About Dick Richardson Expertise Happy to answer questions about how to quit smoking. Before submitting a question it would be helpful to know whether you are male or female, your age, how long you have been smoking, your occupation and how many packs a day you smoke.
Experience I gave up smoking cigarettes, two packs a day for 23 years, on May 17, 1978. Since giving up smoking I have not had one cigarette or desired to have a cigarette.
Florence Mackay wrote at 2007-09-07 22:38:40
Many people cannot bear the thought of stopping smoking because they focus on the withdrawal symptoms they may experience from being deprived of nicotine. It may be that you experience horrible cravings, bad temper or extreme anxiety. To break a habit like smoking according to the psychologist Skinner, it is essential that you focus on the rewards of quitting. These may include having energy, sleeping well, getting your health back or having fresh breath. This best way to do this is write down in a journal the reasons why you smoke or what you would like to get from smoking. Then write down what the reality is and the damage cigarettes are causing to your health. You can create a negative association with smoking by using an aversion technique to imagine yourself 10 years or 20 years from now smoking even more and visualise the damage that you have inflicted to your body and mind. The more vivid the picture the more you will be motivated to stop. However, if you choose to quit, you imagine yourself feeling so grateful that you have been given another chance to live healthily, you see how happy your family are, you experience a sense of freedom and you hear friends telling you how great you look.
It is also essential to note in witting what drives you to smoke. Make two columns; one called triggers/associations to smoke and the other new behaviours to replace each one of these triggers.
Triggers/Associations:
The times of the day when you smoke, the emotions that give you the urge to smoke or situations/activities where you feel you need to smoke.
New Behaviours:
Replace a cigarette first thing in the morning with juice.
Hold a talisman in your hand when on the phone.
Have fruit in the car instead of a smoke.
Practise your favourite sport to relax.
Then you need to take action or nothing will change. Practice your new behaviours so that they become natural and smoking becomes unnatural. This will begin to change your perception to smoking and maintain your healthy new behaviours for the long-term.
You may try meditation, relaxation techniques, self-hypnosis or other forms of alternative therapies to help you to stay on track.
Just make the decision to stop and then take the first step towards quitting by setting a date. I wish you the best of luck.
Florence Mackay, Coach
