How do I quit smoking? For good and forever? That was the question I was always asking myself, but could never find the answer. It was a real question - not theory, not wishful thinking - to me it was life or death.
As a former smoker of 3 packs a day, I lived with constant fear that
- I would die a long painful, self inflicted death - I wouldn’t see my kids get married - I wouldn’t ever meet my grandchildren - I would leave my wife struggling to raise 4 children on her own - My kids would ask my “Why didn’t you just stop?”
I was living a life of deceit, regret, fear and paranoia – and it was all my fault.
My wife would always be on my back about quitting smoking. I tried just about every method I could afford but never lasted the course. I became an expert in quitting smoking, but would still be found in the back yard, in all weathers drawing on those horrible cancer sticks.
In fact, I was very good at quitting smoking. Most nights I would put out my last cigarette before turning in and would boldly declare – “Right, that was my last one”.
But, each morning I would wake up, put on a pot of coffee and light up my first of 60 straight away. You see I was good at quitting – I did it every day. The question I couldn’t answer was “How do I quit smoking and stay quit?”
Before I explain what works let me tell you what I tried and my experiences
1. Patches – I had my highest success rate with patches - all of 27 hours. But, they were expensive, kept coming off (I used to sweat a lot when I was smoking). The real downside was they only dealt with the physical habit, not the mental one. 2. Gum – This was close to useless – it tasted nasty, burned my gums and made my breathe smell (just as bad as it did when I was smoking). 3. Acupuncture – I didn’t try that one – it was more expensive than hypnotherapy and I had heard the results where not as good. 4. Inhalers – They just didn’t produce the kick at the back of the throat I was used to, and so was a very lame replacement – plus, I just felt stupid using it. 5. Will Power – This was the hardest. I tried quitting smoking with no help physically or mentally. I was grouchy with my wife and the kids and couldn’t think about anything else.
So, there’s my list of failures when trying to quit smoking. So what worked? How did I answer that illusive question “How do I quit smoking…and stay quit.”
Well, the secret lay in the relationship between dealing with your physical addiction and your mental one. It was only when I realized and believed that my addiction was only a tiny bit in my body, but mostly in my head that I started to approach quitting with the right attitude. I didn’t need the support of pills, patches or gums – I started to see through the cynical money making stop smoking industry – I finally understood I needed help and support in my mind and I found where to get that support.