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How To Quit Smoking
Where do you want to start?
The good news? Most smokers know the dangers of smoking. At any given time, up to three out of four smokers are thinking of quitting smoking.
Why then is over a quarter of the population continuing to smoke? It is likely most smokers don’t understand the process of quitting.
Quitting smoking is not a one-time event. There are stages on the road to being smoke-free. Understanding the process and your own smoking habits can help you quit. There is no right or wrong way to quit – just the way that works for you.
Take the test: what stage are you at?
Stage One: I’m not ready to quit smoking
“ I am a smoker. I have smoked since I was 12 years old…it’s part of who I am. And I like to smoke – it helps me relax. It takes the stress away and helps me think straight. I know I am probably addicted to smoking. I really don’t want to quit, I enjoy it too much and I know it would be hard. So why do it? I don’t want people to “help” me quit. That just makes me want to smoke more!”
One quarter of Canadian smokers would put themselves in this category. To smoke or not to smoke is a personal decision. It is your decision. Like any decision, good decisions about smoking are made when you have the facts and you understand your own smoking habit. The first question you need to ask is: why do I smoke?
People start and continue to smoke for many reasons, including:
The Five Reasons for Smoking
Smoking has a very powerful hold on people, partly because of the reasons people smoke.
Physical addiction: Nicotine is the physically addictive substance in cigarettes. Your body becomes used to nicotine, and comes to need it. Nicotine is more addictive than alcohol, cocaine or heroin.
Physical habit: Each puff of a cigarette helps create a strong “hand-to-mouth” habit, something you might do over 250 times a day or over 90,000 times a year.
Emotional support: Smokers think of cigarettes like good friends that support them through the bad times and boost their enjoyment of the good times.
Personal identity: Many people see smoking as a big part of who they are. If smoking is central to your very being, it can have a strong hold on your life.
Social habit: If you always have a cigarette with your morning coffee or when you’re in a bar, you’ve trained yourself to smoke in certain situations.
Think About Your Smoking
You likely have valid reasons to smoke. Take time to think about the harm, inconvenience, or discomfort smoking brings you. If you can imagine quitting in the future, consider the following questions.
Stage Two: I am thinking about quitting
“ Cigarettes are my friends. They never let me down. They are always there for me. Aside from the occasional cough, a few bucks a day and the constant smell, they are never a burden to me. They offer me absolute support. But I recently found my 12-year-old daughter smoking. Although smoking is a part of my life, I can see the downside and I don’t want it to be part of her life.”
If you are at this stage, congratulations! Now the goal is to move from thinking about quitting to being ready to quit. Here are some tips.
To quit or not to quit
The biggest task in deciding to quit is weighing the ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of smoking. First, understand your ‘pros’ – what you like about smoking, what you get out of it and how important these things are to you. Then weigh those against the ‘cons’ – the costs of smoking, and how important these are in your life.
After creating your ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ list, rate each one from one to five (one is the least important and five the most important). Here are some things to think about:
Benefits to quitting
Quitting smoking lowers many health risks very quickly. If you quit, here are only a few of the many benefits.
Physical
Social
If your ‘pros’ of quitting outweigh your ‘cons,’ you can now take the next step – making plans to quit.
If your ‘cons’ of quitting outweigh your ‘pros,’ you now know some of your reasons to quit smoking, and that they are not strong enough yet. You may be ignoring messages about the downside of smoking. Try to be more open to the evidence of the dangers of your habit.
Stage Three: I’m getting ready to quit
If you’re like me and you want to quit smoking, be prepared. Dealing with the break in your routine will be hard at first. You’ll miss spending time with your friends during breaks and after hours. Not that you’ll have to give up your friends, but, at first, you’ll want to avoid the times and situations when you usually smoke.
Preparing to quit smoking takes time and effort. There are steps to follow that can help you succeed.
Look at your past attempts
Most smokers don’t quit the first time they try. It may take many attempts to learn the skills of living without cigarettes. If you’ve tried to quit in the past, take a look at what happened and think of how you can avoid similar problems.
Decide on a stop date
It’s important to pick a firm date when you are going to stop smoking. That will be your first day with no cigarettes. Set the date a week or two from now.
Keep a smoking diary
Make a smoking diary and fill it in for every cigarette you smoke over the next two or three days. It tracks the cigarettes you smoke, helps you find out when and where you smoke, and how you feel at the time. For each cigarette, record the time of day, what you are doing, where you are and why you are smoking.
