How To Quit Smoking

Quitting Smoking is easy; I have done it hundreds if times. Yes, that was an attempt at humor. The fact of the matter is that it is tough to quit smoking, and you have to be tougher. Do you have it in you? Do you really want to eliminate the odors of being a smoker (breath, hair, clothes, car), the sick feelings and headaches, the breathlessness, the colds, the cancers, and the stigma? Would you like the freedom of relaxing on a cold winter day without having to go out and shiver through another cigarette? If so, read on. If you are a weak, sniveling little pansy who has no control over their own destiny, you may go back to your solitaire game now.

I was born addicted to nicotine thanks to the wonders of second-hand smoke, and started smoking my own cigarettes as a teenager. I have also been hooked on chewing tobacco and cigars. Currently, I can go days and weeks without hardly a thought of tobacco. Other days, it is a little more difficult. However, it is possible to walk away from tobacco forever. The choice is yours, but the choice will have to be made many times.

The first time I quit smoking was for the three months of Marine Corps boot camp. I had dreams about just smoking: the lighting, the drag, the flick, watching the stick burn down, etc. I could smell a cigarette from 300 yards away. All the smokers would gather and fantasize aloud about smoking cigarettes while playing pool, watching TV, driving, after sex, after a run, first smoke in the morning...we tortured ourselves. This is the worst method of quitting smoking. I had lit a cigarette within an hour of graduation. Because I had not chosen to quit, and did not have the freedom of resuming my habit, I could not build up the inner muscle that allows you to stay quit.

The second time I quit smoking was for a pile of reasons. I had begun going to church, I perceived that attractive women would not want to date a smoker, and I wondered if my Marine Corps runs would be faster and less painful without tar in my lungs. I switched to Skoal exclusively (which I already chewed when I was in the field, since smoking can be seen and smelled by the enemy) figuring it would be easier for me to quit chewing than smoking. I was way off on that one. I found I could hide my chew habit easier and satisfy nicotine cravings in class, in movies, on planes--everywhere that cigarettes were not allowed. I switched to a stronger chew: Copenhagen.

Eventually, those religious reasons caused me to work up enough will to quit Copenhagen, cold turkey. When you remove a habit, you have to replace it. I did so with exercise, prayer, and study. For several years, I was nicotine free - through good times and bad. However, when my need for religion died out, and my stress built up, I did what many of the happy people around me were doing: I smoked. I did not find myself happier; rather, I was probably less happy. But the siren song of nicotine is difficult to resist when you are already frolicking in weakness, stress, and unhealthy lifestyles.

I quit again on New years Eve, 1999. I planned on spending the 2000's without the nicotine anchor around my neck. Also, I did not want my newborn daughter to be influenced by my bad example. This time, I chewed Nicorette. It got me through the first month of rough patches, and soon enough I felt I didn't need it anymore. I spit out a piece in my mouth and stayed smoke free for over a year.

When I quit drinking and was attending 100 AA meetings, all of which were smokier than any bar I had ever been in, I started smoking again. I quit smoking exactly one year later, this time for health reasons in addition to reasons for my kids. I switched to a cigar every day or two, and eventually down to a cigar a week, or so.

I then went through a difficult week and was offered a new brand of chew to help me out. That hooked me on chew for about a year. Again I quit using Nicorette, this time for the reasons of my kids and my own health. Within a month or so, I decided I did not need that crutch anymore. I now chew an occasional cigar, and I have desires for nicotine when I am stressed, but I am finding that I can manage the stress to make the cravings go away.

Did you see my pattern? I found a reason to quit, found a method to quit, and then stress caused me to return to a filthy habit. Have you had the same problem? Or are you having a problem of getting to being tobacco free for more than a month?

Here is how to get over the addiction and accumulate a month or two without tobacco. First, find some great reasons. Religion is not good enough. Your own mortality, the mortality and morality of your kids, a marathon goal, and sex are better motivators: those needs are a constant companion. Religious ideas often change, ebb and flow, or break your heart. The reason to quit smoking will replace the huge commitment you've made to nicotine thus far, so make sure your reasons are big and are yours (you can't quit smoking because your spouse wants you to, you need to quit because YOU want to.) Next, think about your reasons often. If you really want to quit, and you really want to achieve your reason for quitting, then the more you think about it the easier quitting will become. At this point, you are still continuing in your habit without restraint.

These first two steps are mental prep work. Your will power is like a muscle--if you haven't used it in a while (or ever) then you need to build it up slowly. Each time I quit tobacco, it was the culmination of a month or so of thinking about my habit and my reasons for quitting. The saying goes, "When the student is ready, the teacher appears." A similar saying can be made for quitting a habit: when you are ready your will power appears, stronger than you ever imagined. Above, I did not write about the millions of times I tried to force myself to quit and didn't last a day or two; sometimes I did not last an hour. You cannot quit when you are not ready. Be patient and let your subconscious do its job. Eventually, you will find yourself too disgusted with your habit to continue it for one more day.

There is a time when you want to quit but cannot. Then you get to a place where you have to quit. Now, do it! Throw away your smokes, lighters, ash trays, and assorted paraphernalia. Do not drink the drinks you drank when you smoked for a few days. Do not sit in your smoking chair for awhile (throw it out if it is ratty and hated by all but you). Avoid your smoker friends, especially at break-time, lunch, and Friday nights! Get your car cleaned. If the weather allows it, drive with the windows down and the music up loud. Go for a walk with a non-smoker, preferably a dog. Go to bed. And now you are through your first day.

Replace your habit. This is by far the most important. You need something to do when you NEED a smoke, or when the desire to chew has drawn blood on your lip. Habitually replace your habit: do it whether you are nic'ing out or not. However, especially engage in this activity when you are nic'ing out. Have two or three backup plans. If exercise is your number one, but you are injured, have a number two: hug your kids. Or read an inspirational text in bite-size pieces. Eating isn't a healthy replacement, but it'll do in a pinch. Find a computer game that seizes your concentration. Paint a room. Dig a hole for no reason. Take your main-squeeze into a private place and focus on them for an hour or two. Do what works for you.

And then there is the failure. I have met many people who have quit. Some of them are smoking or chewing today. Some of them are not. However, all of them have failed. No one on the planet quits smoking only once. Either you never smoke to start with or you quit many times. Some people quit 100 times and then go forty years without cigarettes. Others die from their habit, having attempted to quit a thousand times. I am sure by now you have heard about how Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Edison all had long lists of failures before they were successful. When you fail, learn from it. I have learned to master my stress better, and over time I will remove that as a reason to begin smoking or chewing. Find your weakness and whoop its ass!