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Change your environment. Get rid of cigarettes and ashtrays in your home, car, or wherever. Get rid of the smell of cigarettes everywhere. Avoid other tobacco products, such as cigars, pipes, and chewing tobacco.
Begin to change habits. Avoid smoking in places where you spend a lot of time, such as your home, car or wherever you hang out.
Review your past attempts to quit. Think about what worked and what did not.
Remember: Stop smoking COLD TURKEY on your quit date...not even a single puff!! It's the best way to quit.
Write down why you want to quit. Do you want
Really wanting to quit smoking is very important to how much success you will have in quitting. Smokers who live after a heart attack are the most likely to quit for good. They're very motivated. Find a reason for quitting before you have no choice.
Know that it will take effort to quit smoking. Nicotine is both addictive AND habit forming. Half of the battle in quitting is knowing you need to quit. This knowledge will help you be more able to deal with the symptoms of withdrawal that can occur, such as bad moods and really wanting to smoke. There are many ways smokers quit, including using nicotine replacement products (gum and patches), but there is no easy way. Nearly all smokers have some feelings of nicotine withdrawal when they try to quit. Give yourself a month to get over these feelings. Take quitting one day at a time, even one minute at a time---whatever you need to succeed.
Half of all adult smokers have quit, so you can, too. That's the good news. There are millions of people alive today who have learned to face life without a cigarette. For staying healthy, quitting smoking is the best step you can take.
Think about the following questions before trying to stop smoking.
Here are some questions to take with you when you visit your doctor or other health care provider.
What About Smoking, Quitting, And Gaining Weight? CLICK HERE!
Most relapses occur within the first 3 months after quitting. Don't be discouraged if you start smoking again. Remember, most people try several times before they finally quit. Explore different ways to break habits. You may have to deal with some of the following triggers that may cause relapse.
Other smokers at home. Try to get your family to quit with you. Work out a plan to cope with others who smoke, and avoid being around them.
Negative mood or depression. If these symptoms persist, talk to your health care provider. You may need treatment for depression.
Severe withdrawal symptoms. Your body will go through many changes when you quit smoking. You may have a dry mouth, cough, or scratchy throat, and feel on edge. The patch or gum may help with cravings.
Thoughts. Get your mind off cigarettes. Exercise and do things you enjoy.
Keep a list. Keep a list of "slips" and near slips, what caused them and what you can learn from them.
Don't smoke any number or any kind of cigarette. Smoking even a few cigarettes a day can hurt your health. If you try to smoke fewer cigarettes, but do not stop completely, soon you'll be smoking the same amount again.
Smoking "low-tar, low-nicotine" cigarettes usually does little good, either. Because nicotine is so addictive, if you switch to lower-nicotine brands you'll likely just puff harder, longer, and more often on each cigarette. The only safe choice is to quit completely.
Snuff and Chew Are Bad For You
Using smokeless tobacco can be as harmful as smoking. Using it can quickly lead to addiction. Like smoking, dipping or chewing has serious health effects, including oral cancer, gum problems, loss of teeth, and heart problems.
Many groups offer written materials, programs, and advice to help smokers quit for good. Your doctor or dentist is also a good source of help and support. The following national groups have toll-free telephone numbers for information and resources:
Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Clinical Practice
Guidelines on Smoking Cessation, Instant Fax 301-594-2800
[Press 1]; or call 1-800-358-9295 for physician materials and a
"You Can Quit Smoking" consumer guide.
American Cancer Society, 1-800-ACS-2345
American Heart Association, 1-800-AHA-USA1
American Lung Association, 1-800-LUNG-USA
Office on Smoking and Health, 1-800-CDC-1311
National Cancer Institute, (NCI), 1-800-4-CANCER
What to do when the Craving Comes
Meet the moment with determination. Reaffirm your commitment not to give in, and immediately turn your attention to something else. Remember, the acute episode of craving lasts but a few minutes--5-10 at most. Above all, DON'T START FEELING SORRY FOR YOURSELF.
