Warren's Stop-smoking Tips


Warren's Tips

Hi, I'd like to make some suggestions for inclusion in the tips to quit list. In teaching myself how to quit, I found it very instructive to hear about the source of others' failures to quit. (Ultimately it was the necessity to quit in order to maintain a personal relationship that caused me to do so). thanks. --Warren

  • many people find cold turkey is the only method that works. slow withdrawl often involves a lot of seemingly nonsensical rules that only postpone the inevitable need to quit absolutely, making the smoker more vulnerable to breakdowns over an extended period of time. Unless careful progress is made, cigarets smoked while undergoing gradual withdrawl may occasionally be viewed by oneself or by one's friends and family as a failure of the entire effort to quit, which can be highly demoralizing if this prospect for ridicule is not anticipated.

  • it helps to quit if the smoker and the smoker's spouse or significant other make smoking simply UNACCEPTABLE. Teasing oneself with the possibility of having a cigaret is one of the easiest ways to prolong the agony and invite a breakdown. DON'T DO IT.

  • it helps if the smoker can identify a truly uncomfortable feeling or medical problem attributable to their smoking, and then concentrate on the elimination or alleviation of that problem as their goal. Try to never forget this purpose for quitting, because not long after the discomfort has gone, one may begin to forget how awfully self-destructive smoking is.

  • it helps if the smoker SOON AFTER QUITTING confronts situations in which they would ordinarily light up -- e.g., when drinking alcohol, good coffee, big meals, etc. This contradicts what some people recommend. However, it teaches the smoker right away that they can surmount these situations without giving in. This can offer a tremendous boost to their morale. With the proper mental attitude, these situations can also provide a substitute for the act of smoking. Obviously eating helps many people cover the craving for nicotine, but the obvious drawback to eating is the accompanying weight-gain. Black or lightly whitened/sugared coffee, on the other hand, has few or no calories, and the caffeine in it can actually help stave off the appetite.

  • "Once a smoker, always a smoker." It's true. The occasional euphoric feeling of having kicked the habit should not be allowed to fool oneself into thinking one is actually no longer addicted. Just one cigaret is enough to cause the flood gates of a latent addiction to give way again, sometimes in a matter of just hours returning to former level of smoking.

    Children should be educated that, yes, people can quit smoking, but they forever live with the addiction. The tobacco companies would have us believe that people simply choose to smoke and choose to quit. What they don't talk about publicly is how difficult it is to lend finality to that choice to quit and how the craving lingers on. To be sure, the time between bouts of craving lengthens the longer one has quit -- there is certain reward for staying quit besides the physical health issues -- but the craving can not be expected to subside entirely.


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  • ©1995 Gene Borio, the Tobacco BBS (212-982-4645. WebPage: http://www.tobacco.org.)
  • Original Tobacco BBS material may be reprinted in any non-commercial venue if accompanied by this credit line.

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