While smoking rates do seem to be gradually declining, it’s still the case that around 1 in 5 adults regularly use tobacco. That’s a scary number, illustrating the point that despite a positive trend, smoking is still a major problem in modern society.
Part of the problem is that it can be incredibly difficult to quit. Addiction is one of the biggest challenges we face as a species, and whether it’s drinking, gambling, or smoking, it can have a devastating impact on the sufferer’s life as well as those around them.
Having said this, plenty of people manage to successfully quit smoking every year and never resume their old habits, and in this article, you’ll learn 8 manageable steps to help you position yourself amongst that group!
1. Identify Your Triggers
Addiction is a complex psychological problem, but it fundamentally hinges on a thought process leading to a behaviour. There are many triggers for this mechanism, and those triggers are highly individual.
The first part of your challenge is discovering what the biggest triggers are for you. It could be that you reach for a cigarette when you’re experiencing high levels of stress, or maybe you’re a social smoker and only use tobacco when with others. Analyse your life, find what makes you most likely to smoke, and write it all down.
2. Don’t Go Cold Turkey
Going cold turkey after being a regular smoker usually isn’t the best strategy for long-term success; it’s easy to start with great intentions, only to leave your plans by the wayside when one of your triggers takes hold.
Instead, work to wean yourself off slowly over the next week or two, and set yourself a definite date by which you intend to stop completely (this doesn’t mean you can’t continue to use other nicotine products as will be discussed later). Inform your friends and family of this date so that they can hold you accountable – you can even try using posted notes on your fridge and bathroom mirror as a constant reminder.
3. Work on Building a Support System
As you embark on this journey, there will inevitably be times when you struggle and risk welcoming your bad habits back into your life.
At these moments, it’s crucial to have a strong support system built up of people who can remind you why you’re doing this. This network can comprise friends, family, healthcare professionals, and support groups who have your best interests at heart. You may also find that your family is the main impetus for getting better besides your own health, so they can be a key motivating factor. When the going gets tough, they’ll prove an invaluable asset.
4. Seek Professional Help
Once you’ve determined your triggers and developed a drive to quit, you may want to seek professional help for further guidance.
Doctors, councillors, and psychologists can each be key supports on the road to recovery and form a fundamental component of your overall plan. For instance, you may find that various forms of psychotherapy can help manage cravings: therapies like CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) have proven to be useful in helping people reorganize their thought processes and better understand the connection between their desires and behaviours.
This is just one avenue you could go down, but your local healthcare providers can offer many other useful interventions to suit your specific needs.
5. Use Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT)
As you’ll likely be aware, nicotine is the primary addictive substance when it comes to smoking, whereas tobacco is the part of the cigarette that causes the most harm. While you should stop smoking cigarettes as quickly as you can, you may choose to wean yourself off nicotine much more gradually, and there are several products available for this purpose.
Some people choose to go the vaporiser route: vapes are significantly less harmful than cigarettes and provide a similar ‘feeling’, though they’re not without their own issues. Then, you have nicotine patches – the user wears these on their arm as an unobtrusive way of delivering a steady stream of nicotine to the body, which can be gradually lessened over time.
Another popular method is nicotine pouches. These are small consumables that the user places in the mouth, and they come in a wide variety of strengths and flavors (Two Wombats have a particularly extensive selection!).
6. Consider Prescription Medications
6. Consider Prescription MedicationsYou could also explore the option of prescription medication. For example, Varenicline works by both reducing cravings and changing the way your reward system responds to cigarettes. There’s also Bupropion, which was originally used to treat depression but was simultaneously found to help people quit smoking. Scientists still aren’t entirely sure how it works, but again, it’s thought that it targets the reward circuitry in the brain to make quitting easier.
If you’d like to learn more about these types of medications, reach out to your GP.
7. Look at Your Lifestyle
Most people who try to quit smoking do best when they work to develop a more holistic approach. Usually, someone’s decision to quit is paired with a desire to become healthier in general: you may have identified smoking as part of a larger problem that includes mental health, diet, and exercise, each of which can either contribute to the problem or expedite results depending on how you manage these factors.
Placing greater emphasis on physical exercise, for example, can help reduce your cravings and withdrawal symptoms. Exercise releases endorphins that make you feel good about yourself, and it’s common for a positive health action like this to counteract a negative one.
Exercise also reduces stress, which, as touched on, can be a major factor for those suffering from addiction, and activities like meditation and the practice of mindfulness can be valuable tools for helping to reduce stress further.
8. Switch Up Your Daily Routine
Similarly to the lifestyle factors described above, you may find that your daily routine needs some work if you’re going to tackle this. Consider your triggers explored in step 2, and determine whether your current routine makes you more susceptible to relapse.
For example, you may find that when you go for a break at lunch, you often reach for a cigarette. Instead, you could replace it with a book you’ve always wanted to read; go through your day and identify where your triggers overlap with certain time points.
In many cases, people smoke simply for ‘something to do’, so the more you fill your day with activities that align with your values, the less chance there is for your cravings to take over – and to boot, you get to explore other areas of your life that bring you joy.
You should also make an effort to remove temptation as much as possible. Get rid of the ashtrays and cigarette lighters you encounter on a daily basis.
Wrapping Up
Hopefully, this article has inspired you to take on the challenge of quitting smoking. Make no mistake, it isn’t going to be easy, but it’s all about taking small steps and making little tweaks to your life to foster an environment that’s most conducive to change.
You may feel that smoking is simply too intrinsic a part of you to ever let go, but that’s certainly not the case. Anyone can develop the skills necessary to quit, and although you’ll likely falter on your journey, the important thing is that you get back up and try again. Eventually, you’ll make it – and the payoff will provide a greater feeling than the best cigarette you’ve ever smoked!
