One of the most important things when you are fighting with a smoking addiction or with any kind of addiction is to be aware of what are the benefits of quitting. If know that smoking cessation is difficult, but it will bring you a lot of advantages, then it will be easier for you to fight your cravings and to keep going until you manage to quit. Having your friends and family close to you really takes the pressure off and helps you deal easier with the challenges of smoking cessation.
Key Elements for a Successful Treatment
Social support in the smoking cessation process is important and can include formal activities such as support groups or support of a health care provider or informal activities such as help from family and friends. Smokers with a higher self-efficacy usually increase their chances of success and the more they receive encouragements, the more they will be successful.
Women rate the importance of social support for quitting more highly than men. Usually, women are more likely to join support groups for smoking cessation because they feel like the emotional support really helps them. Women who receive social support, no matter the type (formal or informal) quit smoking faster than others. When it comes to the care and support of others in the smoking cessation process, we can also mention the fact that peer pressure influences young people and that they feel more encouraged to quit.
Types of Treatment in the Form of Social Support
There are two types of social support treatment:
Intra-treatment social support: is the type of formal support that comes from a health care provider as part of a treatment program and is defined as “an intervention component that is intended to provide encouragement, a sense of concern, and interested empathetic listening as part of the treatment.” The main forms of this type of treatment are:
Communicating with the patient about the difficulties faced in the quitting process;Encouraging and supporting the patient in the process.
Extra-treatment social support: getting the needed support from friends, family and co-workers. This type of treatment also requires an extra-treatment support option:
Practice requesting social support from family, friends and co-workers;Informing the patient of community resources support groups for smoking cessation; Encouraging patients to collaborate with other smokers and help each other as much as they can.
Support groups improve the rate of smoking cessation success and help you fight this addiction better. When you feel the need to smoke it is easier to fight the urge when you have a friend or a family member close to you.
Courtesy of www.health.com.