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How to Quit Smoking
Patient Education Handout associated with UMHS Clinical Care Guideline
This information is not a tool for self-diagnosis or a substitute for medical treatment. You should speak to your physician or make an appointment to be seen if you have questions or concerns about this information or your medical condition.
How will my health improve by becoming a non-smoker?
Quitting smoking helps your circulation, your stamina, your skin, and your general health. Your risk for coronary heart disease, the most common cause of death in the U.S., is cut in half after only a year without smoking. Quitting smoking also reduces the likelihood of having breathing problems and lung and other cancers. Studies have shown that smoking affects others as well as yourself. Children of parents who smoke around the house are more likely to get respiratory infections than children from nonsmoking homes. Smoking is an addictive habit. Quitting smoking isn't easy but it can be done. Most former smokers make several attempts to quit before they are finally successful. So, never say, "I can't." Just keep trying!
What are the first steps to becoming a non-smoker?
Set a quit date. Setting a quit date is one of the most important steps in being successful with your quit plan. Pick a date when you will stop smoking as soon as possible and mark it on your calendar Don't buy cigarettes to carry you beyond your last day. Throw away all your lighters, ashtrays and cigarettes. If you keep cigarettes around, sooner or later you'll break down and smoke one, then another, then another, and so on. Throw them away. Make it less easy to start again. Tell your family and friends you plan to quit, and ask for their support and encouragement. Ask them not to offer you cigarettes.
What can I expect when I do stop smoking?
The first 10 days you may feel tired, irritable, and develop headaches or a cough. You may also have problems concentrating as your body goes through nicotine withdrawal. These symptoms usually only last one to two weeks.
How can I alleviate withdrawal symptoms?
To help alleviate withdrawal symptoms, drink plenty of water and eat at least three meals per day, exercise, avoid alcohol and get plenty of rest as nicotine goes out of your system. Try chewing gum, pretzel sticks, raw fruit or raw vegetables as a substitute for cigarettes. Take deep breaths, keep busy and reward yourself for not smoking. These techniques will help you handle cravings to smoke.
What else can I do?
Spend time with nonsmokers rather than with smokers. Think of yourself and identify yourself as a nonsmoker (for example, in restaurants). Stay away from "smoker's havens," such as bars. Avoid spending time with smokers, at least for the first few weeks of quitting. You can't tell others not to smoke, but you don't have to sit with them while they do. Old habits die hard and one of your old smoking buddies is sure to offer you a cigarette. Plan on walking away from cigarette smoke.
Keep your hands busy. You may find you don't know what to do with your hands for a while. Pick up a book or a magazine. Try knitting, drawing, making a plastic model, or doing a jigsaw puzzle. Join special interest groups that keep you involved in your hobby.
Take on new activities. Take on new activities that don't include smoking. Join an exercise group and work out regularly. Sign up for an evening class or join a study group at your church. Go on more outings with your family or friends.
Consider using nicotine gum, patches, spray or other pharmacologic therapies. Nicotine is the drug that is in tobacco. You can use nicotine patches or gum, available without a prescription at your local pharmacy, to quit smoking. It is a two-step process. First you learn to live without smoking, but not without nicotine. On your quit day, you discontinue smoking and start using the patches or gum. Continue using the patches or gum to gradually wean yourself off the nicotine, which usually takes about 6 - 8 weeks.
Zyban, a prescription medication, can also be used to help you quit smoking. Zyban should be started about 7 - 10 days before your quit date. Ask your primary care physician about using this form of medication.
Join a quit-smoking program. You may prefer to be involved in an organized quit-smoking program while you are using the patches, gum or Zyban. Neither the patches nor the gum nor Zyban is a miracle cure. You still need to learn to live without cigarettes in your daily life. Your personal decision to quit smoking combined with learning the skills to be smoke-free can help you be successful. Some people do better in a formal class with a set of instructions to follow. Group support is another reason to consider a formal quit smoking program. Others quitting at the same time provide support and encouragement for each other. Remember, the aim is to quit smoking. It doesn't matter how you do it. Quit smoking programs that are available include:
How can I prevent a relapse?
If you are unable to resist the urge and give in to the temptation to smoke, follow these guidelines to keep this slip from turning into a relapse. Do not finish the cigarette. Put the cigarette out before you finish and throw the pack away. Keeping the pack means you are giving yourself permission to smoke again. Understand that a slip is different from a relapse. A slip is an error or mistake that anyone can make. The best strategy is to contain the damage and get on with your larger goals. Learn from the slip. Review the incident to decide what you can do differently should the same thing happen again. Realize that negative feelings you may have about the incident will pass if you let them. With a little self-awareness you can refocus and back on track. Have fun with the money you'll save by not smoking. Make a list of things you'd like to buy for yourself or someone lese. Estimate the cost in terms of packs of cigarettes and put the money aside to buy these presents.
How to Stop Smoking!!
