Quit Smoking for Good!
Facts about smoking:
- More than 3000 people under the age of 18 become smokers each day.
- Smoking is the single most preventable cause of death and disease, causing more deaths than cocaine, heroin, auto accidents, AIDS, alcohol, fire murder and suicide combined.
You want to quit:
The smell of cigarette smoke has permeated your house, your hair, and even your children smell like cigarettes. You want to quit, but how can you do it? You look forward to that cigarette after a long grueling day at work; you "need" that cigarette so that you can relax enough to start cooking dinner for your family. You know it's time to quit, but you've quit before, right?
You decide to quit:
Quitting smoking will probably be one of the most difficult things you will ever do. There are many tools available to help; nicotine gum, the nicotine patch, and hypnosis are a few. It may be helpful to seek the advice of your doctor.
Before you will be able to quit, you have to want to quit; not because you should, but because you genuinely want to. It won't be easy; nicotine is a legalized drug believed to be more addictive than marijuana, cocaine and heroin.
How I quit:
After many failed attempts, I tried once again to quit. My method of choice was group hypnosis, and the cost for the program was less than the price of a carton of cigarettes. Despite the hypnosis I needed help in the following weeks, and I'll share some of the things that helped me.
I'm you are a coffee drinker so I switched to decaf. Don't do it all at once or you'll have caffeine withdrawal headaches, but gradually add decaf to your coffee when you brew it, a little each day until you have eliminated the caffeine. You can ask for 1/2 regular and 1/2 decaf if you buy your coffee at a coffee shop.
I drank lots of water.
I would think about how my black my lungs must be and then I would picture them looking nice and pink, as I was told they would look ten years after I quit.
I cut a straw so that it was about the size of a cigarette. I would hold it between my fingers in the car when I was driving and when I talked on the phone and kept one in my pocket too, so that I could hold it and no one would see it.
If I found myself wanting a cigarette, I would pick up a newspaper or magazine, turn on the TV, or find some other distraction. The longer I went without a cigarette, the easier this would become.
Within 3 weeks my smoker's cough was gone. Around that same time the physical addiction was gone and I had to deal with the psychological addiction.
When I was a smoker I would catch a cold at least every other month. Now I hardly ever get a cold and when I do, it lasts only a few days.
There are times that I still think about having a cigarette, but only for a second or two. The craving is gone.
After you quit:
Don't take a drag on a cigarette EVER; not even 10 years from now. If you do you will end up smoking again. If you do slide backwards and have a cigarette, don't think of yourself as a failure. Make up your mind that you will lick this addiction. And although it may be the most difficult thing you've ever had to do, you can do this. You WILL do this.
-Catherine (smoke free 11+ years)
Girls, get going!
