Muzzy's : Bringing You What I Want.: How To Quit Smoking

I have been a smoker for more than 10 years. I started really young, at the age of 15. I had forgotten how it feels like to be without a smoke in my lungs. I cough so hard, it’s seems like my lungs are going to come out from my mouth. From the way I cough, people know that I am a smoker. I had gone thru a lot of websites on how to quit smoking. Read thru paper cuttings as well. I had gone thru everything, tips and trick, the hazards of smoking so that I might be scared to continue smoking. Nope! That didn’t work. There was one time I stopped for about a month. After that I started smoking again. Not enough determination. Determination and Will Power Is The Key.

Some people say that I can stop smoking because I was not a heavy smoker. It depends though. There are people who says, smoking 1 cigarette a day is heavy. Some people say smoking 2 packs of 20 cigarettes a day is heavy. I smoke about 20 cigarettes a day. I will smoke more, if I’m stressed out. I can go for 40 cigarettes a day. I have stop smoking for 2 years now. I would like to share a few points on how I manage to stop smoking.

1) Knowing the effects of smoking and remembering it will help is the first step. What it will do to your inside? How will it affect your family and your future? Read a lot of articles on the hazards of smoking. There is lots of it on the internet. Go look at some pictures on what it can do to your lungs, your brains and other diseases that you can get when you smoke. Looking at pictures will let it stay in your mind. You will think twice when you want to smoke your next stick. If that’s not enough, there are lots of videos on youtube. Follow the links below for my favorites. I will only share 2.

2) Get an external aid. For example sweets, mints, chewing gum, nicotine patch, or nicotine chewing gum. I have used all of these except the nicotine chewing gum. When I feel like smoking I will pop a mint or a chewing gum in my mouth. It will delay the urge for a while. It will work until I ran out of chewing gum or mint. I will smoke after that somehow. Sometimes worst, I will eat mint and have a smoke as well. I knew about nicotine patch for a long time, but did not use it until 2 years back. The nicotine patch was quite expensive. It has 7 patches in one box. Each box varies in nicotine calculated in milligrams. The pharmacist will determine how many milligrams you need on how many cigarettes you smoke per day.

3) Delay yourself from smoking. As stated above, having something to chew on helps to delay the smoking. Keep yourself busy with work that does not allow you to smoke at the same time does help as well, for example washing the dishes, clean the yard, and do house chores and many more. Most offices nowadays do not allow staff from smoking in their offices. So, stay in the office and don’t go out. Try washing your hands often, when you feel like smoking, go wash your hands. Do whatever it takes to delay you from smoking.

4) Don't buy your own cigarettes. If you need to smoke, get your cigarette from other people. This will slightly help. Sometimes we have the tendency to smoke because we have a pack of cigarette ready on us. This might be caused of habit or actually having the urge to smoke. Most of the time, it’s because of habit. If we need to get a cigarette from somebody else, it will somehow slow us down because we are reluctant to ask for a cigarette from strangers or even our friends, unless they offer us the cigarette.

5) Refrain yourself from going to places where people smoke and don't hang out with people who do smoke. For the time being, stop going to public places where people smoke a lot for example open air coffee houses, mamaks, outside a shopping mall and much more. If you have to, stay inside where smoking is not allowed. Refrain from hanging out with people who do smoke. Say no to them and explain the reason why. If they are your true friends they will understand.

6) Stop doing the things that will give you the urge to smoke. Stop! Yes stop. If drinking coffee makes you want to smoke. Stop for a while, you can start drinking coffee again when you are confident that you won’t feel the urge to smoke after taking a sip.

7) Get a professional’s advice on how to stop and come out with a plan where you have to follow and have a recurring meet up with them. I had a meet up with my family doctor and had a chat with him. More of a nagging session to me. :P Got his advice. The funny thing is, I know everything he told me before I actually met him for that session. Hmmm. Yeah, right after that I went to the pharmacist and got me a nicotine patch.

8) Decide on when to stop. Keep to your decision! Had my last smoking session with a good friend of mine. I did not buy a new pack of cigarette. Finish my last cigarette with my good friend, told him that that would be my last one. I had decided to stop smoking the next day. That was my last cigarette since then.

These are some links that might interest you as well.