28 MAR 12: One of the negative effects that cannabis users often refer to when they give reasons to stop smoking weed is amotivational syndrome. Some people who have quit cannabis claim that the drug made them feel lazy and unambitious, causing them to waste their lives in a pleasant haze. But is there really such a thing as amotivational syndrome and could there be other causal factors behind it?

26 FEB 12: Many people who smoke are themselves friends or children of smokers, and social pressure is one of the reasons why it's so hard to stop smoking cigarettes. Sometimes it feels like wherever you go, a "friend" of yours is pushing a cigarette into your hands. But like many of the phenomena that incline you towards smoking, this can be flipped around. This article looks at how to use social pressure to your advantage.

21 FEB 12: The news that a loved one's cancer has made an aggressive comeback; a summer hailstorm wiping out your crop; getting fifteen rejected job applications in the one day. What do these scenarios have in common? They share their emotional flavour with the moment of desperate self-reflection that often accompanies lighting up for someone trying to stop smoking cigarettes. Although the temporary nature of despair makes it different to depression, it can be just as intense and, worst of all for you, can make it harder to stop smoking cigarettes. This article looks at despair and how to counter it.

01 FEB 12: One of the problems with any way to stop smoking cigarettes is that when you are smoking, your life often lags behind in other areas. Partly because of the depression caused by being a smoker and the resulting lack of self-care, smokers often let their standards of hygiene, exercise and nutrition worsen. The method that Psychology of Smoking will look at today is intended to reverse all that with something called the Rising Tide Method.

25 JAN 12: Some people seem to almost instantly succeed the first time they try stop smoking cigarettes, but those people are in a minority. Unfortunately most are stuck in the same rut of feeling as though they have tried everything only to end up back where they started. What if what all these people have failed to find was merely the right perspective? This article will explore how you might find the inspiration to break the cycle of addiction with ancient Eastern wisdom.

22 JAN 12: Have you ever found yourself halfway through a smoke, when suddenly the next drag tastes foul and you say to yourself "I hate cigarettes!" There is a way to use that negative energy to beat nicotine addiction. This article delves into the dark side to suggest ways that you can use the power of hatred to stop smoking cigarettes.

19 JAN 12: There are a number of ways of using social capital as leverage to stop smoking cigarettes. The Psychology of Smoking will investigate some of these in turn, either on their own or in combination with some of the other methods to create more powerful hybrids. Today we will have a look at something called the Friends and Family Method.

What is the Friends and Family Method?

This is a simple method, using a strategy that takes energy from part of your being that the other methods haven't exploited. Basically, if you can't do it for yourself, do it for the people that love you. If you are reading this website, chances are that you want to stop smoking cigarettes but just haven't found either the right method or the right motivation. If you don't have enough motivation within yourself, you can always borrow from others, without costing them anything.

12 JAN 12: One of the best ways to stop smoking cigarettes is to realise that you don't need them to function. One way to help realise this is to defer the decision about whether to smoke the next one to something else. Today we will have a look at a technique called the dice method.

31 DEC 11: Psychology of Smoking concerns itself with the internal aspects of nicotine addiction in the belief that this is where the true difficulty lies in any attempt to stop smoking cigarettes. To that end, the methods that we have suggested so far involve winning the mental battle. Today we will continue with this strategy and introduce something we call the Diamond Method.

23 DEC 11: Self-esteem plays a crucial role in any effort to stop smoking cigarettes. As discussed in the article about depression, sometimes feeling bad about oneself causes one to reach for the ciggies. This article looks at the effects of self-esteem on starting - and stopping - tobacco use.