How to give up smoking.

26th May 2012

So here we go. The time to make up your mind and to commit. You've decided to give up smoking and have been putting off the start day for long enough. No more excuses, no more, "I'll stop when it's right for me", "I still enjoy smoking'' "I'm not addicted to nicotine, I can stop whenever I like."

A number of years ago, following half-hearted attempts to stop smoking in the past using various methods, I bought Allen Carr's The Only Way to Stop Smoking Permanently. I had tried patches, gum and will power only to find myself going back to smoking after relatively short periods of cessation, having lost friends and punched holes in walls through frustration.

The reason why I don't like replacement methods is primarily because these do not cure the addiction; they merely pamper to it while making lots of money for corrupt corporations which take advantage of the afflictions of those dependent on nicotine.

While replacing one addiction with another, you may indeed reduce your chance of developing cancer but the buzz caused by nicotine will still continue to affect your heart rate, and if there is a way of stopping altogether, wouldn't you rather do that?

I had stopped for the seventh time, trying once again the will-power method and felt I needed a bit of help so I bought Allen Carr's book. I recommend buying the book if only for the reason that Allen Carr uses proceeds from sales to set up very successful stop-smoking clinics around the world.

I had been nicotine-free for a few days when I started reading Allen Carr's book and was almost tempted to start smoking again. At the beginning of the book, he assumes that the reader is an active smoker and recommends you not to stop until reaching a certain chapter in the book when he tells you to stop. I am glad that I decided not to start smoking again at that point and am very grateful that I read the book.

He explains the science behind addiction in an easy-to-understand manner and encourages positive thinking as the best method to stop and stay nicotine-free.

To stop smoking, you need only to tell yourself to stop and to continuously encourage yourself through positive thinking but first you need to understand how the addiction works and will continue to plague you for the first three days. Once you have smoked and built up a dependency on nicotine, the addiction will stay with you for three days. If you start smoking again, even if it is one cigarette or a few puffs, the addiction will return and you will have to start from scratch again.

Having initially stopped, you will feel pangs for nicotine and the addiction will take every opportunity to break your will. All it needs is for a small dose of nicotine to reinforce the addiction so it is important not to give in and it is for this reason why methods like trying to cut down slowly are so ineffectual. Once you have decided to give up, you must stick to your decision and do all you can to encourage yourself in this.

You do this by reinforcing positive thoughts; you think to yourself over and over again using a mantra-like chant. Do not be put off by this. It is not religious or hippy, or Buddhist. Whenever you find yourself thinking about having a cigarette, you simply say to yourself, "I am so happy I am a non-smoker. I am so happy I am not addicted to nicotine anymore." You will be doing this a lot at first.

This is similar to the image-building method I mentioned briefly when I wrote about developing fitness goals. It is important to make sure you speak in the present, the here and now. "I am a non-smoker." Once you have decided to stop, from this point on you are now a non-smoker.

There will be times when you will feel the urge to smoke is stronger than at other times. This might be when you see other people smoking. Instead of thinking, "Those lucky people. I could really do with a cigarette now", think, "I am so lucky I don't need to smoke. Look at those poor people."

The temptation to smoke again may never be stronger than when you are out socialising especially if drink is involved. It is best to avoid such situations or at least avoid drinking alcohol during the first three weeks or so. Better still, make this an opportunity to really turn your life around and give up alcohol as well. Although the actual physical dependency on nicotine will have left your body after approximately three days, the actual psychological habit of having a cigarette between your fingers, putting it in your mouth, dragging on it and inhaling smoke into your lungs stays with you for longer. This diminishes over time and any habit avoided for three weeks is considerably weakened. After three months of successfully avoiding an old habit, you are said to be finally cured.

I succeeded before and I mean to succeed again. After 20 years of smoking, not exercising and leading a very sedentary life, I gave up smoking, took up running and weight training and after three months I was cured of asthma, I was running 10 mile charity runs and half marathons with times that put me in the top 3% for my age and the top 5% in the world overall. At the age of 40.

It can be done and really is worth it. The air smells and tastes better, you wake up with a clear head, you can walk up the stairs easily and you no longer have the aches and pains that you didn't realise were related to smoking.

Give it a go and remember; positive thinking conquers all.

I am so happy I am a non-smoker.