Say goodbye to smoking
You probably coughed and spluttered your way through your first cigarette. But
somehow you tried one again, and the experience turned into something pleasant.
It's gone on from there, but now the basic reason you continue to smoke is you're
hooked on nicotine. Your brain has grown accustomed to its fix – nicotine is the
fastest addictive drug known and takes just seconds to reach the brain. Which is
why 'just one puff' is often enough to re-trigger the physical addiction after you've
given up.
But don't despair. The dreaded cravings are only momentary. Find a way of dealing
with them for the three minutes they last. Consciously think of something else,
keep your hands busy doing something else, and the craving will pass. You'll get
there in the end.
Coming off nicotine essentially means reprogramming your attitude to cigarettes.
And this takes a bit of preparation. The problem with giving up is not so much physical.
It's not that you lack willpower, either. What gets in the way is the war that's
going on between the bit of you that wants to give up and the bit that remembers
the pleasure of cigarettes. Success depends on sorting out these unresolved mixed
feelings.
It helps to look first into why, where and when you smoke. Keeping a diary about
each time you light up will help. Listen carefully to what you're telling yourself
about your relationship with smoking. Is it things like 'Having a fag calms me down',
or 'I couldn’t have a drink without a ciggie'? Then try to remember how it was before
you started smoking and how good it will be to get back your sense of freedom, no
longer driven by the tyranny of tobacco. And think about what you want to do with
the money you'll save.
In fact, it's easier than you think to tackle that tyranny. It takes only three
days without smoking for most of the nicotine to leave your body, and about three
weeks for the other 4,000 toxins contained in cigarettes to do so.
These chemicals and gases, which include carbon monoxide, polonium 210, and benzene,
are what damage your health. The life-threatening risks of lung cancer, heart problems
and – particularly – COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, are well documented.
Indeed, COPD, which covers chronic bronchitis and emphysema among other respiratory
problems, is set to become the world's number one killer in the 21st century. And
the role of tobacco in the development of other conditions continues to emerge.
For example, the benzene in cigarettes is now thought by some researchers to be
the likely cause of multiple myeloma, the primary cancer of the bones.
Basically, there are two ways to stop smoking: either cold turkey or through
weaning yourself off cigarettes, most likely by using nicotine replacement therapy
(NRT), which graduates your nicotine intake downwards over time. Cold turkey is
actually the simplest way to do it, though that doesn’t mean it's easy.
Either way, you'll find support from family, friends and counsellors will help
you greatly, especially if they're former smokers themselves. The ban on smoking
in public places that comes into force in July will also help. You'll be joining
the growing numbers of people for whom it's normal not to smoke.
And there are plenty of places to turn to for information and help in your journey
from smoker to non-smoker.
- You could ring the central NHS Stop Smoking hotline on 0800 1690 1690, which
offers a number of options. You can be referred to your local NHS support group,
which is a free service offering advice, support and access to NRT. You can choose
to go on the Together Programme, to receive tailored one-to-one communications in
your own home. Or you can be referred to a specialist adviser who will help you
to create your own stop-smoking plan. The service can also provide literature aimed
at, for example, helping the pregnant mum to quit.
- Your doctor's surgery may run a smoking cessation clinic, and will certainly
be able to tell you about other clinics in your area. You can get prescriptions
for NRT products.
- If the group approach doesn’t suit you, you could talk to your local pharmacist,
who can advise on the best NRT product for you. These are available over the counter,
as chewing gums, patches, inhalators, micro tablets and nasal sprays. The latest
development in this area is the Nicorette ActiveStop programme, an interactive support
programme available on-line and via mobile phone. As you go through the programme,
you are contacted every day for the first four weeks, and then weekly.
- The US-based website, whyquit.com,
is dedicated to going cold turkey.
- Stop Smoking the Easy Way: Five Simple Steps to Freedom, by Sue Wells, herself
a former smoker, is packed full of practical advice on how to get smoking out of
your life. Sue has long experience of running stop-smoking workshops and was smoking
cessation specialist adviser to Bristol Healthcare Trust. The book is published
by New Holland Publishers, ISBN 978 184537 535 5, price £7.99.
One thing to be careful of, though, while you're going through the process –
don’t ever watch black and white movies of the '40s and '50s!
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