in the Northeast. It is never too late to quit smoking.
When you quit smoking, the benefits begin with 20 minutes of your last cigarette, and continue to grow for years. Breathing begins to be easier and the risk of having a heart attack decreases, as does the risk of dying from lung cancer.
Some smokers believe that quitting cold turkey is the only way to stop smoking. Commitment is essential to quitting smoking; however smokers are more likely to succeed at quitting if they take advantage of counseling and smoking cessation medications, including nicotine (gum, patches, lozenges, inhaler, or nasal spray) and the prescription drugs Zyban (buproprion) and Chantix (varenicline).
If you access counselling, the odds of success are increased by 60 per cent, and taking medication doubles those odds. Relapse is a common event when someone is trying to quit smoking. Most people, on average, attempt to quit smoking seven times before succeeding. Know that relapse never happens without warning.
Relapse always starts in our minds. Unhealthy thoughts of smoking are normal as we move through recovery from nicotine addiction, but left unchecked, they can contribute to a relapse. Reach out for support to learn how to deal with those thoughts as well as to learn other coping skills to help you succeed in your goal to quit smoking.
We have all heard that smoking is bad for your health. Tobacco kills about 45,000 Canadians a year. That's more than the total number of deaths from AIDS, car accidents, suicide, murder, fires and accidental poisonings combined.
There are over 4,000 toxic chemicals in every cigarette, which is what causes or worsens many diseases and damages almost every organ and tissue in the body. There is no form of safe or safer smoking, which includes pipe smoking, cigars, chewing tobacco, secondhand smoke and third hand smoke.
Smoking affects not only you but all the people around you. According to Health Canada, more than 1,100 deaths per year may be linked to second-hand smoke. Some researchers say the number could be as high as 7,800.
It is important for people to quit smoking, not only for your own health reasons, but for the health of your friends, family, children, and the public that are inadvertently exposed to it.
