Tobacco Use

Tobacco is a dried leaf found in cigarettes, pipes, cigars, and chewing tobacco. Tobacco contains nicotine which is a highly addictive substance and is one of the reasons it makes stopping tobacco use so difficult for people. The use of tobacco can cause cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, reproductive effects, and many more. But most tobacco users don’t need to be told that its bad for them because they already know the consequences. They either have tried to quit and found it to be to difficult or just don’t care to quit because they think these things could never happen to them, but they can. Here are a few tips to start making the quit happen.

• Why You Want to Quit- This can be different for everyone but is a very important step that you need to continue to remind yourself of. An example of this might be “I want to live a long life, to watch my children grow up”.
• Set A Quite Date- Pick a date in the future that you think you could realistically quit tobacco use by.
• Identify Your Triggers- These are things that make you want to use tobacco and they can be different for everyone. Some examples of triggers are when you are stressed or after eating a meal you crave tobacco.
• Rid Your Life- Get rid of all thing’s tobacco related such as getting rid of lighters or cleaning your house to get rid of any smell of smoke. As they say out of sight, out of mind.
• Find Quit Support- It can be very difficult to quit using tobacco and sometimes you need a little help from others. This could be family and friends, or you could even seek professional help.

Save your own life and make the choice to quit using tobacco!

References:

• https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/tobacco-use
• https://www.quit.com/quit-smoking/prepare/quit-smoking-checklist.html