You can quit smoking! Every year, more than 1 million people quit smoking for good. When you quit smoking, you immediately gain health benefits such as improved lung function, improved circulation and a new confidence to live tobacco-free. RHA provides a number of resources to assist you in quitting.
And you don’t have to quit alone. Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence: 2008 Update, a clinical practice guideline published by the U.S. Public Health Service, lists counseling, social support and quit smoking medications as scientifically proven to help people quit smoking for good. Counseling and quit smoking medication, when used in combination, are even more effective than either of them taken alone.
There are multiple counseling options available, including group and one-on-one programs like RHA’s Courage to Quit®, and online and telephone support. Each will help you to address the psychological addiction to nicotine by giving you the tools and skills to become smoke-free.
Quit smoking medication can take the form of nicotine replacement therapy (patch, gum, lozenge, inhaler, nasal spray) or non-nicotine medications (Bupropion, Varenicline). Quit smoking medications reduce withdrawal symptoms and cravings for cigarettes.
Although you may have heard that e-cigarettes, laser therapy, acupuncture and hypnosis will help you quit smoking, these are not evidence-based methods to quit smoking.