Contents
Understand Your Smoking Habit
Reasons to Quit Smoking
How to Get Emotional Support Before Quitting Smoking
How to Get Medical Support Before Quitting Smoking
Alternative Methods for Quitting Smoking
How to Choose a Quit Date
How to Stay Quit
How to Deal with Regression
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How to Stay Quit
Staying quit is a phrase that refers to the process of staying away from cigarettes after you’ve quit. In the hours, days, and weeks after your quit date, there are a number of techniques you can use to help you stay quit.
Changing Your Routine
Your usual routine is full of smoking triggers. To avoid these triggers, change your routine. Even little variations will help. Have coffee instead of tea, walk to the gym instead of taking the bus, or go to the movies after work instead of the bar. Avoiding the parts of your routine that you associate with smoking will help you dodge triggers and stay quit.
Recognizing and Avoiding Triggers
Mixing up your routine works wonders, but there are some triggers you can’t avoid, such as waking up. You need to have concrete plans for dealing with triggers before you encounter them. Write down all of the triggers you face. Then come up with a strategic response for dealing with each one. The table below provides some examples:
Trigger |
Sample Response |
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Waking up |
Jump in the shower. |
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Drinking coffee |
Make a smoothie. |
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Getting to work |
Sing along to the radio. |
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Taking a break |
Go to the gym. |
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Finishing a meal |
Chew gum. |
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Finishing work |
Drink a soda. |
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Talking on the phone |
Doodle. |
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Watching TV |
Knit. |
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Getting ready for bed |
Do a crossword puzzle. |
Coping with Withdrawal
Withdrawal is a process that occurs when you deprive your body of a drug to which it’s become addicted. Symptoms of withdrawal include:
- Anxiety
- Constipation
- Depression
- Difficulty concentrating
- Mood swings
- Sleepiness
- Sleeplessness
In the first few days after you quit smoking, withdrawal symptoms will get progressively more unpleasant. Nicotine replacement therapy or medications such as bupropion can help alleviate the symptoms but won’t eliminate them completely. If you can persevere through those first days (and you can), your symptoms will ease and your health will improve rapidly.
Strategies for Coping with Withdrawal Symptoms
Even when your withdrawal symptoms are at their worst, there are ways to cope with them.
Symptom |
Sample Response |
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Anxiety |
Meditate. Breathe deeply. Call your doctor if you’re feeling panicky. |
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Bad moods |
Read a funny novel or watch an
engrossing TV show. Make sure you’re getting enough exercise.
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Difficulty concentrating |
Breathe deeply. If you’re at your desk, walk around or stretch. |
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Constipation |
Drink lots of water. Eat fruits, vegetables, and bran. |
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Depression |
Talk to a loved one. If you’ve felt sad for weeks, consult your doctor. |
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Sleepiness |
Exercise early in the day or at lunch. Get extra sleep. |
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Sleeplessness |
Reduce your caffeine intake.
Exercise early in the day. Before bed, eat something carb-heavy (such as pasta or bread), take a bath, or read a book. |
Distinguishing Between Withdrawal and Depression
Sadness and anxiety are common symptoms of withdrawal. Some smokers use cigarettes as a way to temporarily “treat” chronic depression and anxiety disorders, and quitting can cause these problems to return. You may be suffering from depression or an anxiety disorder if you experience either of the following after quitting smoking:
- Persistent sadness for two weeks or more
- Persistent or regular sense of panic
If you experience these symptoms, speak to your doctor. There are many effective ways to treat depression and anxiety, none of which involve smoking.
Resisting Cravings
Using NRT will help to minimize your physical cravings for cigarettes. However, you’ll still crave cigarettes for psychological reasons. There are several ways to cope with cravings, though not all of them will work for everyone. Your best bet is to try them all and see which work best for you.
- Preempt your triggers: As a smoker, you likely used cigarettes to ease boredom, loneliness, frustration, hunger, and exhaustion. If you don’t let yourself get into these emotional and physical states, you’ll be less likely to want a cigarette. Keep busy, make plans with friends, eat regularly, and get enough sleep.
- Lecture yourself: Deploy your powers of reasoning as a weapon against your cravings. When the urge to smoke hits, remind yourself of your compelling reasons for quitting. Pull out the list you made and reread it.
