How I Quit Smoking

I lit up for the first time when I was twelve. I was trying to impress some friends and show them that I was cool. I smoked on and off for the next 20 years. I had heard the reports about how unhealthy it was, how I could get cancer and how bad I smelled. How much it cost us each week or month or year. None of it really mattered to me because I wasn't ready to quit. I said I could quit on a moments notice but I couldn't. It took months to really quit. It wasn't as hard as I thought once I did. These tips are what I did to kick the habit and some things that didn't work.

Water jar of death
I was told to take a clear jar half filled with water and flick all my ashes into it. When I was done with every cigarette, I was to put it out in the jar and toss the butt in there with everything else. Then, to make it more dramatic on my psyche, I was to carry the jar with me. The idea was that water would soon turn a sickly tobacco brown and look disgusting. After about a month of this, I was desensitized to the putrid mixture I was carrying around. The stress of everyone gawking and commenting on the nastiness of this had me up to two jars a day. I finally ditched the effort.

Cold Turkey
After the water jar of death attempt, I tried going cold turkey. I turned into the biggest *BLEEP* in the house. I couldn't stand me so I know that no one else could stand me either. It got so bad that my husband threw the car keys at me, demanded that I go buy a pack of cigarettes and forbid me to come home until I smoked half the pack. This is from the man that wanted me to quit more than anyone else I knew. Other attempts at going cold turkey went about as well as the first.

Nicotine Gum
I tried nicotine gum once. The rest of the pack of gum went into the trash. You are supposed to bite into the gum, wait for a tingling and then start chewing. I bit down and gagged on the flavour. It was so horrendous that I couldn't help but vomit. After that, I needed a cigarette to get the aftertaste out of my mouth.

Luckily, nicotine gum has come a long way. My friend decided to quit using Commit brand nicotine gum. He has been successful! Go, Bobby! He says the gum doesn't taste that bad and really helps with the cravings.

Cutting Down Day by Day
What really helped me in my effort to quit smoking was to first assess how many cigarettes I smoked in a day. I was floored to find that I smoked about 30 cigarettes a day. That's about a pack and a half! Some days I smoked two packs. I knew then that I had to stop. I also knew that going cold turkey was bologna. So I started a rationing system. The first week, I was only allowed to smoke 30 cigarettes a day. The second week I only allowed myself one pack a week.

On the third week, I was still very anxious and addicted and felt I needed more than one pack a day. So the third and fourth weeks were spent getting used to one pack a day. I adjusted fine to the lower levels of nicotine and realized I was doing something similar to the nicotine patches. After a trip to the store, I realized that I couldn't afford the patch so I continued with my homemade nicotine reduction plan.

The second month I went from one pack a day to about a half a pack a day and I was starting to feel pretty good about myself. Month three was harder as started to ration out my cigarettes even more. I was down to 5 cigarettes a day by the end of month three. By month four I was down to 3 or 4 cigarettes a day and sometimes I found I could skip a day. That's when I knew it was time to kick it once and for all!

We ended up moving across country. Once we were a few miles away from the state line we were moving to, I stopped at a rest area. There I smoked my last cigarette and made a promise to myself not to smoke in my new home state. The next month wasn't the easiest as the rest of the nicotine left my system and I overcame my withdrawals to nicotine.

I had a few things that helped me keep my sanity through it all. These are some of the tricks I used to help me get through it.

Have a support network

Quitting is hard enough, but doing it by yourself is even harder. On really bad days, I called a friend and vented. It was understood that anything I said was out of pure frustration. I picked a friend that would listen and not judge me. That alone helped a lot since I smoked out of stress more times than not.

Keep your little friends

I kept three cigarettes with me at all times in a tin in my purse. I knew I had promised not to smoke in my new home state but I also knew how hard it was to quit before. I never actually needed them; in fact, I threw them away about two months later. Knowing that I could, at any time, smoke if I absolutely felt the need to, made it that much more bearable. Being able to hold them between my fingers and mimic the act of smoking made my mind happy. Just the act of bringing my hand to my mouth made me calmer.

Keep your hands busy

After I noticed that just bringing my hand to my mouth made me calmer, I realized I was eating out of stress rather than smoking out of stress. I found that if I had a hobby then my hands were busy, my mind was active and I didn't think about that missing stick between my fingers. I worked on knitting, sudoku, writing, drawing, making jewelry and more.

Find something that makes you calm

Chamomile tea, green tea and coffee breaks took place of my smoke breaks. Instead of stepping outside for my 10 minutes of smoking, I stepped outside to breathe in the fresh air and sip tea. Now instead of "smoke breaks" I take "tea breaks". It took me awhile to find something that made me feel like I could take the same breaks I did with cigarettes, but once I found it, I kept it.

Avoid TV commercials

If you watch TV for more than an hour you will see commercials about the latest nicotine patch, nicotine gum, pill to help you quit smoking and then ones about why it is so uncool. When I was trying to quit smoking, this just made me want to smoke more. The only real inspirational commercial I have seen lately is the one that ends with an elderly black man in a wheelchair on oxygen gasping between words as he tells you that you could end up like him. But when you are trying not to smoke, seeing a lot of ads with people talking about the cravings and wanting to quit just remind how you aren't smoking right now.

My advice to anyone who is seriously trying to quit is to mute the commercials and get a drink of water or a cup of tea. Keep your mind off it.

If you have no support

Now that you have set your goal to quit, get support. If you don't have support of friends, there are websites that offer support. I use Daily Strength to find other people who are going through what I am. It is a great site.

Once you quit, save your money and buy yourself a new outfit, pay off a bill or have your carpets cleaned so your house will smell smoke-free and clean. Whatever you do, treat yourself! You earned it! Quitting smoking is tough but SO worth it!