Temporarily avoid those situations where you are inclined to smoke heavily.
Hide the ashtrays and cigarettes. Out of sight, out of mind. A simple yet helpful maneuver.
Keep cigarettes someplace where you will have to make some effort to get them: your locker, coat pocket, or a little-used room in your house.. Every time you want a cigarette you will have to get up and get one. Don't make them handy. Do everything you can to avoid the "unconscious" cigarette and you will cut down significantly with little effort at all.
Search for another break --A cigarette is frequently used as a break --a reward after an extended period of work or concentration or as a way to relieve boredom. Get up and walk around; take a drink of water; practice relaxing; exercise.
Deep breathing: this can be done either standing or sitting. It has a cool effect. Give it a try. First, let yourself relax--go limp, then inhale slowly and deeply. When you've taken as much air into your lungs as you can comfortably hold--stop--pause for a minute and then breathe out--slowly--until all the air is expelled. At the very end of the breathing out cycle give an extra little push to remove the last bit of air. Repeat the cycle 5 or 6 times. This should not be hard, rapid breathing. Rather it should be slow, deep relaxed breathing.
Another breathing exercise that is very helpful is to mimic a cigarette. Breathe in and out as if you actually had a lighted cigarette in your mouth. You will find that what you are actually doing is sighing.
Don't buy your next pack until you've finished the last. Never buy a carton. This helps reduce temptation.
Tell all your friends you are going to kick the habit. This kind of public commitment will help bolster your determination at crucial moments..
From an ex-smoker: "Here's a trick that really helped. I brought ten different kinds of cigarettes and placed one of each in my cigarette case. This meant each time I went to light up I had to smoke a different brand. For me, at least, this made smoking very unpleasant."
Indulge Yourself: While breaking the habit, be good to yourself in every other way. Even indulge yourself a little-- a special treat on weekends (good meal, show, etc.) with the money you saved.
Develop a set of rules: I developed a set of rules as to where I could not smoke. I found this very helpful. For instance, one rule was that after I came home at night I could not smoke in my apartment. If I wanted to smoke, the rule said that I had to walk to the basement furnace room (which is horribly hot). For the first couple of evenings I was dragging myself up and down the stairs several times a night. Under no circumstances would I break the rule. Finally, I gave up in disgust and stayed in my apartment without smoking. It worked. I then developed another rule to make it extremely difficult and awkward to smoke in another area of my daily activity. It worked again. I eventually pushed those beloved old weeds right out of my life altogether.
Clean ashtrays, cigarettes and matches out of the house. Lock them in the attic or cellar.
This is what helped me. I avoid making mental promises to myself to have the next cigarette at a particular time. Instead I left the decision open-- for a new decision whether or not to smoke. For example: if I were to say to myself, "I won't have a cigarette now, I'll have it when I reach the office," invariably I had the cigarette as soon as I reached the office. On the other hand, if I had to say to myself, "I won't have a cigarette while I'm walking to the office,"--postponing what I would do when I reached the office until I arrived--I found it easier to control the urge to take the next smoke. Using this approach I was often able to stall off that next cigarette for considerable periods of time.
Try yoga. It's very hard to smoke while standing on your head.
"I started a Christmas Savings Account with the money I was saving. At two and a half packs a day, this adds up--but fast. It gave me a real incentive to keep going."
Thought Stopping: Whenever the urge comes, absolutely refuse to think about it. Think about something else immediately.
Another ex-smoker found that just the opposite approach worked for her. She said, face the problem:
"With the first feeling of desire I would own up. I would go out and meet the enemy on purpose and build my armor rather than try to forget it."
Another ex-smoker said: "My approach was to concern myself only with today--tomorrow would take care of itself! My long range objective was to get through each day without smoking. My short range objective was to overcome every urge to smoke during the day. At the end of the day I would make a notation on a card indicating my success. I believe it was keeping my goal limited and clearly within view that was the greatest help to me."
