| How To Stop Smoking |
by Judith Ockene Ph.D.
If you are a smoker, the most important thing you can do to reduce your risk of disease and live a longer, healthier life is to become a non-smoker. Most people have stopped several times before they are successful in stopping long-term. There are many methods you can use to stop smoking, but there is NO MAGIC CURE. Any strategy will be successful for you if you are determined to make it work.
As you think about your smoking, ask yourself the following questions:
1.) Do I want to quit smoking? Be honest with yourself. It takes a firm commitment to stop.
2.) Why do I want to stop? Write down your reasons for wanting to stop.
3.) Have I stopped smoking before for at least one day? How did I do it? What helped? What were the problems I had with stopping? Why did I return to smoking? Use what you have learned from past experiences to help you with your present efforts.
4.) Is my body addicted to nicotine? If you need a cigarette immediately after you awaken, or you get jittery without cigarettes, you may benefit from the Amazing Smoker's Rescue System©, nicotine replacement such as the patch or gum, or the anti-depressant Zyban. These help with the physical addiction while you develop behavioral strategies to deal with the physiological (body & mind) need for cigarettes. Click here to order the Amazing Smoker's Rescue System© , Talk to your doctor for Zyban, purchase nicotine patches or gum over the counter.
5.) What can I do now to stop smoking? Knowing what motivates you, and what has helped you, or what has been a problem before, can help you make a plan for stopping now or in the future.
Important steps in stopping smoking include PLANNING and PREPARING. If you don't think you are ready to stop smoking entirely, there are some things you can do to prepare for stopping, and to make it easier when you do stop. These include:
- Have a positive attitude about your ability to stop
smoking.
- Learn from you past efforts.
- Identify your motivations to stop (e.g. "I don't
want my children to see me smoke", or "I want to walk
up steps without seeing spots").
- Identify stressful situations which will trigger your desire
to smoke in the first days.
- Develop strategies to help you deal with urges to smoke, and
with difficult situations. The first days may be more difficult.
You can use strategies like drinking water, taking deep breaths
or brief walks, to make it easier. Most withdrawal symptoms are
gone after the first week.
- Prepare for how you can replace smoking with another behavior
or activity. Do things that do not allow you to smoke.
- Identify a variety of ways to reward yourself for stopping smoking.
| Judith Ockene is professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine at the University of Massachusetts. She was scientific editor for two Surgeon General's Reports on Smoking and Health and author of several chapters for the "Women and Smoking" Surgeon General's Report. |
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