How to Quit Smoking

Your personal stop smoking plan

While some smokers successfully quit by going cold turkey, most people do better with a plan to keep themselves on track. A good plan addresses both the short–term challenge of quitting smoking and the long–term challenge of preventing relapse. It should also be tailored to your specific needs and smoking habits.

Questions to ask yourself

Take the time to think of what kind of smoker you are, which moments of your life call for a cigarette, and why. This will help you to identify which tips, techniques or therapies may be most beneficial for you.

• Do you feel the need to smoke at every meal?
• Are you more of a social smoker?
• Is it a very bad addiction (more than a pack a day)? Or would a simple nicotine patch do the job?
• Do you reach for cigarettes when you're feeling stressed or down?
• Are there certain activities, places, or people you associate with smoking?
• Is your cigarette smoking linked to other addictions, such as alcohol or gambling?
• Are you open to hypnotherapy and/or acupuncture?
• Are you someone who is open to talking about your addiction with a therapist or counselor?
• Are you interested in getting into a fitness program?

Start your stop smoking plan with START

S = Set a quit date.
Choose a date within the next 2 weeks, so you have enough time to prepare without losing your motivation to quit. If you mainly smoke at work, quit on the weekend, so you have a few days to adjust to the change.
T = Tell family, friends, and co-workers that you plan to quit.
Let your friends and family in on your plan to quit smoking and tell them you need their support and encouragement to stop. Look for a quit buddy who wants to stop smoking as well. You can help each other get through the rough times.
A = Anticipate and plan for the challenges you'll face while quitting.
Most people who begin smoking again do so within the first 3 months. You can help yourself make it through by preparing ahead for common challenges, such as nicotine withdrawal and cigarette cravings.
R = Remove cigarettes and other tobacco products from your home, car, and work.Throw away all of your cigarettes (no emergency pack!), lighters, ashtrays, and matches. Wash your clothes and freshen up anything that smells like smoke. Shampoo your car, clean your drapes and carpet, and steam your furniture.
T = Talk to your doctor about getting help to quit.
Your doctor can prescribe medication to help with withdrawal and suggest other alternatives. If you can't see a doctor, you can get many products over the counter at your local pharmacy or grocery store, including the nicotine patch, nicotine lozenges, and nicotine gum.

Why Is Smoking Bad For You?

“Smoking is injurious to health” is a common quote found almost everywhere and known by everyone. But the question arises that how many people actually obey the quote and act accordingly. It is quoted that "A cigarette is a pipe with a fire at one end and a fool at the other".

Knowing the injurious effects of smoking, don’t be the fool to try it. Cigarette smoking is addictive and harmful. In a single cigarette, there 4000 chemicals which are highly poisonous and few are carcinogenic (cancer-causing).

Cigarette contains nicotine, an extremely addictive stimulant that causes psychological and physical dependency. Cigarette smoking has been linked to 11 types of cancers, including cancer of the kidney, bladder, pancreas, mouth, esophagus etc. Recent study suggests that smokers are 26 times more prone to die of lung cancer than non-smokers.Smoking reduces high-density lipoprotein (HDL) or “good” cholesterol, increases blood clotting and blood pressure, and significantly decreases the amount of oxygen that reaches the heart. The two most hazardous health effects of smoking are emphysema and lung cancer. Emphysema is a chronic disease which destroys parts of the lungs and results in asthma-like attacks, hyperventilation, and shortness of breath. Lung cancer is the No.1 cause of cancer deaths for men and women, worldwide. Other serious side effects of smoking are back pain, peptic ulcers, high risk of stroke, reduced fertility, cataracts, coronary thrombosis, kidney failure, gangrene etc.

How many heavy smokers do you know that can cut their intake in half and maintain that reduction?  Or, who don’t inhale more deeply when they decrease the number of cigarettes they smoke? Or who don’t cover up the holes in the filter when they try to reduce their consumption?   I suspect the answer is: not many.  Smokers know too many tricks that make it look like they are cutting back, but in fact still enable them to inhale almost the same amount of nicotine into their lungs and their bodies that they received when they were smoking a larger number of cigarettes.

So what we have here is an unrealistic expectation that some may use to justify continued smoking. 

We need to be direct and accurate in our message: smoking is bad for your health.  Reducing your cigarette consumption is not going to be the answer for any particular individual.  The difficult fact is that if you are a smoker, you need to stop, and if you are a non-smoker, don’t start.  And, if you work in or patronize an establishment where smoking is allowed, you need to know you are placing yourself at risk.

If you are a smoker, I would take no comfort in the results of these research reports.  The message today is the same as it has been for many years:  there is no such thing as a “safe level “of exposure to cigarette smoke.

We need to heed that message, and make certain that our smoking friends and the politicians understand it as well.