WHO’s Florence AI: The Smoke Quitting Machine
Smoking is one of the main reasons leading to premature fatalities. It is a bad habit individuals might pick up, with minor of its addictive tendencies and effect, but they end up with a nicotine addiction. Nicotine is an addictive substance that will have grave repercussions on your body. Cigarettes are riddled with many harsh chemicals, like tar. Such chemicals are the leading causes of lung cancers, among other types of cancer. Meet Florence AI, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) bot that will help you quit smoking.
Who Is Florence?
Florence is a digital health worker created by the World Health Organization (WHO). She will join and help you on your journey to quit smoking. Florence AI comes with the latest tobacco cessation techniques and methods implemented into its system. So now, you can use this intelligent technology to help you quit smoking.
Additionally, Florence AI will notify you to take your vaccine and various meds and keep you updated on your tobacco quitting milestones.
How Will Florence AI Help You?
Florence will be your trusted source of information that you’ll need to quit smoking. You can always reach her via text or even video communication. More than half of smokers worldwide want to stop, yet only a third have the necessary tools they need to do so. Florence will make sure to lead you into finding these tools by recommending quit lines or apps that will help you towards a tobacco-free life.
The ‘STAR’ Plan
FLorence AI bot will help you with your smoke quitting journey by walking you through a plan, this plan is referred to as The STAR Plan. Here’s a quick look at it.
- Set your quitting date
Vocalizing yourself when you want to quit and setting the date is essential. Make it a short-term date to set some urgency so you’ll stay motivated and focused on your goal!
- Tell everyone surrounding you
Share your goal with friends and family so they know you decided to quit. It will encourage smokers around you to stop and promote or push you to not smoke whenever the craving hits you hard.
- Anticipate the challenges
The first few weeks will be rough, so prepare yourself. Due to nicotine withdrawal symptoms, breaking the habit will be difficult and quite an ordeal. Try to read more about it and stay informed. Stay strong, and it’ll be over eventually.
- Remove tobacco products and put them out of sight
It’s best to rid yourself of such temptations by making a smoke-free house, avoiding smoking areas, and asking your peers not to smoke around you.
Simply removing tobacco products and not being exposed to them can go a long way. First, it’ll help you with temptations. Thyen, turning your residence into a smoke-free area will help you. Ask people not to smoke around you and respect your choices.
Why You Should Quit
The health benefits of quitting are significant enough for you to go through the challenges of quitting. They are almost immediate; 20 mins into quitting, your heart rate and blood pressure drop. It’ll take around 12 hours for the carbon monoxide levels in your blood to return to normal. Quitting tobacco will help you improve your breathing and get healthier lungs. It will also heavily decrease the chances of lung diseases.
Quit, and you’ll live longer, simple as that.
Moreover, it is a waste of money or a waste of health. Sadly, smokers pay so much for cigarettes and smoking accessories. Even if it’s just one dollar, that’s wasted when you realize you are using it to harm yourself.
Do You Really Need Florence AI to Quit?
Quitting smoking is a challenging process. But nicotine isn’t as strong as it is addictive. The habit will present more obstacles than the nicotine itself. Smoking isn’t just about cigarettes. It is about what you associate it with. Most people smoke when feeling something, anger, sadness, or, most commonly, stress. When such feelings hit you, the need to smoke a cigarette intensifies, you don’t just need the nicotine. You need the comfort that your brain associates with it. So, you need to realize that you don’t need it for convenience. You can comfort yourself with far healthier options that will not only settle you. They will benefit you, such as fruits or exercises and workouts.
Additionally, it is the hand motion and gestures. The brain will not only get addicted to cigarettes. It will also get addicted to the action of smoking, making it also a behavioral matter. Try to keep your hands busy when you feel the urge to smoke. Eat healthy snacks or distract yourself by reading or enjoying a hobby. And no, smoking is not a hobby.
Finally, after saying all this, it is up to you to decide if you need to quit smoking, or if you need a quit-smoking AI bot to help you do it or if you can handle this journey on your own without some AI reminding you to keep going.
Final Thoughts
Adding an AI to your smoke-quitting journey can be beneficial or redundant for others. Florence AI can be a welcome addition to the tools you can use to quit smoking. But in reality, a smoker’s journey needs something far more significant than AI. It requires a robust decision, consistency, and perseverance.
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