Smoking is one of the hardest habits to quit — too often, it’s not enough to just write this into your New Year’s resolutions, or tell yourself that it’s time to finally give up the smokes. Cigarette smoking has a powerful “one two” hold on the mind and the body — there’s the actual physical addiction to nicotine, and there’s the powerful conditioning and comfort that cigarette smoking provides.
But today’s researchers are still coming out with more effective ways to break the cigarette habit, as insurance companies start cracking down on tobacco use, and smoking gets more stigmatized in public places. These days, smoking is not popular, and a whole lot of people want to quit, but they’re having very different experiences, and quitting is a lot harder for some than it is for others.
Smoking and Bribery
New reports from aversion therapy experts show that a selection of smokers quit at a higher rate when they were offered a specific type of monetary incentive.
In the study, smokers made an up-front deposit on their plan to quit smoking. If they were successful in quitting, the money would be returned to them, along with a significant cash prize.
What the study found was that the cash prize wasn’t enough — it was actually the threat of losing the deposit that led more people to ditch smoking for good. This is giving us better intelligence to work with as government agencies, businesses and civic groups continue to try to lower the rates of cigarette smoking, in order to improve public health and safety.
The Role of E-Cigarettes
Each person has to deal with their physical nicotine addiction their own way, but e-cigarettes can help play a vital role in that second kind of addiction to smoking, the psychological conditioning that keeps people hooked on cigarettes.
While e-cigarettes don’t have the same tars and chemicals as traditional tobacco, they do offer the same comfort and convenience in a slightly different form. So many people have been able to quit smoking by utilizing the experience of e-cigarettes to simulate what they were used to. Along with nicotine patches and other solutions, e-cigarettes have been a major part in the national struggle with cigarette addiction, and that’s just one reason that this industry is booming right now. It’s part of a greater commitment to our national health, and a modern, intelligent response to the health risks that have now been made public about traditional smoking. These tools are there to help ordinary people get on the path to a nicotine free future.
E-Cig Options
Today’s consumers have a lot of options for purchasing e-cigs and vaporizers. The wide array of products available is leading more people to get a portable model and outfit it with different “flavors” of vapor or other accessories. Look for these kinds of products in new stores near you.