5 Keys to Quitting Smoking

As a smoker of 17 years before quitting two years ago, I was often met with well-intentioned people doing their moral duty to inform me that my habit could kill me. I would reply: I wasn't aware I had the option of not dying. This was part of my justification process and defense of a most precious component in my life, my love for smoking.

What started at the age of twelve as an attempt to be more like my idolized sister and her friends, quickly turned into a sweet and comforting source of personal enjoyment. Always figuring I'd quit sooner rather than later, and not be a life-long smoker, the ideas of cancer and emphysema were tucked away safely in a far corner of my mind.
Well, 17 years later I found myself in the desperate and hopeless place of knowing that this habit would likely cause me to suffer a slow, painful death before getting to know my grandchildren, yet still being terribly in love with the practice of smoking. It seems I blinked and I had already smoked longer than I'd ever dreamed I would, and I felt it was a given that I'd do this for the rest of my life. Ashamedly I admit that not even two pregnancies were cause enough to stop. Thankfully, my children were born big and healthy despite this.

However, at the start of my last pregnancy, things changed. This is where my journey to the impossible began, as the ability to smoke was taken out of my hands for a short time.
I found myself somewhere I'd never been in my smoking life: too sick to smoke. Now, in the previous 17 years I'd had several bouts of bronchitis, twice contracted infectious mononucleosis (mono), strep throat, horrid morning sickness, and many other types of sickness. None of them ever fit the criteria for being too sick to smoke. So this was a very fortunate turn of events for me, that felt very unfortunate.

If you're lucky, you'll find yourself in a situation where one of the keys exists:
1. Take advantage of circumstances beyond your control
Maybe you've been hospitalized after an accident or critical illness, perhaps you were arrested and had to spend a couple of days in jail before posting bail, or maybe you just got stranded on an island for days without your cigarettes before being rescued. You didn't choose to not smoke for this period of time, it was done for you. Now take advantage of the fact that you have cleared this huge mountain.

Things can't stay out of your hands forever, and that's a good thing. Because little else makes something more appealing than its inaccessibility. Which brings me to another key:
2. Don't eliminate the option
Once you've got some smoke-free time under your belt, you'll wrestle with the idea of picking the smokes back up, probably several times a day. And it's nice to know that, should you decide to have a cigarette, you have the option of doing so. Remember that just because they're there, doesn't mean you have to smoke them. But it can be empowering to know that you hold the cards, and only you will make the call.

A common hindrance to follow-through with quitting can be the overwhelming thought of going the rest of your life without a cigarette: after meals, with your coffee, when you're mad, when you talk on the phone - yikes! It looks impossible from that angle. For similar reasons that Alcoholics Anonymous implemented the "one day at a time" method to recovery, so too will the quitting smoker have to think in these terms. That's why a very important key is:
3. Don't make a commitment
When I hadn't decided whether or not I was going to smoke again once I started feeling better, someone advised me that if I was going to really quit, I needed to make a commitment to do so in order to succeed. But what I found worked better for me was quite the contrary. Once I started feeling better, I was immediately considering how I could reunite with my lost love. But I also really wanted break free of this hold smoking had on me. Forget one day at a time, I had to choose in small increments of time throughout the day. Having my cigarettes available and ready, I would decide that I wouldn't do it right now, but later I might...Each day being further removed from my last cigarette lightened my burden of temptation and mourning for cigarettes.

This key I believe is most helpful, and can be valuable for long-term, continued success:
4. That cigarette you're considering will not be like the one from your fond memories
The temptation for smoking can be present even years after not doing it at all. Seeing an actor enjoy a cigarette in a movie, a good cup of coffee, a stressful or upsetting event - all these can glamorize the smoking experience in your mind. When you imagine how enjoyable it will be, you're remembering cigarettes of days passed. The last cigarette you enjoyed and the would-be cigarette after a period of not smoking are two very different cigarettes. It will be absolutely nasty at this point. Remembering this will make it not worth scrapping your accomplishment for.

What to do with yourself if you're not smoking - that is something to wonder, and addressed by the final key:
5. Allow yourself to be habitual in other areas
A wise man has said that you don't simply break a habit, rather you replace it with another. Yes, that man was Dr. Phil, but he was right. We are creatures of habit, and some habits can be good, or at least harmless. Though not intentional, I ended up transferring my habitual ways onto orange juice consumption. It bore a striking resemblance to my smoking habit. There was only one type of a specific brand that I could drink, and I drank it A LOT. I also had to take it with me everywhere I went, and it didn't come in a nice little 20-ounce bottle I could tote. No, I had to smuggle a half gallon carton into restaurants and have one with me any time I left the house. My mouth required the taste and feel of drinking this orange juice throughout the day. Eventually the orange juice need was transferred onto Vanilla Pepsi, which they just carelessly discontinued, inspiring me to write this article as I reflect on how I got here - it all started with quitting smoking.

These are all the keys that I found were essential to my quitting, despite all the available tools and advice out there. I hope at least some of them can offer help to others trying to break free of this powerful hold.