I'm not sure when it was first developed, but psychologists developed the bio-psycho-social model to break addictions, whether it's alcohol, smoking, overeating, etc.
Essentially, the biopsychosocial model recognizes three distinct parts of life that must be addressed for a person to successfully break an addiction: 1) Physical; 2) Behavior; and 3) Psychological.
With smoking, the physical aspect is our body's dependence/craving for the chemical, nicotine.
The behavior aspect is how we pair the smoking behavior with other activities such as wake up and immediately smoke, answer the phone and light one up, have coffee and smoke, run into a sudden and stressful situation and reach for a cigarette, etc. Most smokers have paired many behaviors with smoking.
The psychological aspect involves how smokers view themselves and how they perceive the benefits of smoking.
To break the habit, it's important to break each aspect down and figure out how you, individually, relate to them.
The reason many people have success with nicotine replacement therapies (patches, gum) is that it satisfies and decreases over time the physical need for nicotine WHILE you work to change the behavioral and psychological elements to your smoking.
It takes the body only three days to eliminate nicotine from your body so, in essence, this is the least difficult part to overcome when you quit.
To change the behavior aspect of the smoking addiction you have to figure out how to "mess with your habit". This is done by taking an inventory of how you actually smoke and all the activities involved. If you normally buy cigarettes by the carton, change that by buying only one pack at a time. If you always smoke while driving to work, take the ashtray out of the car, drive a different route, take someone along who you will not smoke around.
As many activities you can change in the initial quit process the easier your quit will be. The more you change things the easier it is to break the behavioral activities associated with smoking. The changes don't have to be permanent, but you should change your behavior significantly during the first couple of weeks and months of your quit.
The psychological aspect is where the real battle is won or lost. We all know that the mind is very powerful. The good news is we can get the mind to work either for or against us. It's totally up to us!!
When I've mentioned that I believe quitting is 95% mental, this is where it comes from. If your self-talk constantly tells you that you are worthless, you will, indeed, behave as a worthless person. If your self-talk constantly tells you that you are worthy, smart, happy, you will have more self-esteem and project confidence and happiness to those around you.
To change the psychological aspect of smoking it is important to take an inventory of how you perceive smoking satisfies your needs, think about why you smoke, etc. Then create some new beliefs that tell you you don't need cigarettes, that smoking doesn't really calm you (nicotine's a stimulant, for goodness sake), etc.
Create new scripts for the self-talk that goes on inside you. "I don't need to smoke! I can't stand smelling like stale tobacco! I can quit!" The self-talk will take place whether you control it or not. If you are passive the self-talk will continue to reinforce your addictive beliefs, and that is where fear of quitting and doubt as to your ability to quit comes from. However, if you are pro-active in controlling your self-talk with positive reinforcements you will respond that way.
Think of the bio-psycho-social model as a triangle. One side is the physical, one side the behavioral and the third side is the psychological aspect of addiction. Draw a triangle on a piece of paper and label each side. Under the headings write out your addictive behaviors and beliefs and then write your new plan of changed activities and thoughts.
Once you knock two or more sides of the triangle away, the addiction (triangle) can no longer support itself.
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