Six Steps that Can Guide You To Help your Teenager to Quit Smoking.
Despite most parents advising their children against smoking, recent statistics indicate that most high school seniors are smokers, this is despite the several efforts by the government, parents and health care providers to warn teenagers about the consequences of such habits. If your high school teenager has already started smoking most likely you have noticed the warning signs. Even though your teen has already began smoking, you should make the right decision and help them to quit as early as possible.
What will be your first step? Many parents find helping their teens to quit smoking as an impossible task. Here are some guidelines that will assist you to support and also convince your teenager to quit smoking.
1. Remain Calm
When you learn that your teen has turned into a smoker, you will feel upset, disappointed and angry. This will most likely occur if you have used up most of your time and resources to educate them on the consequences of smoking, or if they have observed first hand a family member or friend get sick or even pass on due to smoke-related complications. While you may want to first ground them or even lecture them, it has been discovered that such a strategy won’t work.
2. Provide them with Enough Support to Quit Smoking
Although it would be great to just tell your teenager not to smoke, rarely will it work out like that. Your teen may start regretting having started smoking, and it’s important for you to understand that cigarette smoking is very addictive because it contains nicotine and it can have a profound effect especially on a young brain.
3. Consider Substitutes
It’s a well-known fact that when quitting cigarette smoking, going cold turkey and quitting cigarette smoking is not an easy task. One popular cigarette smoking alternative is vaping by using ejuice.
4. Plan and Quit Together.
If you are a smoker, then it’s most likely that your child has emulated your behavior. Abandoning the smoking habit together with your teenager will help you both to cope with the many cigarette smoking challenges.
5. Inform your Child About the Dangers of Smoking.
One of the reasons as to why people give up cigarette smoking is because of the several health complications that are associated with cigarette smoking. When your child started smoking, they may not have understood the health risks, and providing education may be what they need to quit.
6. Think About Counseling.
To stop cigarette smoking behavior, professional assistance can go a long way. When you find that your teenager is still unable to quit cigarette smoking even after providing them with cigarette alternatives and your full support, a professional therapist may be what you need.