The fact that you are reading this proves that you genuinely want to free yourself from the addiction. Congratulations. That is the most important part. I am 100% convinced that we all have the power to free ourselves from the monster if we apply a rational approach. I am also convinced that nicotine is a far more powerful addiction than society generally believes, and that we need to use not a single technique to free ourselves, but every technique we can get our hands on.
I attribute my success to 4 distinct steps:
-
I very slowly cut back on the number of cigarettes I was smoking each day. (More on that later)
-
I very slowly cut down on the strength of the cigarettes I was smoking, using the data on this site.
-
On "Cold Turkey" day, I carefully used some Over-The-Counter sleeping pills and tried to sleep for most of the first two days of withdrawal.
-
I used a plastic, mint-flavored cigarette substitute to give my hands something to do for the first few weeks of my new life. (More on that later, too).
|
-
Cutting back on the number of cigarettes I smoked each day.
A few months before I assembled the numbers on this site, I bought a book by Marc Whalen, another ex-smoker, entitled "How to Quit Smoking Without Willpower or Struggle". The book (see note), cost less than a carton of cigarettes. That book alone may be all you need to become an EX addict. For me, it wasn't, but it was instrumental in helping me accomplish it. The steps outlined in the book made it almost effortless for me to drastically cut the number of cigarettes that I was smoking each day. You would be amazed at the number of cigarettes you are probably smoking each day that you don't even want. Mr. Whalen's techniques make it a snap to eliminate those, and to cut down on the ones you think you do need. In a few weeks of applying the techniques in the book, my consumption went from a pack and a half a day to around 10. And did I mention, effortlessly?
-
Cuting down on the strength of the cigarettes I was smoking.
That's what this website is all about. Nicotine is a monster. Make it small. Then KILL it.
-
Try to sleep a lot on the first day or two.
If you have done everything else right, the quit day will not be overwhelming, but to make it as easy as possible, I took 2 days of from work and tried to stay in bed as much as possible. I used an OVER-THE-COUNTER sleep aid to help with that.
USE THEM ONLY ACCORDING TO THE LABEL DIRECTIONS! AND DO NOT USE THEM AT ALL IF THE LABEL INDICATES THAT YOU SHOULDN'T! IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBT ABOUT THEIR SAFETY, CONSULT A PHYSICIAN!
-
My plastic, substitute cigarette. For the first couple of weeks of my new life, I kept with me a mint-flavored, plastic cigarette substitute called EZ Quit, available from the folks at QuitSmoking.com
 . It was great! I could hold it in my mouth like one of those plastic-tipped cigars, or hold it in my hand like a cigarette, and puff on it at will. I most enjoyed it when driving. It was invaluable in combating the "habit" of smoking. After a few weeks, I found myself not using it at all anymore, but during the first couple of weeks, it was a true friend.
So there you have it. I applied proven techniques to cut down the number of cigarettes I was smoking. Then I assembled and used the numbers on this site to cut the strength of the cigarettes I was smoking. I don't know exactly how long those two steps took. I think, combined, they took most of a year, but I'm sure they could be accomplished faster. For me, after 34 years of addiction, the investment in time was worth it. After two failed attempts, I knew that I needed to do everything I could to ensure success this time, and to try to do too much too fast seemed like just another way to fail.
At that point, my habit was about one tenth as strong as it had been. I then set myself a date and took the plunge, using my plastic cigarette to help me ease away from the "habit".
Funny thing...I actually had nicotine gum and lozenges on hand when I quit, but when I sat down to actually consider using them, I read the labels and realized they were stronger than the cigarettes I had been smoking, so to use them would have been increasing the addiction, which certainly couldn't have been helpful in easing my way away from it. So in the end, I just went back to bed, and after a couple of days, just went back to work.
Now, over two years later, I still consider myself to be in danger of relapse. We all know people who have gone back to them after years. Your body doesn't forget an addiction like nicotine easily. But it does, in fact, continue to get easier every day. My co-workers and roommate smoke. (Not inside my home. I cannot stand the smell of it any more!) There are cigarettes available to me 24 hours a day, and staying away hasn't been difficult.
I made the addiction as small as it could be, and by doing so, made walking away from it much easier than it had ever been.
You can, too.
|
