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Reviewed by Dr Gavin Petrie, consultant chest physician
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Whether you're thinking about quitting and want some tips to get
you started, or you've already quit and are struggling, we've put together some
information to help you through the early days and beyond.
Check out your smoking habits
Before you actually quit, you'll go through some sort of
preparation, even it's simply throwing away all cigarettes, lighters and
ashtrays in your house.
You can make this time more effective by thinking about where,
why and how much you smoke. The idea is to understand your habits, so you can
think about ways to change them.
A good place to start is to keep a smoking log for a couple of
days in which you note the time of each cigarette, where you smoked it and what
your mood was like. It can be as simple as a sheet of paper you keep inside
your cigarette packet.
Know your pros and cons
The decision to give up smoking often comes from people taking
stock of their lives - it's why New Year is such a popular time for
quitting.
People quit for different reasons: some people will be motivated
by the financial cost of smoking, while others will want to give up for the
sake of children or other family members.
Personal health is
the most popular reason for giving up smoking.
Whatever your reasons, if they're going to motivate during your
quit, you must believe in them as worthwhile goals.
As well as thinking about why you want to quit, it's worth
spending time on what you'll
miss.
Take a sheet of paper and rule a line down the centre. On one
side write all your pros for quitting, on the other, your reasons for
continuing to smoke.
Be as honest as you can: it's easy to say there are no cons to
quitting while you still have the option to light up.
Now look at the two lists of reasons for and against quitting,
and think about the difference between what's important to you here and now,
and what will be important to you in the future.
Medicines can help
As your body adjusts to the lack of nicotine, you will
experience cravings. You may also experience concentration problems, headaches,
increased appetite, irritability, restlessness and insomnia.
Both
nicotine replacement therapy and
Zyban can help reduce these physical
withdrawal symptoms.
Use diversion techniques
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Dealing with cravings
Here are some ideas to help you cope with cravings for a
cigarette:
chew some gum
eat something eg carrot sticks or lollipops
brush your teeth
sip a non-alcoholic drink you don't link with
smoking
take a shower
do a crossword
call a friend
occupy your hands, eg by doodling, knitting or completing a
pocket puzzle.
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The idea behind diversion techniques is simple: if you focus on
something, ie your cravings for tobacco, your need will seem more intense. If
you distract your attention, you can trick your mind into 'forgetting' the
craving and it will pass.
This technique can be helpful to stopping smoking because
cravings rarely last for longer than a couple of minutes.
For it to work, you'll need to come up with some ideas
beforehand and
understand why you smoke, because it's
these emotions and situations that are most likely to trigger cravings once you
quit.
So if you use smoking to deal with pressure, you need to look at
alternative ways to cope in these circumstances. If you smoke to fill time when
you're alone on social occasions, you need to think about what you'll do
instead.
Think of at least 10 things to divert your attention when you
have a craving for a cigarette.
Use relaxation techniques
When you feel the urge to smoke, try this relaxation exercise
instead.
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Sit up straight, close your eyes and take a deep
breath.
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Hold it for a moment, and then breathe right out, relaxing all
the muscles in your body.
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Repeat 10 times until the craving passes.
The ability to relax quickly is one that can be taught. There
are lots of different methods, and the more you practise the easier it'll
become.
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Visualise the end
Try this to help your motivation.
Imagine waking up one morning with absolutely no desire to
smoke.
You are a non-smoker who has survived the
struggle.
You are free from your addiction and happy you gave up
smoking.
How do you feel? How would life be different?
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Visualisation techniques are mind exercises to achieve a
particular goal, and are similar to those employed in yoga and
meditation.
Visualisation uses mental images to inspire particular feelings,
ie your motivations for staying quit. For example, you may associate giving up
cigarettes with freedom. In this case, you would think of an image that
represents this, such as walking along a white sand beach.
You would then colour the picture with the positive way you'd
feel as a non-smoker, eg by seeing yourself taking a big gulp of air and
feeling the clean air in your lungs.
These positive images can help you cope with cravings, by
shoring up your willpower, but you can also use them to stop thinking about
cigarettes in the first place. Plus, because the images you use to focus on the
good reasons for quitting are pleasant and relaxing, they can help you to cope
with stress - a key factor in causing relapses.
Focus on the positive
The decision to quit smoking is an achievement in itself. If
you're struggling in the early days of your quit, think about the positive
changes to your life.
Focus on what
you gain from giving
up smoking rather than the things
you miss. Tell
yourself the benefits are worth a period of discomfort: the longer you stop
smoking, the lower your risk of getting a
smoking-related
disease, the more money you will save, and the better your health in
general.
Our inner thoughts have a powerful effect on how we see
ourselves and the world. Not only are negative thoughts about your abilities
the basis of low self-esteem, but they can become self-fulfilling prophecies -
if you tell yourself you'll fail, you most probably will.
Having the right attitude, ie a positive one, may sound a
cliché, but it's not an easy goal. Negative thought patterns embed themselves
over years and it can take a lot of work to retrain long-held assumptions. In
fact, there's a whole type of therapy called behavioural therapy that aims to
help people do this.
At its simplest, it means instead of thinking 'I'm such a heavy
smoker, I won't be able to beat cravings,' you say 'There are things I can do
to counter the urge to smoke. Cravings will pass.'
You may also want to come up with a mantra that motivates you
during difficult times, eg 'I'm determined to be a non-smoker, and I have the
strength to see this through.'
Come up with strategies for your habit
Nicotine dependency is just one of the reasons you'll want to
start smoking again. Certain places, activities and emotions can also trigger
the urge to smoke. These form the psychological part of your addiction and can
be the most difficult to overcome.
To help you come up with a list of strategies that tackle the
psychological aspects of your habit, think about the following.
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Quit tip
The smoking log described at the beginning of this article
will help you answer these questions.
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What part does smoking play in your daily life?
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What situations make you want to smoke?
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What activities do you associate with having a
cigarette?
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Do particular moods trigger your need to smoke?
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Does smoking fulfil particular psychological or social
needs?
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How do you see yourself as a smoker?
If you feel equipped to cope with these problems, your chances
of success will increase.
Try to get support from others
Giving up smoking with others, or having the support of family
and friends, can make a big difference to your motivation levels and
determination to stick at your quit.
But if you're quitting with others, you also need to think about
how you'll feel if one of the group starts smoking again - will you see this as
proof it's all too hard and give up yourself?
Quitting smoking is now an NHS priority area, so clinics and
other services to support smokers are being set up around the country. Even if
there's no formal clinic in your area, you can still get advice from
pharmacists, doctors and practice nurses.
Cravings don't last forever
Finally, if you're struggling now bear in mind the following.
The strength and frequency of cravings varies from smoker to smoker and even
from quit to quit. It will take time before you start to feel comfortable
without cigarettes.
For most, these cravings and other withdrawal symptoms will
lessen after three to four weeks. There will still be times when you want to
smoke, but there will also be increasingly
long periods when you
don't think about cigarettes: first entire days, then weeks, months and
eventually years.
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Based on a text by Bobby Zachariae, psychologist and Torsten Sonne, BSc
Psych
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Last updated 16.05.2005
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