Another Ex-Smoker: "What helped me was to keep a careful record of my reactions to not smoking. When the urge came I stepped back, almost as though I was an outsider looking in. I did a clinical analysis--on what I was really thinking, feeling and experiencing as the urge came over me. This really helped. I became so fascinated with my reactions not to smoke that I lost my desire to take the cigarette."
At some point you've got to make a "clean break"--you have to make a decision to stop. Set a date and stick to it!
Keep postponing the first cigarette of the day for a longer and longer time.
When the urge comes instead of reaching for candy or rich food, reach for a seasoned carrot stick. I cut crisp raw carrots into strips and sprinkled them lightly with garlic salt. The carrot sticks are long and slim and you can go through the motion of reaching out.
Change your thoughts about cigarettes. This will be the biggest help of all. Like, "I don't want to smoke anymore."
One man said he stopped by making a pact with his eleven-year-old son. "I'll quit smoking if you'll quit nibbling at your fingernails." We shook hands on it. I believe my strongest incentive was not to let the boy down.
Fill those cigarette gaps with other things. Find something that requires concentration--like fine needlepoint, memorizing a poem, etc. It's amazing how fast your mind can be turned from your need to smoke.
Every time I lit up I immediately created in my mind's eye a picture of all the cigarettes I had ever smoked--reaching to California. I said to myself, "Here I am, puffing at this end and I've got to smoke the whole thing down." This thought became so repulsive that I became so disgusted with myself that I finally stopped.
Talk to yourself! When the urge comes say--"take it easy now, calm down."
Remember: Smoking cessation is not a single event in time, but a process that continues over a period of time and requires greater or lesser continuing expenditures of effort. You are training yourself to behave in a new way. This takes time, patience and above all practice. But the pay-off awaiting you is a big one. Think of breaking the cigarette habit not as denying yourself but as adding to your life--a new dimension of self- discipline and self-control.
The trick of tricks is to find the right personal incentive. To this we can return whenever we falter. There was always something wrong with my reasons for stopping in the past. My reason can now be told though perhaps in some cases it must remain a very private affair. I am simply doing what my doctor advises. Very unusual!!
Stop feeling sorry for yourself! How ridiculous! Sorry because you're breaking a habit that might cripple you just at the time in life when you want to start living!
Keep foremost in your mind the thought that you "do not smoke." I found this very helpful particularly in those situations where the gestures of smoking were almost automatic. When you say to yourself in this or in that situation--"I am not a smoker," you can stop this before you even consider the possibility. The thought controls the act.
I just convinced myself that nothing would control me unless I wanted it to.
Make up a short list of luxuries you have wanted or items you would like to purchase for a loved one. Next to each item write down the cost. Now convert the cost to packs of cigarettes. If you save the money each day from packs of cigarettes, you will be able to purchase these items. Use a special piggy bank for saving your money, or start a "Christmas Club" account at your bank.
Until you quit make yourself a "smoking corner" that is far from anything interesting. If you like to smoke with others, always smoke alone. If you like to smoke alone, always smoke with others, preferably if they are non-smokers. Never smoke while watching television.
Put away your ashtrays or fill them with objects so they cannot be used for ashes. Plant flowers in them or fill them with walnuts. The latter will give you something to do with your hands.
Each day try to put off lighting your first cigarettes.
Decide arbitrarily that you will smoke only on even or odd-numbered hours of the clock.
Brush your teeth frequently to get rid of the tobacco taste and stains
After you quit, start using your lungs. Increase your activities and indulge in moderate exercise, such as short walks before or after a meal.
Bet with someone that you can quit. Put the cigarette money in a jar each morning and forfeit it if you smoke. You keep the money if you don't smoke by the end of the week. Try to extend this period to a month.
Visit your dentist after you quit and have your teeth cleaned to get rid of the tobacco stains.
Frequent places you can't smoke, such as libraries, buses, theaters,
swimming pools, department stores or just going to bed during the first
weeks you are off cigarettes.
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