How to Quit Smoking

About a year ago, I quit smoking, shocking all people that knew me. After many years, this was my first attempt at quitting, and it was successful. The reason I was successful was the technique I used to stop. I know smokers do not think that they can quit smoking for various reasons, and every one of those reasons applied to me. If you think you cannot successfully quit smoking, read on to see how I did it.

Here are some reasons people feel they cannot quit smoking, and how they applied to me.

1) I have smoked for too long to stop. I smoked for 20 years, most of my life, before I quit.

2) I smoke too much. When I quit smoking, I was smoking over 2.5 packs per day (over 50 cigarettes). My cigarette of choice was always a heavy (high tar/nicotine) one: Marlboro Reds, or Camels. I always smoked down to the end of the cigarette. Oh, I was the best smoker around!

3) I need to smoke at certain times. I would smoke all the time. At the computer I would smoke. While driving, I would have a cigarette. After a meal, oh yes – that’s the best time. Oh, in the bathroom. I can’t sit on the toilet without a cigarette! I used to smoke all the time, inside and outside – in every room of the home.

4) I do not want to gain weight. Well, I have lost weight since I quit smoking. I was shocked to find I didn’t gain weight after quitting, since I relied on smoking to suppress my appetite.

5) I do not really want to quit, even though I should. Hey, I love to smoke. Smoking was a big part of my personality. I felt pride to be a smoker and would gladly have done commercials for cigarette companies. I just wanted to see if I could quit.

6) I am genetically predisposed to smoking. My Dad smoked all his adult life.  We tried to keep the pets away from the habit.

7) Now is too stressful a time for me to quit. Nah, I quit during a very stressful time, including a family member death.

As you can see, I was the last smoker anyone expected to quit, yet I did. How did I do it? The technique was given to me by a friend, who successfully quit. Even though she did it, I was skeptical that the method would work for me.

Why do we smoke? Simple question

Human are animals who respond to reenforcement. Smokers are conditioned to crave nicotine (the positive reenforcement – addictive agent) by self administrating nicotine during certain times (trigger). As an example. every time I stopped at a red light in my car – I lit a cigarette, which trained me to desire a cigarette the next time I stopped at a red light. To break this conditioning, the link to nicotine needs to be removed, according to this theory.

Initially, I did not believe this method would work. For 20 years I put a stick in my mouth, used my hands to manipulate the stick, and ran smoke through my skull. How could that oral and manual fixation be removed without replacement? I did not plan to replace the other forms of nicotine (patches or gum), nor did I plan to replace it with food or nicotineless sticks.

In order to get myself off of nicotine, I titrated (reduced nicotine incrementally) down, until I was smoking nicotine free cigarettes. Nicotine withdrawal can be very unpleasant, so these steps should be done slowly to minimize the withdrawal.

In general, that is the method for quitting smoking.   For more details, please email me at SkeptiSys@gmail.com

I would be happy to answer all questions to help you quit smoking.  We are all in this together. 

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