As you read this, you are probably filled with anxiety with the very thought of being without that reassuring packet of cigarettes in your bag or pocket! You might have been smoking for years. Maybe this is the first time you are seriously considering "giving up" or perhaps you have done so before and failed. Whatever the case may be - don't be discouraged, you are one of millions!
In my opinion, not enough recognition is given to the fact that nicotine dependency is a serious addiction! Many people see cigarette smoking as a "Bad Habit" and feel that smokers should be able to "just stop"! Although there are many gums, sprays and patches available to help the person gradually wean him/herself off the cigarettes, most smokers are expected to "go it alone", be crabby for a few weeks and then be fine! If they fail, the insinuation is that they are weak, indulgent, inconsiderate, etc. The medical and moral support and understanding given to other substance abusers (e.g. alcoholics, crack addicts, etc) is usually not forthcoming for those who are struggling to overcome nicotine dependency.
Hopefully, this article will fill that gap a little. Nothing will make it easy, but, if you are serious about giving up and follow the advice given here, you will find that you stand a better chance of being successful.
1.Think about why you want to give up.
Like all addictions, YOU are the one that must want to quit. If you are quitting because someone else wants you to or is pressurizing you to, your chances of success are greatly diminished. YOU must want to do it, for reasons that are YOURS.
2.Choose your "G.U.S" (Giving Up Smoking) day.
Select a day, not more than a month or less than a week away and decide that this will be the day that you will stop. Tell everybody around you about it to make it more difficult to back down! The day before, SMOKE AS MUCH AS YOU CAN! You need to get that feeling of "Yeugh - I've smoked too much!" to help you get started. At the end of the day, THROW AWAY all remaining cigarettes. Sometimes it is useful to have a little ceremony where you burn or bury your last cigarettes and say "Good Bye" to smoking. It has been your friend as well as your enemy!
3.Ask your friends and family for help. Tell them that you will probably be crabby and unpleasant, but that this will pass and you really need their support.
4. Get a nicotine substitute to help you to control the withdrawal symptoms. People have different preferences, but many find the sprays or the chewing gums more helpful, because they work by taking something into the mouth and give you something to "do" when you crave a cigarette. These aids can be expensive, but compare the price with what you would spend on cigarettes and it's a bargain!
5. Spend some money on replacing smoking with exercise. The mistake many people make is to try and take smoking away from themselves and to put nothing in its place. The result is either failure, or a replacement "addiction" like overeating. Spending money on the exercise has the psychological benefit of convincing you that you have spent your "smoking money" already! Another benefit is to your health and to your feelings of being in control and it really does help with the withdrawal symptoms! So - join a gym, take up a sport, start up jogging or aerobics, buy a home exercise machine - whatever works best for you. Don't try and leave out this step, even if you are not an exercise person. In my opinion, it is THE most important help you can give yourself! If you feel you are going crazy, get up and go to the gym, for a walk, for a run - anything except have a cigarette!
6. Join a Support Group, if you can. You can either join a formal support group of people who are giving up smoking, or start your own. It makes use of the peer counseling and support principle used in many programs like A.A.
7. Understand the withdrawal symptoms! Some of these include a craving for cigarettes (of course!), lack of concentration, impatience, irritability, tearfulness, insomnia, dry mouth or excessive saliva. They are physiological withdrawal symptoms and are your body's attempts to make you go and get a cigarette. (just like hunger!) They will last for up to a month and then begin to fade day by day. After that, you will still crave cigarettes for anything up to five years or longer (yes, its true!), but the cravings will be more psychological in origin. So if you have tended to smoke when you are bored, anxious, concentrating, angry, etc., this is when the thought of a cigarette will pop into your mind. But it will not be as severe a craving as when you are still undergoing physiological withdrawal and will decrease with time.
8. Regard yourself as a Non-Smoker. Sit in non-smoking sections of public places. If you are offered a cigarette, say "No thanks - I don't smoke". If you do "slip up" and have a cigarette, don't say "Oh No, I failed - I'm a smoker again". Tell yourself "One cigarette doesn't make a smoker - I am a Non-Smoker, who had ONE cigarette and I am not going to have another one!"
9. If you are tempted to start smoking again, sit down with a pen and paper. List all the benefits of not smoking and all the disadvantages of smoking. And think about the fact that every time you stop smoking and then start again, you are making it more difficult for yourself next time around. Decide to go for a walk first and then ask yourself if you really want to do this to yourself! Hopefully the answer will be No!
10. Reward Yourself! Make a note of the day of the month that you give up and CELEBRATE IT! Celebrate a weekly anniversary for the first month, then a monthly anniversary for the next year. After that, celebrate the day you gave up smoking EVERY year. Believe it or not, a large number of smokers start again after one or two years. Just when you begin to relax and think you are over the addiction, it sneaks up on you!
So there you have it! The rest is up to you! Good Luck! (You can use these techniques for any addiction, even gambling, sex or internet addiction).
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