It is customary across large areas of the world to wish ones fellow countrymen a happy and prosperous new year. It is also customary for individuals to look inwardly at themselves at this time of year and resolve to make improvements. Indeed, Gymnasiums see their biggest increase in membership during January each year and tobacconists the biggest decrease in customers. However, how many of us have made New Year’s resolutions in the past and actually followed them through? How many of us can even remember last year’s resolution. I can.
Several years ago I resolved to give up smoking. Oh my god, alarm bells sound, you are thinking herein follows a lecture from the worst non-smoker of them all, a reformed one. Not at all, read on. I really enjoyed smoking and found it very easy to do. In fact I don’t care if you or your friends smoke and if they do it around me, it bothers me not. I loved it. It was relaxing and if I hadn’t had a cigarette for quite a while, like overnight, it used to make me happy and more than a little dizzy, in a nice way, the next morning. In fact I enjoyed it that much I smoked off and on for 20 years. What happened to change this was that it started to catch up on me. I never wheezed or coughed despite smoking between 10 and 20 a day. I kept up with the non smokers in sports and could run the socks off most of them, but about 18 months ago I started to feel rough and my performance dropped off. I noticed how it was becoming a bit harder occasionally to get my breath and how I was starting to fall behind the pack when out cycling. I was starting to clog up.
It was at this point I began to realise that smoking was my friend, but it was also not the sort of friend that was going to easily disappear when I no longer wanted to be friends. More than a few attempts at giving up followed, all ending in failure. I used patches, hypnotherapy, cold turkey, you name it I tried it. I was too embarrassed to admit that not only was smoking an enjoyable part of my life I was actually addicted in a pretty big way. In fact of everyone I knew who was giving up, or had given up, I was the worst at it. Nonetheless, I managed to give up and the purpose of this article is not to lecture you but share with you a the few things that got me through in the hope that they can help you, or your family, or your friends if they are trying to quit smoking this year.
The first thing I did was to read as much material as possible on smoking and quitting. Not just all the usual scare stuff about what cigarettes contain and how it all affects you but useful stuff; Other peoples stories and tips, what measures to take to reduce the craving, benefits of quitting, how long it was going to take before I stopped feeling like gnawing my arm off with craving, would I kill my wife or a friend before the anger faded. You know important stuff like that. This free e-book is particularly good http://whyquit.com/NTAP_large_print_212_pages.pdf as is the information from this link http://quitsmoking.about.com From all this mass of information, much of it written by people who have clearly never smoked in their life a few useable strategies shone out. Here they are for you:
a. You Can Have Anything You Like But You Can’t Have A Cigarette. This strategy was my favourite. I told the little devil inside me who wanted to have a cigarette that he could have absolutely anything he wanted but he could not have a cigarette. Ten thirty at night and the little devil wants a Big Mac Meal followed by a single Big Mac, no problem, but no cigarettes. Five pints of lager for afternoon tea on a Sunday, no problem but he cannot have a cigarette. This strategy is brilliant because it helps stop the craving by changing the focus and doesn’t make you feel like a puritan.
b. All The Smoking Triggers Need Switching Back To Zero. We humans are creatures of routine. If you are a smoker there are many things in your day to day life that automatically trigger the response to smoke. A cup of coffee and a cigarette, a cigarette after lunch, a cigarette after a meeting, a crisis, oh my goodness better have a cigarette while I think about it. If you imagine that all these triggers are set to smoke then you need to set them all back to zero. For instance, after the first few times you have lunch and do something else other than smoke then this activity will have been reset to zero not to smoke. The secret is to set all the automatic triggers in your life back to zero. This takes some time but it works.
c. Join An Online Quitting Forum. I am not sure if I was too embarrassed or simply couldn’t be bothered with a quitting group but an online group or forum has lots of members, is not led by someone you don’t like, is totally anonymous and you can be on it 24 hours a day including, if I dare say so, at work. There is nothing like sharing the pain with others and I know this sounds sadistic but I found real strength from knowing others were suffering more than me..!! This particular link requires you to register but is free, simple, anonymous and very good http://quitsmoking.about.com/mpboards.htm
Armed with a whole load of information and a strategy I took the plunge. This is probably not good medical advice but in the run up to quitting I made sure that I was totally and utterly sick to death of smoking by the time New Year’s Day arrived. I smoked like crazy over Christmas and New Year. I must have stunk like a kipper house. I felt dreadful. Some days I actually had a nicotine headache from smoking too much. The usual New Year’s Day hangover helped me through the first couple of days. I never could smoke with a massive hangover. After this I was on my own and whilst it was painful at times it wasn’t as bad as any other method I have tried and now weeks go by without thinking about smoking at all….but beware there are the odd times when ……….I have to go home early to avoid temptation ……or buy the little devil inside a Big Mac Meal.
I hope it works for you.