How I Quit Smoking One Cigarette at a Time

How to quit smoking was a subject I was increasingly interested in the more I became aware of how unhealthy a habit it was. At the same time, however, every attempt I made to stop ended in failure.

My inability to stop smoking was not due to any absence of resources. There were many good articles I had read on how to quit smoking. I had also tried to go cold turkey repeatedly, only to finally give up and light up again after several hours or days.

On one occasion, however, I had better luck, if only for a short time. In this case, I was actually able to quit for almost three weeks, a record for me, and I was beginning to lose the tobacco cravings that were sometimes quite intense. I thought I might finally be on my way to a new life without cigarettes. But with the added pressure of new responsibilities and deadlines at work that were almost impossible to meet, I felt very stressed. My cravings hit with a vengeance, and I finally went out and bought a pack of cigarettes and immediately lit up. A short while later, I had another and then another. Before long, I was back to my old smoking habit and back to my life as a smoker.

For several years after that, I didn't even bother trying to quit smoking. I was hooked and unable to stop. Furthermore, the experiences of my brother and his girlfriend only convinced me to accept my fate. While they had both managed to quit smoking for an entire sixteen months, using hypnosis and giving cigarettes up completely right from the start, they had each packed on almost thirty pounds and were having difficulty taking the weight off. I certainly did not want to quit smoking and gain weight.

I continued to avoid thinking about how to quit smoking until I met an acquaintance who told me her story of how she had finally stopped smoking after many failed attempts. While I was initially not interested in using her technique, I was impressed by the fact that she had smoked considerably more cigarettes than I did, had successfully let go of her habit, and had not gained weight in the process. Her method involved quitting by one cigarette at a time and at her own pace. How she succeeded was to start with a baseline range and then cut down from this point. Originally, she told me, she wasn't really sure of how much she smoked in a single day and was shocked when she started recording the amounts and realized she smoked between seventeen and twenty cigarettes a day, depending on her mood and situation. Since twenty was the highest figure and seventeen her lowest, she used these to determine that she needed to start by cutting down to between sixteen and nineteen cigarettes per day. For several weeks she was able to stay within that range until she found herself able to consistently smoke no more than eight cigarettes a day and could comfortably maintain at that number.

Then she challenged herself to cut down one more cigarette and successfully maintained at this number for a week while she tried various new non-smoking types of activities to replace that lost cigarette. Eventually she cut down to only one and then none. This entire process took several months for her to do. However, during that time, she was able to avoid the cravings that can come with giving up tobacco all at once. By cutting down one cigarette at a time at her own pace, she was also able to adopt new activities in place of smoking without the stress of having to make many behavioral and lifestyle changes at the same time.

Her technique made sense to me in a way, but I still wasn't convinced it would work for me. After all, it seemed an individual would need significant self-discipline and patience, and I did not excel in self-discipline and liked fast results. But I did like the idea of working at a comfortable pace, and I believed I could tolerate and would be able to succeed at giving up only one cigarette at a time instead of all of all my cigarettes at once.

It was easier for me to calculate my cigarette reduction because I basically smoked the same number of cigarettes each day. I had a fairly consistent rate of smoking and I smoked for relaxation after meals, at breaks, and when I came home from work each day. On weekends I still smoked at approximately the same times. The first week I was able to cut down by one cigarette and was able to do this for two weeks. Then I cut down by another and then another in the following weeks. By the time I was down to smoking only two cigarettes a day, I had also adopted a new habit of chewing sugarless gum after meals or doing something relaxing or more productive than smoking such as reading an interesting magazine or going for a walk.

The most difficult part of the process for me was keeping myself on track day after day and week after week. I had no one, for example, to telll me when I should try and cut down one more cigarette or remind me to remain committed and patient.

On one occasion after I had succeeded in smoking only three cigarettes a day, I grew impatient and decided to try to go down one more when it probably really was too early for me. I couldn't maintain the new two cigarettes limit for more than two days. However, I was able to go back to three cigarettes and hold steady there for a couple of more weeks. Despite this and other small setbacks, I was able to recover quickly, unlike my past efforts going cold turkey when I'd light up and just give up, and I'd go back to smoking the same larger amount I smoked before my attempt to quit.

It has been nine years since I quit, one cigarette at a time. I no longer ever get cravings and am truly enjoying my life much more as a non-smoker. I am also so grateful that I no longer pollute the outdoor as well as indoor air that my family and others have to breathe. I am also appreciative of the fact that I have an opportunity to live longer and enjoy the people I love so much.

The way that my acquaintance and I quit smoking once and for all is certainly not for everyone. However, the method can be modified to an individual's needs and can certainly be an option for smokers considering how to quit smoking who have been unsuccessful with other methods. It also produces the least amount of stress and cravings and worked for me as a method of last resort. Perhaps it can work for you.