Quit Smoking the Smart Way, Not the Hard Way!

If you’re someone who has tried to quit smoking on numerous occasions but failed, then you’re in the right place. If you preparing to kick the smoking habit for the first time, then you’re still in the right place. As someone who was heavily dependent on the drug nicotine for many years, I can fully sympathise with everyone who’s having trouble stopping. If you’re anything like I was, I bet you’re always thinking about packing it in so long as it’s not today, right? Keep reading, I’m on your side :)

Quitting smoking is as big a deal as you make it out to be. Smoking cessation is possible whoever you are, no matter how much you smoke or how long you’ve been smoking for, but here’s the catch: You have to want to STOP smoking MORE than you want to CONTINUE! All the nicotine replacement therapy, cold turkey, or alternative stop smoking methods in the world, will offer little hope unless your mind is in the right place.

Now don’t get me wrong here, I have no miracle cures to offer, but I can pass on my own personal experience and share with you folks which method worked for me when all else failed, and beleive me when I say I've been through them all! You see, I always thought that my chances of quitting smoking were pretty slim. I had a history of failure! I’d tried to stop so many times over the years but always started up again, usually within a couple of days at worse, or around the 3 week mark at best.

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How to Quit Smoking starts with your commitment!

I used to blame my failures on the so called ‘how to quit smoking tips and products’ that were constantly being pushed and promoted by companies and experts in the medical profession. To be honest, I rarely followed through with any plan of action and my excuses were a bit like those used by dieters who don’t lose weight and then blame it on the diet rather than their failure to follow directions specifically.

If you’re gearing yourself up to stop and are reading pamphlets or surfing the internet for advice and information on the latest how to quit smoking tips and gadgets, you will often see the phrase ‘smoking cessation’ brandished around. Don’t be confused by the wording! All cessation means is a temporary or final ceasing of some thoughts or action, and in this case it simply translates to mean STOP smoking cigarettes. As someone who has tried to both sweat-it-out alone and use nicotine replacement therapy, I can tell you without any shadow of doubt that the pains of withdrawal are much less when taking the latter option. Here’s a bit of my story:

Where I come from in England, a single packet of just 20 cigarettes was costing me around 5 quid a box ($10 give or take). Now if you consider I was smoking around 35 a day on average, and around 50 a day on the weekends, you can see that it soon mounts up! Even though I truly wanted to quit smoking (if only to save money), I wasn’t prepared to go through the agonizing withdrawal symptoms yet again, only to light up after another failed attempt. Past experience had shown me that stopping wasn’t really my problem! It was staying stopped that I had issues with, and for me that was usually days, rather than weeks, and certainly not months.

I always though that the best way to quit smoking cigarettes was to simply stop when the time felt right and not before, and like so many other smokers, I had no short supply of ‘justifiable excuses’ to fall back on when I needed to defend my habit and addiction to nicotine. I convinced myself that I wanted to smoke, I needed to smoke, and that smoking made my life more complete and manageable. My fellow puffers and I used to half jest that the smokers of the world are more interesting, more sociable, and much friendlier than those people who have never smoked or are reformed smokers. Btw, I still think there’s some truth in that ;-)

The truth of the matter was that I really needed to stop smoking some years before I eventually quit. In the privacy on my own mind, smoking cessation was something that I thought about on a daily basis. I was always breathless, even doing the smallest of tasks like making the bed, or cleaning the windows, but worse than that were the pains in my chest that I got periodically when I coughed, and I coughed a lot! In fact I had this chesty cough which became so bad during the last 4 years of my smoking that it used to wake me up in the night.

I was even pulled to one side a couple of times by the management at my then place of work because my persistent coughing all day every day was irritating those in my department. My solution at that time was not to look at ways on how to quit smoking cigarettes, but to ask for more fag breaks. I pointed out that after I have a cigarette, my coughing stops for about 40 minutes or so before kicking in again, and therefore an extra 2 or 3 five minute breaks during the day would go a long way towards solving the problem. Obviously no one was going to grant me such a preferential request and I was asked to either get some treatment for the cough or quit smoking, with an emphasis on that latter, or seek employment elsewhere.

For a time, I resented my employers and the unknown colleagues who complained about me. I did get some sympathy from my fellow smokers in the yard which gave a little temporary relief to my state of mind, but the bottom line was that this threat of dismissal was the wake up call I needed, and my work mates had actually done me a great favour, even though it didn’t feel like it at the time!

When I got over myself and really began to think about my constant coughing, occasional chest pains, breathlessness, risk of unemployment, money issues, long term health risks, and the stench in clothes and home that only comes from smokers, I really started to see the true benefits of smoking cessation perhaps for the first time in my life. I knew I couldn’t just quit without help, but I did know that the time had come to quit smoking now, and so I began to look at various ways on how to quit smoking with the help of nicotine replacement therapy.

How to Quit Smoking Using Nicotine Patches!

It was only when I was able to remove myself of the denial which I had hidden behind for so many years as a smoker that I can honestly say I had tipped the scales in favour for smoking cessation. For the first time ever as a nicotine addict, I wanted to stop more than I wanted to continue. After reviewing a few of the nicotine replacement therapy products, I decided to have a go with the nicotine patches, and I’m pleased to report that I haven’t had a cigarette since that first patch went on. Oh, there have been occasions when I fancied a smoke, but I’ve always managed to hold onto that feeling of wanting to stay stopped more than I wanted to light up again, and so 9 years later I’m a very happy and healthy individual.

I also want to point out that the benefits of quitting the habit are not something you have to wait long to experience. In actual fact, in only a couple of days of stopping I noticed a huge improvement in my breathing. Day and night time coughing stopped too and as a consequence, my quality of sleep improved.

Today, I enjoy my food much more and I also find myself drinking far less tea and coffee (I enjoyed a smoke more with a cuppa!). I even exercise on a regular basis, and that’s something that wasn’t even in my thoughts as an active smoker. But I’m not a reformed anti-smoker and I fully understand the difficulties people have with quitting. I also recognize the pleasure and relief smoking gives to some individuals. Most smokers will quit when the time is right for them, and unrelenting nagging from loved ones will not help them until they are ready to help themselves.

If you are concerned about someone close to you who smokes, just let them know your concerns, tell them you will support them the moment they decide to quit, and try to avoid regular lecturing, as this rarely does anything to strike up a meaningful conversation on how to quit smoking. If you feel you need to bring their smoking up in tête-à-tête from time to time, attempt to have soft discussions about it and avoid those power driven arguments. When a smoker begins to fight for cessation and not against addiction, he or she is preparing to quit, however long that process takes. Talking about the benefits of stopping as opposed to the dangers of continuing, are far better ways to address the issues.