Can I use placebos to stop smoking?
Smoking is mainly a hard habit to break and there is clearly no safe way to smoke. Tobacco contains ‘nicotine’ which is a highly addictive chemical and it’s not that easy to get rid of this terrible habit. No matter how many warnings are written on a pack of cigarettes regarding smoking and cancer, it is still one of the most common bad habits in the entire world. There are always people who would want to get rid of this and they would obviously want a very easy and simple way of doing so. Can placebos be used to stop smoking? Let’s find out.
Placebo And Smoking
A placebo is something that looks like a real treatment but it isn’t. It is carried out by fake pills that do not have any active substances. These pills are mainly ‘sugar pills’ and these miraculously help in improving health problems. Now worldwide doctors use placebos to treat their patients. The brain helps the body to heal so once the brain is convinced the rest of the body starts to heal automatically. The expectations of the patient can play a significant role during the treatment. The more a patient expects the treatment to work, the more likely it is to work.
In most cases the sufferer is unaware that he/she is being given a placebo, instead, they believe that they are under proper medication. Moreover, a placebo can also help to get rid of a certain addiction. It can also help to let go of things which are not healthy and can cause serious health problems for example smoking.
It Isn’t Easy But you don’t have to fail
Clearly, to quit smoking is not an easy process. It takes a lot of willpower and determination. In placebo, the treatment itself is nothing but the expectation is everything. Will power is replaced by your own treatment behaviors. When you feel like smoking, take a placebo. Record how you feel, Do something to distract yourself. Look back at your previous notes. Keep a journal.
As powerful as placebos are, they can also help you get organized to stop smoking by creating a ritual around the placebo you use and the journal you keep.
Smoking cessation is clearly associated with health benefits and keeping in check with this, doctors have derived different ways in which one can get rid of this addiction. However, even with the best medications, an active smoker faces many difficulties in the process of cessation. So it’s important that the mind gets trained first and that’s what a placebo will do. Many tests have been carried out by doctors to ensure that a placebo works in quitting smoking. For example, Nicotine Replacement Therapy was compared with placebo and the results were in favor of the placebo treatment. These tests showed how a placebo can train the mind and get your body out of this mess. And save your lungs too!
Conquer Your Addiction
As someone rightfully said, “Smokers don’t grow old, they die young”. It is a tragic fact that smoking has led to thousands of young deaths all over the world. It destroys you and brings death closer to you. Smoking causes 480,000 deaths each year in the United States of America. The risk of dying from smoking has increased over the last 53 years. As devastating as it sounds, we can still get out of it through this using placebos.
Smoking causes serious health problems and it goes without saying that these health problems can harm you in the most harmful ways. It’s difficult to get out of bad habits but once you’re out of it and conquer your addiction, there is nothing like it.