Addicted to nicotine gum: Now what?

You quit smoking, yay! But now you're addicted to the nicotine gum and secretly it's actually starting to rub off on you. Instead of taking a relaxing smoke break, you just grab another gum. This might make you feel a little inferior and that's probably why you came to this blog, because quitting smoking is one thing, but how do you get rid of that nicotine gum again? Because really, you've only changed the form of getting nicotine, you're still addicted.

To find out, please continue reading this blog.

"Healthy" substitutes for cigarettes are often still a source of nicotine. The addictive substance that now also makes it impossible for you to stop chewing gum. Now you may think that you should just vape or smoke an electronic cigarette to get rid of that nicotine chewing gum again.

This could be a good idea.

Research shows that smokers who have quit often rely less on their electronic cigarette than on nicotine gum.

Another reason why this may be a good idea is because nicotine gum chewing is not entirely without risks. Of course, it is much safer than smoking, and scientifically there are no adverse long-term effects of nicotine chewing.

However, user experiences show a different picture, people suffer from, for example:

• Nightmares
• Nausea
• Stomach Problems
• High blood pressure
• Premature baldness
• Eye Problems
• Dry skin

So much for the practical side of reducing nicotine intake.

Stopping addiction instead of replacing it

As mentioned, you probably wanted to quit smoking and simply not be addicted. Instead of being free from addiction, you’ve simply traded one addiction for another.

Incredibly frustrating!

Maybe you just wanted to save money, and while that nicotine gum is cheaper than cigarettes, it's not exactly free right now either.

Therefore, to stop addiction, it is important to identify triggers or causes of this addiction.

Keep a journal

To find out why and when you chew nicotine, you can keep track of the times you grab such a gum. For example, pay attention to the following:

1. What kind of activity are you involved with?
2. Are you alone or are there people around you?
3. If there are people around you, what kind of people are these?
4. Do you have a particular emotion or tension?
5. Are you thirsty or hungry?

By answering these four questions, you can find out if you chew gum when you are bored, when you have certain people around you, when you are stressed or just to suppress hunger.

If you chew nicotine gum because you're bored

Do you find that boredom causes you to grab a gum? If so, it's important to figure out why you see that as the solution to boredom and not find other ways to cope first.

For example, you can fight boredom by watching videos on YouTube, reading, painting, writing or whatever, but something stops you from doing activities to keep you from being bored except for the chewing gum.

A hypnotherapist can help you identify the beliefs you hold about finding enough challenge in your life. In cases like this, these beliefs often revolve around social anxieties, such as “What will people think of me if I do this?” or “Am I good enough?”

A hypnotherapist can help you with these kinds of fears—for example, by boosting your self-confidence.

When you chew nicotine gum by certain people around you

Colleagues who seem to do nothing but criticize, a performance review, your mother-in-law, that annoying uncle. People can cause stress for all sorts of reasons. In this case, too, a hypnotherapist can help you with relaxation techniques and positive affirmations so you won’t need that silly piece of gum.

First, you can use mindfulness techniques to stay calm during unpleasant conversations. This helps you stay focused on the conversation and prevents you from daydreaming about a possible layoff or an irreconcilable family dispute.

This also allows you to be more responsive to the issues raised.

In addition, hypnotherapists can also help you with your social beliefs-why does it matter what your mother-in-law thinks of you? As long as you don't live in her house and your partner puts you number one instead of his/her mother?

These types of beliefs can be found out with a Socratic Conversation. In it, the "why" question is repeated several times to get to the core of your thoughts.

You can also learn techniques not only to stay calm but also to engage in conversations with greater self-confidence. For example, when giving a presentation to colleagues, there are several ways to reduce presentation anxiety.

Nicotine gum chewing when stressed

General stress is very annoying. You're just busy busy busy and worried about whether you'll get everything done. So much to do in so little time.

However, nicotine gum is not always going to help you calm down. Instead, you need to look more for the causes of stress and take practical steps to reduce it.

First, you can start with the practical steps to reduce stress:

Step 1: Start your day with meditation

In the morning, stress can already be closing in on you. You have to do this and that—and now you’re supposed to meditate, too . If necessary, set your alarm 10 minutes earlier. What you’re going to do is sit quietly on your bed or in a specially designated meditation corner. There, you’ll start by simply focusing on your breathing for 10 minutes—and nothing else. This is quite difficult, but practice makes perfect.

In fact, by doing so, you reduce the amount of stress hormones at the very beginning of the day, and as a result, you have less stress throughout the rest of the day.

Step 2: Use mindfulness

During your busy schedule, you’re probably thinking about your busy schedule. As a result, your focus isn’t on the task at hand. By being mindful —paying attention to what you’re doing right now rather than what you’re going to do next—you can get into the flow more easily, which helps you cross items off your to-do list faster (and more effectively).

Step 3: Find out why you actually get stressed and take on so many tasks

For this step, you can seek help from a hypnotherapist. As mentioned, people and situations can cause a lot of stress, but why really? Together with a hypnotherapist, you can find out what situations cause you to suffer from stress.

Next, you can use regression to determine where the belief that makes such a situation so stressful comes from. During regression, you go back to an event in your life that shaped that belief. You can then look at that event with more emotional distance to see if that belief is really as logical as it has always seemed.

Chewing gum when you're actually thirsty or hungry

Eating is something fun, but also something that some people want to avoid at all costs. Chewing gum with nicotine provides a calming feeling that makes hunger seem not so important.

Still, it is then wise to drink a large glass of water first, as feelings of hunger and thirst are still sometimes confused.

Next, again, it is important to figure out why you prefer to chew rather than eat. Do you do this to avoid snacking or to really avoid eating? And what alternatives are there?

Hypnosis can, for example, help with healthy eating.

As with quitting smoking, quitting nicotine gum can be done with the help of hypnosis. In particular, beliefs about nicotine gum, stress and other factors play an important role in the journey to just not being addicted to anything at all.

Want to know how hypnosis works? Then come to a free online masterclass or take a course at the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.

Also pin this handy infographic as a reminder:

Sources:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376871614019863