Smoking: Most effective quitting technique little known

Beautiful work connecting Depression to smoking. You get my ''cool person of the week'' award.

Sincerely,David

Does that technique of aversion therapy work for sex addiction, too?

I quit by using Zyban and changing my mindset entirely with regards to the pleasantries of smoking. This leads me to believe cognitive changes would be more effective than unsophisticated behavioural conditioning. By this I mean therapy that alters the feeling of "needing a cigarette to relax" or the many other reasons all smokers use as justification will ultimately be more effective in the long term.

Shocking someone, or causing someone to feel nauseus when smoking, seems inadequate to me.

Stanley Schacter (1982)had a very interesting take on smoking cessation. It boiled down to the old addage "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again."

As you mentioned the mean rate of cessation is around 10 to 15 percent. However what most fail to recognize is that most people who quit smoking make multiple attempts, not just one. Eventually an attempt will succeed. And over time most will be able to successfully quit smoking. After roughly 5 attempts, assuming that about 10% successfully quit smoking, almost half will have successfully quit.

Schachter,S (1982). Recidivism and self-cure of smoking and obesity. Am. Psychol. 37:436-44.

A smoker for over 50 years it is the aversion therapy that induces nausea I find most interesting and would like to know if it is available in Canada. The reason for researching this is that the only time I was able to successfully quit smoking was with each of my pregnancies. Each time nature kicked in to protect the babies by inducing acute nausea every time I even smelled a cigarette. It was very effective!
The problem was that it was too easy to start up again because 40+ years ago the majority of the population was still smoking. If I could get hold of medication that provides the same result I'd scoop it up in a minute. I AM SO SICK OF THIS HABIT, but lack what it takes to kick it on my own. And please note, I have tried every remedy on the market as well as cold turkey, weaning, etc., etc, adnauseum.

From my understanding, aversion therapy isn't all that effective for smoking cessation.
One study using the Cochrane Collaboration library found 25 aversion therapy studies for smoking cessation.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD000546.pub2/abstract
To quote the research summary:
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Main results

Twenty-five trials met the inclusion criteria. Twelve included rapid smoking and nine used other aversion methods. Ten trials included two or more conditions allowing assessment of a dose-response to aversive stimulation. The odds ratio (OR) for abstinence following rapid smoking compared to control was 2.01 (95% confidence intervals (CI): 1.36 to 2.95). Several factors suggest that this finding should be interpreted cautiously. A funnel plot of included studies was asymmetric, due to the relative absence of small studies with negative results. Most trials had a number of serious methodological problems likely to lead to spurious positive results. The only trial using biochemical validation of all self reported cessation gave a non-significant result.

Other aversion methods were not shown to be effective (OR 1.15, 95% CI 0.73 to 1.82). There was a borderline dose-response to the level of aversive stimulation (OR 1.67, 95% CI 0.99 to 2.81).

Authors' conclusions

The existing studies provide insufficient evidence to determine the efficacy of rapid smoking, or whether there is a dose-response to aversive stimulation. Milder versions of aversive smoking seem to lack specific efficacy. Rapid smoking is an unproven method with sufficient indications of promise to warrant evaluation using modern rigorous methodology.
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Problem is that no only do you have a behavioral issue with smoking but smoking is also a physical addiction. Aversive conditioning doesn't have a good record for such things, despite such results as the "Bright Noisy Water" study.

As far as I understand the best predictor of whether a person successfully quits smoking is their belief in their own ability to quit and how strong that belief is. Self-efficacy for smoking cessation that is. (that's a search term for you to google btw on Scholar). Look at those situations where the temptation to start again is the strongest and focus efforts on successfully resisting that. Also check your local psych department. Quite frequently places like UBC, University of Winnipeg, Carleton, York etc., have smoking cessation programs. Try those.

When people, both smokers and non-smokers, tackle the smoking problem, they focus more on the physical symptoms of the addiction. Hence the usage of NRTs such as E-cigarettes, patches, gums, lozenges, etc to give smokers a soft landing and help them cope with the withdrawal symptoms. However, the problem is predominantly mental. It is the mental aspect of smoking that causes the physical cravings and urges.

In my opinion, the #1 quit smoking method on the planet is Allen Carr's Easyway To Stop Smoking. It's not so much a method, but the solution to the smoking problem and also towards a no smoking future. Contrary to other methods, this method tackles the mental aspect of smoking first. Once the psychological dependence has been moved, the physical cravings are absolutely easy. He covers everything from the addiction itself, to the association we make with cigarettes i.e it helps relieve stress, boredom, relaxation, promotes concentration, etc. He even stresses on why we use substitutes and how they make it harder for smokers to quit. It sounds completely absurd at the beginning but it all makes sense now.

I owe my life to Allen Carr, he not only helped me quit, but I never missed it ever since. I confidently speak on behalf of the millions of smokers who have benefited using his method since 1983.

I would love to see the day when Psychology Today does a thorough review and evaluation on this method. I humbly request you guys to take this method into consideration. Good day.

http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/952

Unfortunately, most hardcore smokers started smoking as teenagers to p*** off the grownups, and they have not nor ever will progress past that stage in their development. They don't care who they kill, including themselves and their "loved" ones. They don't even quit when they burn down their own homes and destroy all their belongings, along with those of their blameless neighbors. I don't see ANY way to get through to boneheads like that. I've had to live with and work with too many of them.

26 years ago this past January I began the Schick-Shadel smoking cessation program and I haven't smoked (or WANTED to smoke) a cigarette since the first day of that program. It was the most wonderful, horrible, stinky thing I've ever done and I owe them my life.

There's more research on quitting smoking out there. Hypnosis has been ranked at the top as a technique to help people quit smoking.

http://nycquitsmoking.com/quit_smoking_research.html

What kinda people I wonder does this therapy not work on? I often ask when Raw data does not exist, does only the behavior remain, on some drug dealing loser school of penis fear followers camera and data collectors where social workers paint there nails? I love that sweater in that store, something just felt so good when I looked at it there where I was standing, quite profitable as well. S.Freud was afraid of nature. Man tries to be a nurturing fool, when really all that's needed is nature--the kind outside.