LET’S STOP RIGHT NOW!
The first thing to do is set a date when you are going
to quit smoking. Let’s start one week from today. That will give you plenty of
time to practice with the weapons in your arsenal. Eight days from today, it
will be the beginning of the end of your smoking habit.
Days 1 and 2
Examine your smoking behavior for the first
two days. Every time you light up, ask yourself:
1. Why am I smoking this cigarette?
2. Would this be an easy one or a difficult
one to do without?
1.
If I did not smoke
this cigarette, what would I do instead?
Day 3
Let’s get out and test your weapons today.
At least once today, use your weapons to
shoot down the urge to smoke.
During the five minutes that it will take
for the urge to pass, try out some of your arsenal. Try one, or all, or find a
combination that works for you.
Day 4
Today is the big testing day. If you
haven’t already tried it, skip those one or two cigarettes that you feel may be
the toughest to give up in your daily routine. Pick the ones that you rated
“difficult” during your monitoring period.
Remember, this is a practice period, and
you must not get upset if you are unable to give up a difficult cigarette. You
must practice and experiment with your different weapons to realize how you can
be more effective.
If you found skipping that cigarette very
difficult or even failed in the end, review any factor that got in the way of
your success. The most common causes of
difficulty or failure that a potential quitter faces are:
Chemical properties of addiction
When you do not have that cigarette, you feel
lousy. If you are a heavy smoker, a nicotine patch may help to relieve your bad
feelings.
Social pressures
You may find yourself in a situation (card
game, party, coffee break) during which you would normally smoke. It may help
to let others know of your desire to quit, and also your reasons for quitting.
Enlisting the aid of a non smoker to confide in may also help. Make sure that
he or she is aware of your goals so that they do not say or do anything to
instill a negative impact on your desire to quit.
If you feel that you may not resist the
social pressures of smoking, consider the option of giving up these social
encounters for two or three weeks until the urge passes and you can be
comfortable again.
Tension and negative emotion
Tension and negative emotion
A crisis occurs during your work or
personal day, and one of the main reasons for you to smoke has been tension
reduction. Try to deal with your negative emotions and use the tension reducing
methods that we talked about earlier. Get away from the area that the tension
is associated with. Take a walk, or go to another room. You may also find that
nicotine gum will give you enough tension relief to get through.
Days 5, 6, and 7.
You are now heading down the home stretch.
In the next three days, your goal is to come out of this week smoking half the
cigarettes that you would normally smoke. If you started as a one pack a day
smoker, cut back to ten cigarettes per day, or less. The fewer the
better. During days 5 and 6, set your goals toward achieving positive
results on day 7. Maintain your smoking record during these three days, and
continue to decrease your dependency on nicotine.
What do you do if you still have doubts?
This is probably due to your chemical dependency on nicotine. It is a highly
powerful drug, and many factors have been working together to make you
dependent. Discuss with your doctor about the feasibility of a patch or
nicotine gum. Nicotine is the hook that has gotten you to smoke which carries
the harmful effects to your body. With the help from the patch or the gum, you
will have all he tools you need to successfully quit. The patch or gum will
give you a steady influx of nicotine into your system, which will be reduced
slowly over a period of several weeks. DO NOT SMOKE WHILE ON THE PATCH. You
could experience a dangerous overdose of nicotine.
NOTE; Pregnant women should not use the gum
or patch. Smokers with any form of heart disease should consult with a
physician before using.
