Now that you understand the dangers that smoking brings about, you need to start making plans to quit. The first step is adopting a healthier lifestyle, which includes eating right, exercising, managing stress and getting support from family and friends.
Taking these pro-health steps is your valuable first step towards quitting, since it will prepare you psychologically to make a firm commitment to quitting.
A healthier lifestyle is a no-lose proposition. And these lifestyle measures will certainly affect other areas of your life.
First of all, keep in mind that three out of four smokers would like to quit. Five out of six say they would not start smoking in the first place, if they had the choice to make over again. In fact, most smokers eventually do quit smoking. The 1989 Surgeon General’s Report estimated that almost 50% of all adults who had ever smoked regularly had quit.
But quitting smoking isn’t easy. Studies have shown that many successful quitters failed in their first attempts to quit. There’s actually little connection between the number of previous quit attempts and eventual success. So previous failures do not mean that you can’t succeed.
Quitting smoking is hard to do. It requires strong motivation. Motivations don’t just happen. You have to take an active part in developing your motivations and making them more effective.
STEP 1:
To start off, think about how you think about quitting. Do you think of it as giving something up? Instead, try thinking of it as a positive act – improving your health, taking control of your life.
It will help you to believe it is possible for you to quit. If you have quit before, try reframing your past “failure” as a success. First of all, you were able to quit for some length of time (probably for longer than you thought you could). You learned some things that will help you this time. You probably learned you can’t “just have one.” And maybe you recognized some triggers or temptations you really need to watch out for.
As we have seen, there are many reasons why you smoke – habit, addiction, social enjoyment, stress relief, hunger control, advertising messages, and more. In fact, your reasons often change from day to day. Smoking fills different needs at different times of the day.
Each time you smoke, you reinforce the connection between the act of smoking and your current activity or situation. You no longer think about needing something to do with your hands. Instead, you automatically smoke whenever you’re on the telephone, or when you’re waiting in line, or when you’re taking a coffee break.
These feelings and situations serve as triggers – cues to light up. Think for a moment, and try to find out your personal “triggers.” What are some of the triggers you have had today? What situations caused you to have a cigarette? Smoking is such an automatic habit that most people don’t think about what triggers it, or how important any particular trigger is.
Start acting like you can quit.
STEP 2:
Perhaps your doctor has told you to quit. Studies show that many doctors do advise smokers to quit, but in a way that’s easy to ignore. If your doctor hasn’t talked to you about quitting, you may think that it’s not important. But it is. And often doctors are frustrated that their patients continue to smoke. When you go see a doctor, there is little time to have a long discussion about the importance of quitting, since there are other physical problems that the doctor has to deal with.
How about you? Do you have some nagging health concern that you’ve tried to brush off, because you’re afraid that it could be something serious. For example, many smokers have a chronic heavy cough, which often brings up mucus. Coughing is an early warning sign of potential lung damage. More severe problems such as shortness of breath, wheezing, and coughing up blood could be a sign of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or even lung cancer. Chest pain could be a sign of cardiovascular disease. These are serious problems that should not be ignored.
Think about other health concerns that you have. And then think about how these problems might be made worse by your smoking. This is not a very pleasant job, but when you start to learn how smoking is affecting your health, you will be motivated to quit and stay quit.
Examine your health concerns.
STEP 3:
Once you have faced your health concerns, you may become more aware of other reasons to stop smoking. For example, does it seem as if more and more people are asking you not to smoke? If so, you have probably realized that the anti-smoking message has spread quickly.
Most people start smoking because of social pressures (to fit in, to look older, more sophisticated, sexier). Once they become smokers in today’s world, however, they’re increasingly pressured not to smoke. With this changing social climate, nonsmokers have become more aggressive about approaching total strangers and asking them to butt out.
For some people this type of pressure can be a motivation to keep smoking. But on the other hand, studies have shown that the changing norms regarding smoking behavior are also helping people to quit and stay quit.
Social pressures are demanding that you stop smoking.
STEP 4:
One place where important social norms can encourage non-smoking is at work. Many workplaces now sponsor quit smoking clinics. Companies have actually found that they are cost-effective because nonsmokers miss fewer days of work and make less use of medical benefits. So, quitting smoking will help you feel part of the team at work.
Try to become a nonsmoker at work, or cut down.
STEP 5:
Most people who stop smoking do so out of personal reasons. This means that your own reasons for wanting to quit may be very different from someone else. Knowing your own reasons for quitting (and remembering them when things get a little tough) will be a big step in helping you become a nonsmoker for life. Find out your personal reasons. These can include:
• I will have more control of my life
• I will be healthier
• My heart rate and blood pressure will be lower
• I’ll save lots of money
• I’m tired of having stinky clothes and smelly breath.
• I’ll have more energy
• I’ll decrease of chances of getting heart disease, chronic bronchitis, emphysema and cancer.
• Other reasons:_______________________________________________
Now rank your reasons for quitting in order of importance. Next, list any reasons you can think of for NOT quitting.
Once you’ve made your list, study it for a few minutes every day. Keep adding to it new reasons that occur to you. Make this active process each and every day.
STEP 6:
The dilemma most smokers face is that they want to quit – but they also want to keep smoking. Your reasons to be hesitant about quitting are real. Don’t hide from them. Be open to thinking about both these and your reasons for quitting. Then, when you decide you really want to quit, your resolve will be stronger. You will have acknowledged that you do have valid reasons for wanting to keep smoking – it’s just that your reasons for wanting to quit are stronger.
Weight your reasons for smoking and for quitting carefully. Use paper and pencil and write down the reasons why you would make either choice. Then compare them. That way you can make a clear choice between them. When people lose sight of their choices, they begin to feel deprived. And that’s when negative thinking takes over. It’s important for you to see that there are two choices.
But changing a behavior like smoking is as much emotional as it is rational. Smoking has nothing to do with how smart you are. You must bring together what you know in your head and your heart with your gut-feeling. Then you will begin to increase your desire to quit and your confidence in your ability to do it.
STEP 7:
The fear of quitting – of never ever having a cigarette again – makes some people leave a back window open – as an excuse for going back to smoking. Some of these “windows” include:
• fear of gaining weight
• crabbiness
• a minor relapse, so you might as well smoke
• family quarrels
• work pressure
Before you quit smoking, you have to close all these open “windows.” Begin by deciding what you are going to do about each barrier and each roadblock that’s holding you back.
STEP 8:
You need two types of confidence to succeed in quitting:
• Confidence in this kit, since it works for all types of smokers and it will work for you whether you smoke a few cigarettes a day or three packs a day.
• Confidence in yourself. You can begin building that confidence by using a positive attitude. For starters, practice saying out loud, “I can quit smoking!”
As you go along, make up other confidence statements. For example, “I can stop smoking and maintain my current weight.” Or “I can stop smoking and learn new ways to manage stress.” Or “I love myself too much to let myself smoke.”
Words are often not enough. It also helps to review other things you’ve done that required priority-setting and resisting temptation. Maybe you learned how to get your taxes done early. Maybe you lost 20 pounds and kept them off. Maybe you developed better ways of handling disagreements with your spouse or your children. Maybe you succeeded in reducing salt or fat in your diet, or cut down on your coffee consumption. Try to identify what kind of problem-solving you are especially good at, then plan how you can emphasize these strengths and apply them to your quit-smoking efforts.
