Quitting smoking is said to be one of the toughest addictions to break. Many try quitting only to quit quitting. I attempted to give up the habit myself many times before being successful. As of this writing I've been smoke-free for two years. I'm going to try to convey "how I did it" in an attempt to help those who might be thinking of quitting. Maybe one of the things I write here can be the final "Eureka!" that someone needs to give them the edge in their own personal battle with nicotine. Mind you, this is all from my own perspective. Others might not have the same success, or be able to do it "my way" for various reasons, which is why I titled this "Your Mileage May Vary."
A lot of people say there are two sides to the addiction to nicotine; the psychological and the physical addiction. I disagree. I feel the addiction is three-fold. I will list them individually then try to describe them as I see them.
1.) The addiction to the nicotine.
2.)The psychological "I NEED to smoke" conditioning.
3.) The physical habit of smoking itself.
#1- Nicotine is the tobacco plants natural protection from being eaten by insects. By chance this natural insecticide, once inside the brain permits it direct and indirect control over the flow of more than 200 neuro-chemicals, most importantly dopamine. Dopamine is the brain's primary motivational neurotransmitter. When you are hungry or thirsty, that craving or desire is caused by the dopamine pathways in your brain telling you to go eat. Once you have eaten, the need is fulfilled and the cravings fade. Nicotine causes the same reaction. When nicotine levels in the brain drop below what it has grown accustomed to as "normal" levels, the dopamine pathways open up, flooding you with cravings, or "need." Smoking satisfies this "need" and the cravings fade. This leads to number 2.
#2- "I NEED to smoke". We condition ourselves through the use of nicotine, to believe that to "feel normal" we NEED to smoke. I've heard plenty of people say things like "work is too stressful, I NEED to smoke", or "driving is too stressful, I NEED to smoke." I'm not sure how, but stress triggers cravings, as do many other things. Even locations can be triggers. I'm going to be honest. Nobody NEEDS to smoke. It is not a necessary thing, like eating breathing drinking or sleeping. You don't NEED to smoke any more than a person NEEDS to shoot heroine or smoke crack. It's conditioning. Smoking calms the dopamine pathways giving us that good satisfied feeling, and stress triggers the craving or "need" to feel good again.
#3- The physical habit of smoking. Whether you know it or not, just the act of picking up the pack and putting a cigarette in your mouth is part of the addiction. I noticed this the first time I tried to quit. I felt constantly like there was something I was forgetting to do. I always felt like my hands needed to be doing something. That's because I wasn't smoking. Holding the cigarette, ashing, twirling it; all the little fidgety things you do while smoking are part of the physical habit, and when you try to quit you aren't doing those things any more, and that can be just as big a part of people quitting quitting as #1 and #2.
Being Done
The most important thing about quitting smoking is simply the above. You need to really WANT to quit. You need to be so disgusted with smoking and what it's doing to you that you KNOW it's TIME. If you aren't at that stage, then I'm sorry, you will not succeed. "Doing it for the kids" or whatever just won't cut it. You need to do it because you are DONE with the whole affair. For me, it was the smell most of all. It was disgusting. Chain-smokers were the worst. They would walk by and I'd feel like I couldn't even breathe. Opening the car door on a hot summer day and getting hit in the face with that ashtray smell. Pulling my winter coat out of the closet and smelling how it reeked from last winter. I was just so disgusted by the smell, the mess, and the cost of smoking; not just in dollars mind you, but in how it was affecting me physically. I had a permanent dry cough. I always needed to clear my throat. Too much exertion made my chest feel like it was being squeezed tighter and tighter. I caught every cold that was going around and just generally felt crappy all the time. After 22 or so years of smoking I was finally done with it.
Making a Plan
Before you snuff out that last cigarette you need a plan. You need to prepare. I used the patch, putting one on each morning after my shower, although some cannot use them due to allergies to certain adhesives. But the plan goes beyond that. Mentally preparing is great, but there's more to do than that.
1. Get rid of ashtrays and lighters and other smoking paraphenilia. Keeping that stuff around for "when company comes over" is a thinly disguised excuse to make it easier to give up and say "at least I tried." Do or do not, there is no try. Don't give yourself an easy out.
2. Clean your car. Take the ashtray out of the dash and wash it thoroughly. Mine serves as a coin tray. I was lucky that the car I own now was never smoked in. Vaccuum the entire interior, wipe down the dashboard, wash the windows inside and out. Take it to be professionally cleaned if you want to. The main thing is to get the cigarette smell out of it as thoroughly as possible because that smell can be a strong trigger. The same goes for your home. Clothing, bedding, curtains, carpets, even the walls could use a wipe-down if you smoked in your home. Eliminate the smell as much as possible.
3. Avoid triggers. This can be tough, because there are lots of places or times or events that trigger the need to smoke that simply can't be easily avoided, if at all. Do your best to avoid the triggers. If you normally went outside after lunch at work to smoke, don't do it any more. Just being in that area can trigger cravings. Stay inside and talk to a co-worker, go for a walk, read a book. Do something that has no connection to smoking for you at all.
4. Stop thinking about smoking. This is probably the worst part, though it seems like a no-brainer. Stop thinking about it. One of the problems I had while quitting was constantly thinking about the fact that I wasn't smoking, or concentrating on it when a craving struck. That panic and fear of "OMG I can't do this, I can't feel like this forever" is what drove me back to smoking. The real fact is, the craving disappears on it's own within minutes, sometimes even seconds ... if you don't DWELL on it. Thinking about it and panicking leads to added stress which strengthens the craving, making it more and more unbearable. Constantly thinking about smoking causes cravings to hit more often. Stop thinking about it.
5. Distract yourself. I found this worked very well when cravings hit. It takes time to "retrain" yourself, but it can be done. When a craving hits, do something to distract yourself. Put your mind on something completely unrelated. Within minutes, the craving fades and you can relax. The most important thing to realize is that those feelings of stress and panic and unbearable need don't go on and on forever. It does pass, if you let it. Chewing gum, sucking on your favorite candy, or holding some small object in your hand to keep it busy can help too. Find new things to do at the times when you'd normally light up. Remove yourself from the things that normally trigger cravings.
Succeeding
Success is achieved once you realize that you can get through the day without the crutch of nicotine, and are doing it consistently without even thinking about it. There is no real formula or guaranteed plan for succeeding at quitting smoking. You just need to be DONE with it, and determined to beat it. How you go about it is up to you. Myself, I did all of the above. I picked a day to quit, which was a Monday because I figured that trying to quit over a weekend, when I have more idle time, would be a bad idea. Keeping busy so that you don't dwell on smoking is a huge part of succeeding. Make a plan, then execute that plan. Distract yourself from smoking by avoiding situations where you would normally light up. Find new things to do instead. There will come a day when you will suddenly realize... "I haven't even thought about it in a week!" Will you still get occasional cravings? Most likely. I still do, but they aren't very strong, and pass quickly.
The thing that will keep you from succeeding the most is the word 'can't.' "I can't do this." Yes you can. You just need to want to.
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