Paul Johnson: Hi! I am Paul Johnson, I am a Community Pharmacist and I am here to give you my top tips on stopping smoking. It has been estimated that 114,000 smokers will die this year because of smoking related causes and in fact for all regular smokers, half of those will die because of smoking related illnesses. Now smoking is both physically and psychologically addictive which makes it particularly hard to quit, but don't worry here are my top tips for helping quitting smoking.
The first tip really is to be prepared. It's important to choose a time which is going to be good for you, which is going to be stress free and maybe even see if you can find a friend who also wants to stop smoking. It's always really helpful to have support from somebody else who is going to do the same sort of thing and even if you don't have a friend who can help, I want to choose the most likely day, which is March the 11th this year because at least you know there will be a million people, down in the country, who are also trying to stop smoking at the same time.
My second tip is to throw away all the evidence, throw away the cigarettes, the lighters, the ash tray and start to think like a non-smoker. It's really important to start to think about what you're going to spend the money on if you are going to be saving. For somebody who smokes twenty a day, they are going to be saving around 40 pounds a week.
My third tip is to avoid temptation to really think about those situations where it really might be hard not to have a cigarette, things might be when you are going up for meal or when you spend time with friends and you may want to think about what you are going to do in those situations such as go for walk or even better, ask your friends not to smoke near you which is all going to help your chances.
My fourth tip is to get the right treatment. Even the most motivated people need some help from time to time and it's good to know that there are lots of different products down there to help you. There is gum, patches, inhalers, nasal sprays, something really for everybody whatever type of smoker you have been.
My final tip is to make sure you get plenty of support not only from your friends and family, but in particular from your pharmacist. Pharmacies are really easy to access for most people and they are open at times which suit a lot of people as well. So it's important to pop in and really see what pharmacy can offer you not only in terms of the products that they can provide to you which will help your chances, but also to provide the support that you are going to need.
So there we are, there is a lots of help and information is available, if you are thinking of kicking the habit. So good luck.
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