Know what makes you want to smoke
Your smoking diary can help you figure out what “triggers” you to smoke. These are the places, people, moods and activities that give you the urge to smoke. Common triggers are alcohol, coffee, the end of mealtimes, fear of weight gain, emotional stress, and other people smoking.
Create a plan
To quit, you need to plan how to cope with these triggers.
Avoidance: The easiest way is simply to stay away from triggers for the first few weeks. Don’t go to the smoking room for your break. Sit in non-smoking sections in restaurants. Drink less alcohol. Don’t tempt yourself.
Change routine: If you always smoke when you first wake up or right after lunch, change your routine. Jump in the shower to wake up. Take a quick walk after lunch. The urge usually lasts only three to five minutes, so think of things to keep yourself busy during these times.
Plan to cope: You’re not going to be able to avoid all your triggers, so plan beforehand how you will deal with them – call a buddy for support, sing along to the radio, take a walk, or chew sugarless gum.
Find a support person: Ask close friends and family to help you. Here are some things they can do: not smoke in the house or car, be a telephone buddy, be an exercise partner, or agree to spend time with you.
Plan to handle the side effects
Nicotine withdrawal
These symptoms won’t last long. They are usually at their worst during the first three or four days after you quit smoking. Remember, these symptoms are also a sign that your body is beginning to heal!
Some symptoms of nicotine withdrawal
Will you have trouble with nicotine withdrawal?
Ask yourself these two questions:
If you answered yes to both, you are considered heavily addicted to nicotine and more likely to have trouble with nicotine withdrawal. Speak to your doctor about the nicotine patch or gum or the smoking cessation aid available in tablet form.
Planning checklist
Make sure you’ve thought about each of these parts of your plan. Have you:
Stage Four: I’m quitting
Like going to the dentist, fear of withdrawal is usually worse than the actual event. It’s not pleasant, obviously, but it’s not life or death. So for me, quitting for good mostly meant dealing with the symptoms of withdrawal, real and imagined. That’s where my doctor came in. He knew about a number of stop-smoking options and together we picked the one that was right for me.
This is your first day without cigarettes – be proud! Your goal for today is to keep yourself busy and feeling good without a cigarette. For the next two weeks, treat every day as if it is your Stop Date. Keep busy, keep away from cigarettes, and reward yourself for your efforts.
Know what to expect
The main things you can expect during your first two weeks are withdrawal symptoms, cravings and signs of recovery. Knowing what to expect can build your confidence so that you can deal with quitting.
Beat the cravings
Cravings will try to wreck the plans you’ve made to deal with your triggers to smoke. Don’t give in!
Use the 4 Ds when the cravings hit.
Signs of recovery
Restlessness, more energy, and coughing are signs that your body is healing! Look at withdrawal as “recovery in disguise” – it may make it easier to get through!
Use positive self-talk
Even though you want to quit smoking, there will be times when you doubt that it is a good idea. It’s very difficult for people to change – especially when it is something as hard as quitting smoking.
Reward yourself
Give yourself rewards all along the way. The benefits of not smoking are mostly long-term, so treat yourself now. You may want to use money you have saved by not smoking to get yourself a special reward.
Stage Five: I’m smoke free and going strong!
The key to being successful is knowing for certain that you’re ready. Be prepared to set a goal, set your date, and set your mind to it. Quit for reasons that are important to you, whatever they may be. If you’re not ready to do these things, then you won’t be ready to conquer the withdrawal monster.
Over 45 per cent of Canadian smokers have successfully reached this stage. The challenge is to stay stopped. For most people, it takes awhile before they feel like non-smokers. The good news is that it gets easier.
The challenge is to remain a non-smoker for good. Remember the following:
Dealing with stress
Stress is a big reason for starting to smoke again. You can learn how to handle stress without smoking. Your job is to manage the stress that smoking used to help you cope with and also manage the stress of quitting smoking.
Tips to reduce stress
Weight gain
Weight gain is one of people’s biggest concerns. It’s also a major reason ex-smokers start smoking again. Many add no more than 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds). Many people quit smoking without gaining a lot of weight. The more active you are, the more calories you will burn, and the less chance you will have of gaining weight.
Tips to manage weight gain
The Journey Continues
Look to the future as a non-smoker, one day at a time. Think positively about how you are doing and about how proud you are to be a non-smoker. Once you know the process, you can go back to a stage and start over. There are resources in your community to help you quit smoking and control other risk factors for heart disease. For more information, contact these organizations (at no charge)
FAMILY HEALTH is written with the assistance of |
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