So you think SMOKING is silly and you're ready to quit. The following
is a 3 point game plan to help you stop permanently:
Step 1: Have your
Reasons to Quit Smoking
You need to be very clear in your mind why you are quitting
smoking. You need to list all the ways that smoking is costing
and hurting you. You need write down on a piece of paper how
smoking is turning your teeth brown, how you might have a hidden cancer
because of smoking, how much money you're putting into your
ashtray every month, how silly you feel following the smoking crowd,
how selfish you are blowing your homicidal smoke into the faces
of friends and family etc.
Step 2: Be Committed to Quit Smoking
You can't be serious about quitting and have a pack stashed
away under your mattress "in case of emergency". This is
one time you have to burn all your bridges because just one pull
on a skinny cigarette can drag you back into smoker slavery.
Now here's how to prove you mean business:
- Don't you find
wishy-washy people lame? Good, then you need to tell everybody
you know that you're quitting smoking by some date. That
way you'll have to smoke in your closet if you fail.
- Throw
out every cigarette,
every ash tray, every lighter you own and every smoking friend you
have. It's important to keep everything away that reminds you of
smoking when you're quitting. That means staying away from
places with lots of smoke and friends who smoke around you. Ever
wonder why every bartender in the world likes a drink; it's hard
not too with it swirling all around you all the time. So keep the
smoke away while you quit.
- Set a date
to quit smoking. You can plan to quit everyday for the rest of your
life but good intentions won't help you. You need to set aside a
date to stop. Vacation is a bad time. It needs to be a time when
you are busy - that helps to keep your mind off it.
Step 3: Be Ready
for the Fight to Quit Smoking
Cigarette smoke is addictive but nowhere as strong as other
drugs like cocaine. So you can beat this thing. Eight out
of every ten smokers who quit do it 'cold turkey'. That
means no crutches, no fancy support groups, no outside help. Just
them, the cigarettes, and the willpower to say NO!. But forewarned
is forearmed. These are the obstacles in your path that you'll have
to cross over on your way to being free of smoke:
- The craving
- there's no way around it, you're going to feel like something's
missing from your life. But it will pass. The longer you don't
give in the less its power over you will be. Each time you think
of a cigarette it might help to also think of the bitter
and filthy poisons you'll be sucking into your innocent lungs. Keeping
busy also helps. When you get a craving to smoke, doing a
hobby or going for a walk should help. If you really
can't stand it then you could try Zyban or the nicotine patch.
- The
fidgeting -
for some people it's not the smoke but the cigarette itself and
the puffing motion they crave because it relaxes them in
public. But other people do things like chew gum, crack their knuckles,
play with their hair etc. If you find that without a cigarette you
feel uncomfortable you can invent a new fidget or choose
from one of the above.
- Weight gain
- One of the toxic effects of smoking is that it lowers weight.
But off cigarettes you can expect only to gain at most 10 pounds.
That's really not much of a visible difference.
- Antisocial?
- One of the comforts of smoking is doing it with friends; it's
like sharing a drink. A kind of bonding experience. But think of
it this way, are you still close with all of your friends from ten
years ago? Do you think then that your cigarette sharing friends
now will visit you in hospital when you have lung cancer thirty
years from now?
Step 4: Work with your Doctor
Let your doctor know you plan to quit smoking. They can help with literature, moral support, and two effective medications which can be used together or separately:
- Zyban - this pill a day activates your brain pleasure center just like cigarettes reducing your craving for nicotine. It is started while smoking and a quit date 2 weeks later set. Use is for up to 3 months and helps to prevent relapse.
- Nicotine patch - these skin tags deliver a constant deescalating dose of nicotine through your skin making quitting a gradual gentle process over 3 months. You are not to smoke while using the patch.
