Have you ever tried to quit smoking? Or perhaps someone you know mentioned the challenges they experienced in their attempts to quit. It can be one of the hardest habits to break. Those who have tried ask, “How did I let this become a habit?” Tremendous guilt overwhelms them as they automatically reach for yet another cigarette to reduce their stress. “Why can’t I just quit?” They remind themselves of the many times they tried to quit and the health warnings they have heard about. An image comes to their mind of a relative or friend who experienced cancer or COPD from smoking. Their anxiety level increases as they inhale more nicotine to calm their thoughts. “I quit for two months, why did I start again?” They are convinced each bout of bronchitis or that annoying chronic cough are the inevitable indicators of a cancer diagnosis. “I’m such a failure!” They are not failures. Nicotine is just that addictive. Breaking the habit is hard and oh so frustrating, but there is hope!
Here are answers to the questions you or someone you know have about the habit of smoking and how to achieve successful quitting.
“How did I let this become a habit?”
A habit forms when we discover, or stumble across, something that fills one of our needs. Perhaps we want to feel happier or less uncomfortable. From the moment we are born, we are developing habits. We cry out due to hunger pangs or wet diapers and magically our discomforts are attended to with food and a diaper changing. Abracadabra, a habit is formed!
“Why can’t I just quit?”
The habits we develop effectively serve a purpose or fulfil a need. To stop a habit, we need to explore why it began in the first place or what purpose it serves. Let’s think about the first time we smoked. Perhaps in our adolescence, we took a puff from a friend’s vape. We wanted to fit in with the crowd and quickly realized it reduced our social anxiety. The purpose was to fit in because we wanted to belong. Perhaps we were at a club attempting to attract someone with our dance moves and realized a drink helped us worry less about our performance. Alcohol does not make us better dancers; it just makes us care a little less about what we look like to those watching! The purpose was to reduce our anxiety.
“I quit for two months, why did I start again?”
It helps to identify the purpose or the need the habit fulfilled: our wanting to fit in or reduce our anxiety. We also need to identify a new way to fulfil that need, a different resolution, or an alternative behavior. If we do not initiate a new or alternative behavior, we will go back to the habit after two months or two years or two decades. In our example, identify ways to improve your feelings of belonging or strategies to reduce your anxiety. Even when we commit to breaking a habit, we may become tempted to give up. Change is hard but not impossible. Those temptations, sometimes called cravings, only last 10-15 minutes. Develop a list of distracting activities or incompatible situations to resolve nicotine cravings without giving in to them.
“I’m such a failure!”
The words we say to ourselves can motivate us to make a positive change or our words can immobilize us and cause us to give up. It takes over six attempts to quit before someone successfully quits and most people moderate, smoke less, long before they stop smoking all together. When you hear yourself say “I can’t quit!,” try adding “but today I will cut back.”
If you are ready quit and would like professional help to do so, St. Luke’s can help. CLICK HERE to learn more about the Smoking Cessation Program at St. Luke’s.