T
Tgirl Nikki
Guest
Five years and counting!
Five years and counting!
"It's easy to quit smoking. I've done it hundreds of times." - Mark Twain
Funny this should come up, as I just celebrated my five-year anniversary of being smoke-free (well, from tobacco anyways... ;-) ) and I was reflecting on it recently. Like most people, I made many attempts (nine, I think?) and I tried several methods - Zyban, the patch, nicotine gum, etc. - before I finally kicked my two-packs-a-day habit by going flat-out cold turkey. I'll add some of my advice to the very good suggestions above (sorry for any repetition):
- Make the decision to be a NON-SMOKER. Some people have the uncanny ability to smoke once in a while, calling themselves "social smokers" without ever becoming addicted. I'm not one of those people, and sure enough, even after quitting for months, I always came back to it gradually, always starting with my first "special occasion" smoke. You're either a smoker, or a non-smoker; for those of us who are/were nicotine addicts, there is no middle ground.
- There will ALWAYS be a special occasion. Your birthday comes every year, as does New Year's Eve, St. Paddy's Day, or the anniversary of your first sexual experience. You'll always have an excuse to indulge, and it's deciding not to indulge that allows you to finally quit for good.
- Develop a COMMITMENT RESPONSE. Remove yourself from situations where you might be tempted. Don't go drinking with the buddies if there are going to be people smoking around you. Don't go outside on your lunch break, and try to avoid the "smoker's entrance" in your building. If you're dating a smoker, this could be a serious roadblock in your attempt to quit.
- Satisfy your ORAL FIXATION in other ways. For me, the answer was regular chewing gum (Nicorette to start, but I weaned myself off it very quickly) but carrot or celery sticks work well, or if you have a sweet tooth, Twizzlers and lollipops are fantastic.
- Respond to cravings with the WAIT FIVE MINUTES approach. Recognize your craving, and don't try to repress it. Instead, let yourself feel the craving, and say, "if I can make it through the next five minutes, the craving will go away." It's a lot easier to stick to a five-minute commitment than a lifelong commitment, so if you can hold off until the craving goes away, you give yourself confidence that you can achieve your goal. And the cravings DO get rarer and rarer, as you get farther removed from your last smoke.
- BREAKING THE HABIT is the hardest part. For weeks after I quit, I would still sit down in my car, roll down the window a crack, and reach for the pack beside me... even though it wasn't there anymore. It's the "habitual cigarette" that's associated with another activity/product that is the hardest to break. The cigarette while you're drinking... after a meal... with your morning coffee... after sex... breaking the association will be the hardest part, because your cravings will be triggered by events, not just second-hand smoke or other smokers.
Which brings me to the last, most important point:
- You have to DE-CONDITION YOURSELF to no longer enjoy smoking. Your addiction to cigarettes is largely the result of Pavlovian (also called Classical) Conditioning. Nobody ever likes their first cigarette, but we condition ourselves into liking it, through a variety of stimulus/response patterns. That's why the craving and habit endures, long after our bodies no longer contain nicotine. That's why the habit is so hard to break. But the the good news is, since you conditioned yourself into being a smoker, you can also condition yourself out of it. The craving is the stimulus, and the cigarette is the response; all you need to do is alter your response pattern.
Before quitting: Craving --> Cigarette.
After quitting: Craving --> Wait five minutes.
OR: Craving --> Chew some gum/eat a twizzler.
OR: Craving --> Go for a walk.
OR: Craving --> some other positive substitute for a cigarette.
You can also minimize the cravings by avoiding other stimuli that are often paired with smoking, such as social settings involving drinking, or avoiding other smokers during the first few weeks or months after you quit. But even in the absence of paired stimuli such as booze or coffee or other smokers, you'll still have those cravings at the most undesirable times. That's why developing a new response pattern is critical to success.
Anyways, I've said way more than my $0.02, so I'll wish your friend the best of luck! It definitely can be done, with the right attitude, and the right approach, and hopefully your friend will have a better chance of success with all the great advice in this thread. :great:
Five years and counting!