- Paint a mental picture: Try envisioning breathing with clean, pink lungs, running up ten flights of stairs without losing your breath, or admiring your newly youthful skin. If scare tactics work better for you, envision yourself dragging along an oxygen tank.
- Satisfy your oral fixation: A key part of psychological cigarette addiction is oral stimulation. Take care of this part of your craving by drinking water, chewing gum, biting a toothpick, or sucking on hard candy.
- Keep your hands moving: Smoking gives you something to do with your hands. Keep your fingers busy in some other way, such as writing or knitting.
- Breathe deeply: When smoking a cigarette, you inhale deeply, hold your breath for a second or two, then exhale slowly, repeating this pattern for 5–10 minutes. This type of breathing is meditative, and is both calming and stimulating at once. When the urge to smoke strikes, breathe as you would if you were smoking, but without the cigarette.
- Leave: If you’re in a situation that’s causing cravings—such as talking with your coworkers while they smoke or hanging out in a bar—walk away.
When you first quit smoking, cravings last for around five minutes. They go away even if you don’t cave in and have a cigarette. When a craving hits, take it minute-by-minute and know that you can outlast it. Also know that cravings will lessen in intensity and frequency as the days and weeks pass. After a few smoke-free months, cravings will last for only a moment or two.
Recognizing and Rejecting Rationalizations
Even if you’re determined to quit smoking, in the days and weeks after you’ve quit you’ll probably find yourself coming up with some variation of the following rationalizations for why you should just give in and have a cigarette:
- Oh, what’s the big deal? I’m young. I can smoke for a few more years, and nothing bad will happen.
- I’m not drinking or using drugs anymore. Shouldn’t I be allowed to keep smoking?
- I’ve smoked for way too long—it’s impossible for me to quit at this point.
- Smoking doesn’t kill everyone. Lots of people smoke two packs a day and live perfectly healthy lives.
- When it’s my time to go, it’s my time to go. If smoking doesn’t kill me, something else will.
- I’m having a really rough time in my life right now. Smoking is my one source of peace and comfort.
- I’m just going to have one cigarette to help me through this stressful situation.
- I’ll definitely quit soon, but I’m realizing that now is not the right time.
These thoughts might make all the sense in the world when you’re dying for a cigarette, but you must recognize them for what they are—rationalizations, or attempts to justify not staying quit. To combat rationalizations, write down each one your mind concocts. Then write a logical response to refute it. Recording and then refuting your rationalizations will reduce their influence on your resolve to stay quit.
Visualizing a Smoke-Free Day
When you’re in bed trying to fall asleep, visualize the next day, hour by hour. Think of each activity you’ll do and each task you’ll complete. Visualize yourself getting through each moment without smoking. Focus on the events or situations that you know will tempt you and create a mental image of yourself overcoming the urge to smoke.
Dealing with Weight Gain
Cigarettes speed up your metabolism and suppress your appetite, which can help keep you slim. Quitting smoking can result in weight gain, though the average weight gained is just five pounds, and some people who quit actually lose weight. To help you avoid weight gain after you quit:
- Drink lots of water: Many people mistake thirst for hunger. Drinking plenty of water will stop you from snacking when you really just need a drink.
- Chew gum: Smoking is satisfying in part because it stimulates your mouth. Replace that stimulus with gum (preferably sugar-free) rather than fattening food.
- Avoid sugary and high-fat foods: These kinds of foods tend to suppress cravings effectively but also cause you to gain weight. If you find that sweet foods help keep your cravings in check, try to rely on fruit rather than cake or other unhealthy options.
- Exercise: Your capacity to exercise will improve when you quit smoking. By making your life more active—whether that means going to the gym more often or taking longer walks—you can improve your energy and keep weight gain in check.
If you do gain a few pounds, don’t be too hard on yourself. You’re doing your body a huge favor by quitting smoking. Quitting is a daunting task that deserves all of your attention. You’ll have plenty of time to lose the extra weight after you’ve stayed quit for a while.
Rewarding Yourself
For most smokers, smoking isn’t just an addiction—it’s also fun. When you quit smoking, it’s important to replace the pleasure of smoking cigarettes with the pleasure of other activities. You can also think of these replacement pleasures as a means of rewarding yourself for staying quit. Figure out the amount you used to spend each week on cigarettes and spend that money on things that make you happy, or save it up for a vacation.
| Acknowledgments & Disclaimer |
