Practical Tips From a Former Smoker That Can Help You Quit For Good
This article offers real-world survival tactics. You'll discover the specific habit-replacement loops and mental reframing techniques that actually bridge the gap between trying to quit and becoming a permanent non-smoker.
Most smokers who’ve been doing it long enough know the feeling. The difficult, unshakeable thought that you need that cigarette. For some, it might be because they’re desperate for that feeling of relief, while for others, it’s become a permanent fixture of their routine, normalised to the point that it’s subconscious.
Once you realise you’re dependent on cigarettes, it can feel like you’ve crossed a point of no return – like there’s no going back. Or you kid yourself, saying you’ll ‘cut down’. Few who say this ever do so permanently.
But just think about this: everyone who’s ever quit smoking starts off exactly where you are now, until one day, they made a simple decision: no more. As one of those people, I want to tell you about the things that made the biggest difference in my quitting journey.
Shake the Routine
The hardest thing for me was the feeling that something was missing from my morning coffee in the morning, at my 10.30 break, and during lunch. There was a tension that built, knowing what I was missing. I overcame this by restructuring my routine so that it no longer revolved around smoking cigarettes.
Sure, I couldn’t change my working hours, but I replaced the cigarette breaks with coffee runs, and shifted the focus of my lunch break to be more social, by bringing in a pack of playing cards and playing games with co-workers instead. In the evenings, I kept my mind and body busy at the gym and cooking good meals, rather than going out for drinks with friends. These changes might seem superficial at first glance, but they distracted me from my burning need for a cigarette during the early stages of my quitting journey, when cravings are most severe.
Nicotine Replacement Therapies
Speaking of cravings, nicotine replacement therapies help reduce withdrawal symptoms by giving you a controlled dose of the nicotine that your brain is sorely missing, without the negative effects of inhaling over 7000 harmful chemical substances. I used Killa Nicopods by NicoCharge, but other options include nicotine patches, gum, and inhalers. Find what works for you and use it to fight cravings.
Manage Your Stress Levels
Stress is one of the most common causes for relapses, as we associate smoking with a sense of relief that quells feelings of hypersensitivity. So if you can monitor your own stress levels and find other ways to keep yourself calm, it might prevent a relapse.
The most effective stress-management techniques for me were exercise – weight lifting, specifically, and playing games with friends on my PC. Physical activity is great because it can give you the perfect combination of a meditative flow state, which completely takes your mind off smoking, and endorphins that make you feel happy and satisfied. Video games, for me, were a fun distraction that immersed me in an experience so effectively that the thought of smoking didn’t even occur to me.
Final Thoughts
Quitting smoking is possible for you; millions of others have done it, and you can be the next. It likely won’t be a perfect journey, so prepare yourself for cravings and the possibility of setbacks. But in the end, you’re making a choice that’ll put your hands back on the steering wheel and give you more years on this planet.