"It's easy to quit smoking. I've done it hundreds of times." - Mark Twain
Funny this should come up, as I just celebrated my five-year anniversary of being smoke-free (well, from tobacco anyways... ;-) ) and I was reflecting on it recently. Like most people, I made many attempts (nine, I think?) and I tried several methods - Zyban, the patch, nicotine gum, etc. - before I finally kicked my two-packs-a-day habit by going flat-out cold turkey. I'll add some of my advice to the very good suggestions above (sorry for any repetition):
- Make the decision to be a NON-SMOKER. Some people have the uncanny ability to smoke once in a while, calling themselves "social smokers" without ever becoming addicted. I'm not one of those people, and sure enough, even after quitting for months, I always came back to it gradually, always starting with my first "special occasion" smoke. You're either a smoker, or a non-smoker; for those of us who are/were nicotine addicts, there is no middle ground.
- There will ALWAYS be a special occasion. Your birthday comes every year, as does New Year's Eve, St. Paddy's Day, or the anniversary of your first sexual experience. You'll always have an excuse to indulge, and it's deciding not to indulge that allows you to finally quit for good.
- Develop a COMMITMENT RESPONSE. Remove yourself from situations where you might be tempted. Don't go drinking with the buddies if there are going to be people smoking around you. Don't go outside on your lunch break, and try to avoid the "smoker's entrance" in your building. If you're dating a smoker, this could be a serious roadblock in your attempt to quit.
- Satisfy your ORAL FIXATION in other ways. For me, the answer was regular chewing gum (Nicorette to start, but I weaned myself off it very quickly) but carrot or celery sticks work well, or if you have a sweet tooth, Twizzlers and lollipops are fantastic.
- Respond to cravings with the WAIT FIVE MINUTES approach. Recognize your craving, and don't try to repress it. Instead, let yourself feel the craving, and say, "if I can make it through the next five minutes, the craving will go away." It's a lot easier to stick to a five-minute commitment than a lifelong commitment, so if you can hold off until the craving goes away, you give yourself confidence that you can achieve your goal. And the cravings DO get rarer and rarer, as you get farther removed from your last smoke.
- BREAKING THE HABIT is the hardest part. For weeks after I quit, I would still sit down in my car, roll down the window a crack, and reach for the pack beside me... even though it wasn't there anymore. It's the "habitual cigarette" that's associated with another activity/product that is the hardest to break. The cigarette while you're drinking... after a meal... with your morning coffee... after sex... breaking the association will be the hardest part, because your cravings will be triggered by events, not just second-hand smoke or other smokers.
Which brings me to the last, most important point:
- You have to DE-CONDITION YOURSELF to no longer enjoy smoking. Your addiction to cigarettes is largely the result of Pavlovian (also called Classical) Conditioning. Nobody ever likes their first cigarette, but we condition ourselves into liking it, through a variety of stimulus/response patterns. That's why the craving and habit endures, long after our bodies no longer contain nicotine. That's why the habit is so hard to break. But the the good news is, since you conditioned yourself into being a smoker, you can also condition yourself out of it. The craving is the stimulus, and the cigarette is the response; all you need to do is alter your response pattern.
Before quitting: Craving --> Cigarette.
After quitting: Craving --> Wait five minutes.
OR: Craving --> Chew some gum/eat a twizzler.
OR: Craving --> Go for a walk.
OR: Craving --> some other positive substitute for a cigarette.
You can also minimize the cravings by avoiding other stimuli that are often paired with smoking, such as social settings involving drinking, or avoiding other smokers during the first few weeks or months after you quit. But even in the absence of paired stimuli such as booze or coffee or other smokers, you'll still have those cravings at the most undesirable times. That's why developing a new response pattern is critical to success.
Anyways, I've said way more than my $0.02, so I'll wish your friend the best of luck! It definitely can be done, with the right attitude, and the right approach, and hopefully your friend will have a better chance of success with all the great advice in this thread. :great:
That habit definitely a lot healthier than smoking
